When even a six-figure salary isn't enough to compete

I learned about Aftershokz here on COTH and I also really like them. They stay on and you can still hear everything around you.

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Not a claim. An actual fact. I’m a payroll manager for a well known hotel corporation and there are so many pieces that non-payroll workers don’t know of. It extends from not only individual taxes but also corporate taxes and registrations as well.

Each state also has a different threshold of number of days required to be in state before taxation must be reported.

Please, as COTH’s resident payroll manager, at least move within your same state! LOL

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Precisely. We like them for the Peloton and running, as well, specifically for that reason.
Works really well for meetings when you can be off-camera and don’t want to wear airpods or headphones.

See, I know a little about payroll & insurance, as I was the payroll & benefits manager for a company with employees in multiple states, but I’ll readily admit it was 10+ years ago, so I’ve lost lots of the knowledge that I had at that point, and regs have changed so much since then I would not begin to try to say I really know anything about the intricacies. I’ll admit - the athlete/consultant thing surprised me as I would expect they’d just be taxed based on their “permanent” location - not where they worked on a job for their employer.

Now … shipping in any way, shape, or form - small package, LTL freight, international, that I can speak with expertise on these days… (and get into a stupid long argument on FB with someone who is literally the only seller I’ve ever heard be able to successfully win a CC chargeback for an valid per her own admission INR claim, yet insists that I am wrong that it is unheard of for a seller/sender to win a chargeback in that situation).

Probably best to clear any move with one’s employer first.

One nitwit at my company up and moved to Cancun. That went over like a turd in a punch bowl once the company caught on.

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It’s the same for employees who travel for business… thus the state regulations. It’s a big nasty topic that’s become a hot spot thanks to Covid and states trying to get money where they can.

LTL - less than load. My husband is a broker. :wink:

We had one go to Taiwan… and didn’t tell anyone… until her move blew up our 401k integration.

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The one issue with that one is that…for those of us in the mid-Atlantic and north-east US, states are small and close together, so it doesn’t feel like a big deal to move across states. I’ve moved between DC and Arlington, Virginia without a second thought - it was about 4 miles in distance.

[I routinely cross between DC and Virginia, and sometimes into Maryland, several times a week. Sometimes several times a day. State borders are not a big deal here. I’m sure it’s similar for Kansas City KS/MO, New York suburbs versus Connecticut, etc.]

So there definitely needs to be education for workers in certain areas of the country to remind them to check with employers before moving - otherwise you simply might not think about it.

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Well generally speaking if one is moving within a commutable distance, nobody cares. Update your tax forms and be done.

It’s the moving cross county or out of the country that’s gonna be more interesting.

Presumably companies new to WFH are developing policies and best practices to address this amongst other issues.

Or in my case, the company was crystal clear. You cannot move outside of a reasonable commuting distance. We reserve the right to have you work from the office. Blah blah. Evidently Cancun guy didn’t get the memo or more likely just ignored it.

ETA: I live on the FL/AL line. I’m regularly on both sides. I’ve lived on both sides. My employer doesn’t care since it’s reasonable commutable distances so they are already set up payroll wise for all those areas. Cancun? Not so much lol

I do feel like this has gone down quite the rabbit hole from the OP’s first post but this is simply not true.

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I beg to differ. If you’re working in the office and you move, nobody cares. Presumably employers are prepared payroll wise for employees within a reasonable commuting distance. WFH same rules apply though they may want advance notice if one has their equipment.

I suppose there’s some employer somewhere that doesn’t hire people that live 10 miles over an adjoining state border or some such.

That’s COTH. Very tangenty. :slight_smile:

Expectations of in office vs. remote work and hair color:

I worked for a VERY staid and traditional Fortune 200 where the expectation was for professional dress and a certain grooming standard. I still shopped for my business wardrobe in consignment shops, but I did get my hair cut more frequently and I did get a pedi before wearing sandals in the summer. And I got some unsubtle pressure that I needed to up my standards to be considered promotable. So, yeah, that was a thing and probably still is a thing.

My last consulting job was remote work for an employer that had a business casual dress code because none of our work was client or public facing. So anything other than pajamas was fine. We also started our morning check in by seeing everyone’s pets on Zoom. They wanted me to take the laptop out and introduce the horses and chickens, but that was a bridge too far for me, but the dogs got used to having the laptop in their face. Fun workplace culture.

Re: hair color. I starting going gray early, and colored to cover the gray. Once I got more than 50% gray, that became difficult, so I went natural. I actually had rather striking silver hair and I really liked it. In my 50s, I could no longer tolerate contacts so started wearing rimless eyeglasses. Then I was reorganized out of that company and looking for work, and the strongest part of my resume was my tech skills. You just can’t interview for a tech-centric job looking like the grandmother with the homemade cookies. Not successfully, anyway.

So I started coloring my hair during my job search, and I wore contacts when I was interviewing. I went back to glasses as soon as I started work. I continued coloring my hair until I retired, a weird blond that I had never been naturally but didn’t show roots growing as quickly. The first thing I did when I retired was stop coloring my hair and it was a huge relief. And expense saver.

So I think the expectation to color your hair has more to do with age discrimination than it does with sexism, though there’s certainly some sexism in the mix. Since tech jobs tend to skew young and male, there’s plenty of both.

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Absolutely! My organization went 100% remote 2 years ago and we recently found out we will stay remote even when COVID is good and done. We have specific states we can live in or visit for an unlimited time, and any state not on that list we can only work in for up to 30 working days. We need to get specific permission to work out of the country, and then it is limited to I believe the same 30 working days. This is absolutely due to tax implications, not to the employee but to the company. There may be employee tax issues too.

Our office is based in a state with no income tax, and we have employees living in an adjacent state that has income tax. That is one example of potential issues.

My sister works in payroll/accounting for a company that may send people to job sites in any state for up to a couple of years. She HATES it when they get a new state, she has a ton of paperwork to file and it adds one more set of rules to her payroll run.

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On the VT/NH border, it definitely matters if you move 10 miles if it puts you on opposite sides of “the river.” In VT there is income tax, in NH there is not. So, while your employer may not necessarily care - in the sense of allowing you to keep your job regardless of which side of the river those 10 miles take you - they definitely have to care in terms of how they pay you and withhold. Not very long ago, which side of the river you lived on might also impact who you could legally name as a spouse/dependent and how that related to health insurance and other benefits your employer might be providing.

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Yeah I need to color my hair until I retire. I’m not in tech, but I have noticed that women with naturally grey hair do not get promoted or even taken as seriously as those who color their hair.

I think it is sexism related, because men with grey hair do not have the same issues at all.

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Right. Same here. FL has no state income tax and AL does. Hence the “update your tax forms” in my previous post.

I started this with “probably best to clear a move with your employer”. I’m just saying one’s employer is unlikely to be like no you can’t move to another house still within a commutable distance to the office. Wanna move to Cancun? That’s a lot bigger ask

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Yup. Everyone on the up and up looks sharp at my office. Probably can get away with gray or little to no makeup but not both. Men don’t need either. And we’ve got a lot of women in the most senior of positions and it is still this way.

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Yeah, I hadn’t noticed that. Probably because the men with grey hair were already in senior management roles while I was still struggling to be taken seriously as an analyst.

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I started a WFH thread in Off Topic if anyone is interested.

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100% this. Before having kids and moving to Colorado, I was at a great, DIY barn in MD. It had great care, good footing and jumps, and a great community. We helped each other at shows and met up with a great trainer at shows or at his farm when needed. I did have a truck and trailer but only bought those when I decided to campaign on my own at big shows. Otherwise, others at the barn were happy to take me to local big shows. Especially doing the A/O’s, if you DIY, you can cover most of your fees with decent ribbons. Shows don’t have to be thousands of dollars.

I hear you though…I had a very good job and the horses still felt very expensive. Half-leasing is a really good option, especially if you can find someone who wants to do flat-work or lessons with your trainer. And even better if they want to do some low level divisions at a show and split costs.

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Can you wear them under a riding helmet? The strap around the back looks like it might be in a weird spot.