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[UT94BBA]

I read a lot here but rarely post.

Preface: I'm 38 and have been living in London for 9 years. Native Houstonian and obviously a UT grad.

I might ramble here a bit, but any advice is greatly appreciated.

I have been fortunate in many respects throughout my life including the opportunity to come to London to open a business for my firm. I have spent my 30's here and never really grown "roots" or called it home. The business has been a success and I am proud of that. I miss home though.

I think I can do the job from Houston and manage my employees while working in my Houston office. I'll travel a lot back and forth (roughly 80 days in London).

I guess I am asking if anyone has had to do this before? I have loved London but the comforts of Texas seem to be calling.

 

[general35]

I love London, never had to commute from there. I couldnt live in London unless I made twice what I make now. It's not a bad flight from Houston. I would like a situation like that where I could split my time. It would be hard with a family though.

 

[mcbrett]

I think folks should put more emphasis on their personal lives- especially if you feel you can manage the team from Houston. If you move to Houston and feel otherwise- you will simply travel more often to London. But to continue to live in London- you will always carry the weight of potential regret about not moving to Houston. And as someone famous once said, 'nothing is more expensive than regret.'

I had to leave Texas for NYC- and while it benefited my career it was one of the worst personal decisions I have made and regret that I could not manage a better position in Austin, Houston or Dallas.

 

[LITNIN HORN]

...regret about not moving to Houston.

 

[JohnnyM]

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[jmrob93]

Maybe he means the suburbs.... my wife works with a brit lady that has been here 15 yrs and won't go back--her husband works at Exxon and travels often back across the pond--but they love it here ( Klein area). Kinda of makes you wonder about London if they consider Houston--heaven on earth?????

 

[IRC]

***** about HTown all you want but it's January 22 and 73' outside.

I'm thinking about taking a personal afternoon and touring Terry Hershey on my bike.

This has been a productive and satisfying week, (except for the ksu loss).

 

[wherzwaldo]

With all of the advances in technology, like VPN and videoconferencing, I think you could not only pull it off but also travel to London less than you think you might need to. Invest in some good equipment to do that and it would probably pay for itself within a year or two compared to travel expenses.

My dad worked in Texas for a large corporation, and his boss worked in London. For the 15 years they worked together, the boss only traveled to Texas once every quarter or so, for about a week at a time. The rest of the time they communicated by telephone, e-mail, and IM. And this all started in the early 90s... things have come a long way since then.

 

[texascoder]

Just to throw my 2 cents in... telecommuting or working with other folks remotely/electronically has certainly exploded in the last 5-10 years. I work for a very large computer company that has offices and labs all over the world and I work on a daily and/or weekly basis with lots of people that I have never met in person. We use phone conferences, online e-meetings, and instant messaging a lot. Very rarely now are all the people working on a specific project co-located. This is especially true with managers and their employees. For example, my manager here in Austin has about 10 people reporting to him that are local, but then also about 5 that are remote. And even with the local folks, most folks work at home either most of the time or maybe 2-3 days a week. I think with today's technology, a person's location is less and less important. Of course, our industry (software development) is well-suited to that situation. So, depending on your industry that might or might not also be true.

 

[Bernard]

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