Living somewhere where the only decent jobs are remote

That isn’t the point I was making: property prices in urban areas of Newcastle and Sunderland have gone wild, while those within commuting distance seem to be largely stagnant. The shared ownership starter terraced house I used to live in at the top of the very lovely Bensham Bank went from £60k in 2003 to £250k last year. It was shit. Persimmon failed to make the walls meet the ceilings and the party walls were devoid of any sound insulation. Then there was the crime, it wasn’t quite as bad as Blyth where some scallies made off with chickens from inside the coop in the garden and my coal bunker, laden with coal, from the back of the garage, but it was pretty bad.

Head just a few miles out of town and £250k buys you a hell of lot more property, in a better area with fewer needles littering the local park.

I’m intrigued by the definition of decent job as well.  Middle rank spreadsheet shuffler isn’t really that much to aspire to,so why is it considered ‘decent’ when others aren’t? Wages?

It’s a pretty subjective thing. For me personally it’s about having a job that interests and motivates me, aligns with the skills i’ve developed and because of this likely pays more than minimum wage.

I don’t live in the middle of nowhere, but I do live in an area with miles of trails on my doorstep and limited job opportunities in the field I work in. I work fully from home, but I’ve spent a chunk of the last decade making decisions to try and protect my lifestyle regardless of work. If I lose my job tomorrow I’d be happy to take on any work locally and could pay the bills and feed the family. Might not be ideal, but my lifestyle wouldn’t really change.

If you move from a city and to somewhere remote, taking on a chunk of a mortgage and having cars on finance etc then it’s not going to be great when your job that supports this level of living falls through and you then have to compromise by moving again or living away from home/family. I’ve seen this a lot post covid where folks have moved to near where I live and are now being shafted by RTO and layoffs.

We’re about an hour commute from several cities where “decent jobs” can probably be found: there are some who commute to those places but I wouldn’t like to do that daily. We worked from home for a while before retiring (which is probably the most populous demographic here). Would be harder as a bright young thing but towards the end of career with a decent portfolio of contacts, it was ideal for us. Trails out the door but also enough in the town for daily needs (shops and social life).

Great to hear all your perspectives and what’s worked out for you.

Where I live is far more important than the job, find a nice place to live and then try to find a job there.

Total opposite to 21 year old me, find a job that suits and then move to be near it.

So that you can buy a bigger house somewhere you don’t want to live and buy a nicer car to drive to the place you’d rather be?

There’s definitely been an element of that with my car purchases!

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that decent and highly paid jobs are the same thing.

Oh I’m not. Fulfilment and security are important to me though, having seem too many people live with neither in their jobs. Having a bit higher pay than you need does give you some room for things like below inflation pay rises for a decade though.

Before Covid I used to commute to London every week, stay 3 nights head home Thursday and WFH Friday.  Now I just WFH all the time with periodic 1 or 2 night visits to the capital once a month maybe. London is fantastic place but I could never live there, so I’m happy with the current arrangement and the off night away breaks up the monotony a bit…

I do feel like I could do my job from anywhere in the world right now tho, I often fantasise about moving to a mountain hut in the alps or a boat in the Aegean, but reality of mortgages, wife’s job, kids school, elderly relatives and all that shite bring me back down to earth… plus I always question would it actually be as good as it sounds? How much time would i actually get to spend skiing or riding or sailing or whatever. And if all these great things became the norm, what would I have to look forward to??

if all these great things became the norm, what would I have to look forward to??

ah, the ‘you can’t have it sweet all the time’ perspective of contrasts? Why wouldn’t you look forward to ‘endless’ days of fun?

I live in holywood/Wrecsam and I am based out of Bristol, never attended the office and I never plan to

The biggest issue so far seems to be a bit of a lack of imagination of the employers – while they say they’re open to people being in the office 1 day a week, the idea of coming in from another country to do so is beyond them.

I had a colleague and his wife who commuted from Spain to Sweden 2 days a week, 3 days remote. She was on some EU wide medical research thing between a hospital in Göteborg and one near where they lived in Spain. He’s a tech specialist in the auto sector.

Although there may also be a local presence thing – if their employee is doing work in Ireland, does that mean that legally they have an entity (for tax etc) in Ireland?

That was what eventually stiffed them, she could carry on working as she was (as she was employed by some EU Commission, they sort the taxes) but Volvo Car Corp don’t have a local Spanish organisation that he could be employed by, and pay taxes through. So he quit to stay in Spain (kids, family), i still see her, rarely, in Göteborg, as she works with another friend.

Me. i’ve spent my entire career getting further and further away from civilisation, had two employers try to move me to *proper* city jobs (One in Bristol, one in London). Now have a nice combo, can work remote a couple or three days a week, 45 minute drive to the centre of a large city (by local standards) and 50 minutes to work (to the north or the city). Neighbours mostly consist of trees.

I live in a pretty remote area myself, and finding good job opportunities nearby can be tough. So, I’ve been working remotely for a while now. It’s definitely a trade-off—you get to live where you want, but there’s always that worry about missing out on career growth or future job options.

For me, it’s been worth it so far. I’ve found ways to stay connected with industry contacts and keep my skills sharp. Plus, the flexibility and freedom of remote work are hard to beat.

“ I had me thinking about what happens to the kids of the people who can afford places like that.”

they go to university, build a career and move back when they’ve got some money/planning a family. There’s also quite a lot of industry in Cumbria with high paying jobs (nuclear, renewables, defence, chemical, manufacturing etc) that and owing a couple of tourist pubs/b&bs can turn a tidy profit.

in short living in the lakes is hardly living on the moon.