Since the onset of COVID-19 and the remote work policies that followed as a result, the tech industry has been tackling a once-in-a-lifetime debate: If Technologists aren’t able (or required) to work in office, should they continue living in expensive cities such as New York or San Francisco? Or should they consider relocating to places with cheaper cost of living?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Major tech companies have complicated the issue somewhat. While firms such as Facebook, VMware, ServiceNow, and Twitter have announced that the majority of their employees can now work from home on a permanent basis, others\u2014such as Netflix and Microsoft\u2014have made it clear that they want employees back in the office eventually. If you\u2019re working for a company that now allows remote work, and you want to relocate from San Francisco to Boise, then your decision may seem pretty straightforward\u2014but what if, after relocating, you apply to work at a rival that wants employees at its headquarters at least a few days a week? Would you have to move back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s not the only complication here, but it illustrates how technologists everywhere will wrestle with some pretty complex issues in the months and years ahead. In the meantime, Blind, which anonymously surveys technologists everywhere on a variety of topics, has asked its audience if they\u2019ve already decided to flee some of the country\u2019s most expensive, largest tech hubs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the sample sizes here are relatively small, what\u2019s clear is that (with some notable exceptions) the majority of technologists have stuck with their cities. Here\u2019s the breakdown of the Bay Area, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n