Relocation always brings challenges, and Peter Kilborn writes a journalistic account of a special segment of people who move: families who must move to keep their jobs or maintain career growth. They earn high income by most standards – $100,000 – $400,000 – and are moved handsomely by their companies. One company even brought in the wife’s mother to babysit while the couple went on a house-hunting trip.
These families represent middle and upper management. None were described as CEOs, but some were vice presidents of midsize companies. Some worked in cubicles.
Author Kilborn focuses on the impact of the move on family dynamics. His approach is typical of contemporary journalism: focusing on a handful of families in depth and chronicling every aspect of their lives that could be remotely related to the move. Thus we have children starting school again, wives volunteering, husbands away from home for long periods. We see variations from family to family, but as I read, their stories blend together.
Kilborn feels the pressure to conform. For example, these families need to buy homes with high resale value, so they tend to look for new homes in new neighborhoods. As a result, the oldest neighborhoods fall into decline.
We see how some families try to escape the pressures. One family was delighted to find a home outside of a community of owners. Surprisingly few get divorced; a woman is shown in front of her new antiques store, which she opened after divorcing her mobile husband and remarrying.
This book describes a small and privileged slice of corporate America. And, although the book’s subtitle refers to an uprooted “new” professional class, I don’t think it’s all that new. I remember when IBM used to perform “I’ve Been Moved”. If anything, I hear companies are cutting back because spouses are now coming into the picture.
And that is my main objection with this book. Are all members of this corporate America male and married? The book finds a single young woman who talks about the difficulties of finding a boyfriend. But I have met single and divorced women in their 40s who reported enormous problems adjusting to this mobile class. A woman moved into a nice neighborhood; after all, she earned a good salary and she could easily afford a big house. Her neighbors were threatened at first. In fact, they were worried that she would persecute her husbands (as if she had the time or inclination).
The book does not address other issues, such as the relocation of gay, non-Christian or other race professionals. In these Relovilles, will these people stand out? Will they be ostracized? Or are these cities so full of corporate executives that they have a higher tolerance than the older residents of these small towns?
Ultimately, I’m not sure what we are supposed to learn from this book. Wisely, the author chooses not to draw lessons and move into the self-help genre. Perhaps the ultimate lesson is choosing a career where you’re either self-employed or just don’t have to relocate. He may sacrifice the big paychecks (or not), but he’ll get the most valuable commodity: time. And if he chooses this path, no one can say Kilborn didn’t warn him.
