I can sympathize with you. Up until 2014, my office site was the World HQ for my company. Then we got bought by a company from the UK. In 2016ish (I say that as five years later we are still in a transition) we were bought by another company from the UK. We went from having everything/everyone (approx. 3000 employees) on-site to ~150. I am in NJ, my payroll is based out of Canada and my HR is based out of Atlanta or Houston depending on what I need. There are two IT people left on-site but they have been instructed not to help should we contact them directly. We are supposed to call the call center in the Phillipines or reach out via MS Teams. If they can't help (95% of the the time, they can't) then they reach out to the two left to come in person and fix it. But somewhere on paper, it looks good.
This reminds me of something been discussing with wife recently. Not directly related, but it's interesting being in the Toronto "bubble" how often we have immediate access to white collar middle management and up job prospects. Companies for the most part have HQ here.
Im generalizing obviously, but the big Cdn banks, telcoms, insurance, media, etc all have HQ in Toronto. Which is bit diff than in the US. You might have AMEX in NYC, Cap one is in Virginia, P and G is in Ohio, Coke is in Atl I think? Anyway you get the idea But when the big american corps set up here, more often than not its in the toronto area. All the ones I mentioned. Plus Walmart, Home dep, McDs, J and J, all the so called FAANG tech companies, almost all of the international auto, all in or within an hour of Toronto. An incredible concentration of jobs.
While it may seem off topic, it relates to the pandemic when it comes to WFH. As all these corps consider their workforce going forward, it seems many will at least adopt a hybrid model of WFH. Which has caused a ridiculous housing price book in regions outside the normal commuting distance areas. Places more than an hour away are seeing demand go up, as people anticipate having to drive into these corporate HQ locations less and less.
It's an interesting dynamic. Those not owners yet are being shut out. Were not San Fran yet, but our avg prices even in suburbs is well over a million, in many cases detached homes have prices well over 1.5 on avg. In US bucks, that is probably somewhere over 1.1 m.
So How we doing? If a home owning corporate manager, the end of the pandemic is looking pretty good. WFH and seeing our house appreciate.
Sorry for the stream of consciousness, just some thoughts that were sparked.