If your head office is in the arse end of nowhere that’s not my problem

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I’m based in London, do a highly specialised job. I’ve been contacted by a recruiter about a new job, and it seems absolutely amazing. There aren’t many people working in this sector yet and I have been at it for 15 years.

The company want someone in the office 2 days a week, but their office is in the arse end of nowhere in Norfolk.

Now I’m happy to go into the office as a when needed. But if you are going to go for presenteeism and require people to be in regardless, AND want to start recruiting for specialised technical roles, having a head office in a small town 30 miles from Norwich and 100 miles from London is a bit fucking stupid.

The recruiter has phoned me twice asking me to reconsider the offer. But they won’t budge on the 2 days a week, and I am not up for uprooting the family.

It’s a shame as I really like the team and the job. But they just seem unrealistic. They can’t find anyone else apparently….but with that office location I am not surprised.

Headhunters are on big commission, particularly if you're very niche and hard to come by. I have a niece in the industry who recruits. She's very persuasive, can talk anyone into submission. Say no and don't answer any further calls or emails.

"The recruiter and company are presumably feeding back to each other."

The recruiter and the company have entirely different goals. The company want the best person. The recruiter wants them to take someone he has sent them. You can't assume the recruiter is correctly representing the company's position, and the recruiter won't know about any other candidates the company have that didn't come through them.

If the company has said yes, the OP is a good candidate otherwise but they are non-negotiable on location, it wouldn't be at all unusual for the recruiter to be mounting a campaign to change the OPs mind entirely off their own bat - even as the company are happily deciding between two other equally good candidates the recruiter knows nothing about, and who are willing to relocate.

My DD accepted a job in an out of the way location. She was meant to go in 2x per week but upon starting told them that she had to move somewhere else because of her partners new job
<cough and because that’s where she wanted to live! cough>
She goes in once a week now and all involved are satisfied with the arrangement.

Ask them if they would they consider once per week?

Okay, keep your hair on.

Plus 30 miles from Norwich could also mean places like Thetford or Bury St Edmunds, which are not far from the M11.

I'm pretty sure it does not mean either of those places. The indication is that OP would need to travel 30 miles FURTHER than Norwich, not go back on herself to Thetford, or into Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds). BSE is about 40 miles from the M11.

A11 which becomes the M11 is dual carrageway, the A14 from Bury to the A11 is dual too. Hardly a backwater track.

This is it in a nutshell. A significant number of MNers have chips on their shoulders about London, so as soon as you mentioned it a chunk of the audience were against you. But the reality is, an office is a location that’s inconvenient for many - not everyone - will always limit your recruitment options. Companies either need to accept that and work around it, or decide that recruitment is more important than the savings you make from having an office in a cheap area.

Many years back I worked for a major international company. Our UK office was in a much maligned commuter town that, while only 15 minutes from central London if you could get the express train, was still a ballache to get to if you weren’t close to that particular London station - and was not a pleasant environment when you got there. The UK CEO dug his heels in and said we were keeping the office where it was; that candidates who were put off by the location obviously didn’t want to work for us enough. When the CEO changed, the new one decided he could no longer ignore the number of people turning down roles with us, or leaving after a short time citing the journey, and we moved to central London.

Recruiters also seem to get irrationally annoyed with candidates who cite location as an issue; as if we’re refusing to take the job just to be stubborn and to deny them their commission. I had a recruiter keep me on the phone for 45 minutes before casually mentioning the job was based in Northampton; another tried to tell me the train journey was half what it actually was (or that I could always drive, even though I’d told them upfront that I can’t).

I am aware of this.
I don’t think OP’s office is anywhere near BSE.

You are likely right about a degree of anti London sentiment from those living outwith. These are the people that have seen reduced spending and infrastructure decimate their own towns, while London has seen far more.

I don't know what the percentage of London City workers live within the M25. But we all know that a vast amount commute from outwith that area. Imagine if the average 40 minute commute went out the way rather than in, how much money could find it's way to places like Reading, Luton, Chelmsford etc and improve these places.

Problem is that presumably the OP has children settled in school and a partner who doesn’t want to move to Norfolk.

I’ve reread the OP’s posts. I think the issue is that the recruiter wants their bung and has decided that the OP isn’t a hard no. Perhaps the company have said that the OP would suit them well and told the recruiter to convince her. If the recruiter is the main one for this niche role industry then blocking them isn’t sensible - but they need to be told quite firmly that there’s no need to come back to you on this role.

Reading and Luton are stuffed with businesses that don’t want to pay London office prices!

Doesn't that kind of prove my point then. cheaper operating costs, lower house prices and hopefully more spending on the infrastructure outwith London. Those places were just suggestions, there are any number of places 40 minutes from the M25.

But as I pointed out from direct experience, it can still be a major challenge recruiting to those towns!

Yanbu.

My company has hq on the outskirts of a shitty town and is insisting everyone works there 2 days a week, failing to realise that a) during COVID they offered completely remote contracts meaning they recruited people from across the country for whom the commute isn't feasible

And b) there's loads of job in much more easily commutable locations and more desirable places people might want to live.

They're starting to realise it's not going work, but it's taken them a while!

If I needed a job, then I might consider doing this. But I have a good job, that I have been in for a number of years. I don’t want to leave for something and then find that the commute isn’t manageable, or that their “family friendly” policies don’t practically work for me.

Family friendly for me isn’t spending one night a week in a hotel or a 4 hour daily commute

I wouldn’t be averse to moving to Norfolk, in fact I have holidayed very close to the office on a number of occasions. My issue is very few people have a job for life now. If I move for this role and need to move again in a few years, the likelihood is that I will not find anything in the same area and we will have to move again.

The cynic in me would say it does wonders for staff retention being in such a remote location, because there isn’t a huge pool of competitors locally.

Nowhere as big as Bury st Edmunds or Thetford. I know my expression arse end of no where has got peoples backs up- but I don’t want to say the place as it would be really outing as there isn’t much there, but I don’t know how else to convey that it is really rural and they are unlikely to have a specialist talent pool locally.

No railway station, a good drive to a motorway and not close to a medium sized/market town.

Bravo! 🤣🤣

I think it's more likely to be somewhere west of Norwich, like Swaffham, than some of these other suggestions. North Norfolk is way more than 100 miles from London, and you can't go 30 miles east or south of Norwich without being either in the sea or Suffolk. And the OP has already said it isn't Thetford (south west of Norwich).

Awww go on, tell us!
Maybe someone reading this thread will be a shoe in for the role.

Yes. I thought it was 30 miles on top of the 100 to Norwich, not 100 miles total.

Agree, the area around Swaffham is pretty arse end (I am from that region). Pretty though.

And Harry Hill doesn't have a high opinion of it either!

If you think it’s a good fit then go back and propose 2 days every other week and stay a night up there but build it into your salary demands to pay for a hotel or better yet have them expense it.

Stand your ground!