Future of work from home: Remoter workers choosing Texas
Nearly 11% of workers who moved away because of the COVID-19 pandemic and expressed a desire to move to a new location would choose Texas, according to a national survey.
DALLAS – Texas is one of the top states telecommuters choose to move and live in based on new national data.
Nearly 11% of workers who went remotely and expressed a desire to move to a new city due to the COVID-19 pandemic would choose Texas, according to a MakeMyMove survey.
MakeMyMove is an online worker-community connection marketplace that helps people looking to move find remote jobs that fit that plan.
The company finds and shares financial incentives offered by various companies across the country.
In addition to Texas, California (21%), Florida (20%), New York (14%) and Georgia (11%) top the choices in the survey.
“The pandemic made this concept a reality,” said Evan Hock. He is a co-founder of the company.
Indianapolis-based MakeMyMove was founded three years ago and was originally designed to help Indiana companies recruit people outside of the state to work in Indiana.
Last December, Hock and his team decided to expand the reach and make this process a national company.
“Our core tech platform is essentially finding people with regional affinities,” said Hock. “We then use big data and targeted marketing to identify people who might want to move to a new city.”
Jonny Mack is one of those people. He lived and worked in Seattle for Alaska Airlines in the creative marketing sector. The pandemic forced Mack to work remotely for the first time in his career.
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“My wife even made fun of me for saying, ‘You can’t work from home,'” said Mack. “It was an adaptation.”
Mack’s wife had a baby the week the first COVID-19 case in America became known. This influenced Mack and his wife to decide to move back to the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, where they both grew up and had families.
Mack took a new job while working remotely before returning to Seattle-based Alaska Airlines – while still working out of north Texas.
During his part-time work at Alaska Airlines, he never met any of his colleagues in person.
“I’m an extrovert, so I want to be with a lot of other people,” said Mack. “It was certainly an adaptation.”
Part of that adjustment was for the better, Mack said.
While he has more time to spend with his newborn and family, he also feels more productive working from home.
“You tend to work more,” said Mack. “I think your employer can get more out of you when you work from home. You can focus better when you need to focus. And you can get distracted if you have to. And be distracted from the right thing. “
MakeMyMove survey data shows that many people are likely to feel motivated to work from home as well.
The survey responded to more than 1,000 people across the country who had started working remotely because of the pandemic.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
- Almost a third (29%) of teleworkers say they are either “likely” or “more likely” to move to a city in the next 18 months while continuing to work remotely.
- More than 80% of teleworkers considering moving to Texas say they would be moving to a new city for $ 10,000 if the community had the amenities they wanted.
- Of those surveyed, 100% said they would like to maintain some level of remote working privileges after the pandemic.
- Over 92% say they would likely look for a new job if their current employer revoked their remote working privileges.
- Almost 60% say that working remotely has had a positive effect on their emotions.
Hock said Texas is a state that many people move to because of its affordability, nature, and the large amount of land available.
“Texas has been eating lunch in New York and California for a while,” Hock said. “It will only keep growing.”
Hock said his company’s studies showed that before the pandemic broke out, five million people were working remotely. This number has now risen to over 30 million.
“We are finding strong evidence that this is the new normal,” said Hock. “If you can do your work at a desk, you can do your work at a desk from anywhere.”
Mack said although he had to get creative to find ways to achieve consistent collaboration from his employees, this is a lifestyle he could see as part of his work life for the rest of his career.
“I would probably have to leave the house as soon as I woke up and wouldn’t be home until she went to bed,” Mack said of his daughter. “Now the whole work-life mix is huge. Things seem more of a part of your life.”
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