If someone is listed as fully remote and wants to relocate to a distance even further from their closest office, does the relocation policy still apply? Meaning would Elevance prevent the person from relocating since they won’t be within 50 miles of an office ?
12 replies (most recent on top)
"If you are required to travel more than 50 miles for work, they have to pay you mileage and per diems. "
They could easily fix that by not requiring people to report to an office. But noooo....we can't have that!
@Baffled.
no, it’s not their prerogative. It’s an IRS tax thing. If you are required to travel more than 50 miles for work, they have to pay you mileage and per diems. The 50 mile rule is not just something they pulled out of the air..
Makes me wonder how this is even legal. If a person wants to live say 85 or even 100 miles away (and still bite the bullet and go into an office as dictated), shouldn’t that be their prerogative ?
This policy is BS. This company is unreal honestly. Other insurance companies have primarily remote positions & do not dictate where their employees live or require an exception to apply for internal positions. I seriously believe they want employees to leave. If you live 50+ miles from a pulse point you are sc--wed & stuck in your position. The only choice you have is to leave or stay stagnant.
Move first and ask permission later. Try to take all of your PTO before you break the news but you'll need to have your address in the system updated sooner than later so you don't have to play games with the tax codes. Lie and tell them it is only temporary and you have to take care of someone for a little while and you'll be back in the area. String them along until they reorg again and the'll forget about it.
We are employed...we are not owned
I live where I want. If they do not like it...they can go to L
" would Elevance prevent the person from relocating since they won’t be within 50 miles of an office ?"
- As a people leader, let me add some detail.
First, your question is the entire point of the policy. The company wants to weed out fully remote employees (they are not, or very rarely, hiring them anymore) so your remote to remote move is not likely to be approved.
Second, the other consideration is your salary zone. Every employee is mapped to a zone and your pay is slotted in those bands. What they want to also prevent is someone making a California salary (the highest zone) moving to a very low cost of living area and working remotely. That will never get approved.
Finally, even if you are to move to an are within 50 miles of a pulse point, your manager may adjust your salary accordingly. It is possible you are remote in a higher zone and you move to a location with an office with a lower zone. HR has been very clear that managers need to consider this. Given the wide salary bands for most roles, this is a low probability. But if your manager is a jerk, still possible.
If you move within 50 miles of an approved office (Pulsepoint), they do not care. The move is on you and the hybrid category that you are in will still apply. But you cannot move outside of a Pulsepoint area without an exception being filed and approved. Policy is pretty straightforward - they do want you inside of a 50 mile radius for when they complete renovations/figure out what to do with corporate real estate and call everyone to return to offices more regularly.
This, however, stinks if you are already outside of a Pulsepoint area or plan on moving. You cannot take another job (promotion or lateral) without having to get VP approvals for an exception.
To the OP’s question - your listing as fully remote can be revoked with a whim and click of a button. Be/Stay in the Pulsepoint area and you’ll pass this stage of HR policy. But do not be surprised when policy changes. Take care of yourself.
The policy is ridiculous. The fact alone that you have to ask permission to relocate just to keep a job. And let’s face it the huge majority of employees can easily do their job from a home office.
I’ll share my experience with moving back in 2015 and hopefully it will help. But they keep changing the policy so who knows.
I wanted to move to Charlotte NC for personal/affordability reasons. I was pretty much priced out of the area I lived in. I had to put in a request to relocate there that was denied because it was more than 50 miles from an office. I then started looking in Atlanta as an alternative. This request was approved because there are several offices there.
I was fully remote back then and had been so for about 10 years. But they still were sticklers for residing by an office.
All relocations need to be approved by your leadership, regardless of remote or not. I would guess it depends on your department and what their needs are. There is no easy yes or no answer to this question. Yes, the relocation policy applies, but there is no way to know if your move will be approved without asking.