Move to New Jersey

The department I work in has been deemed transient and as such my job transferred its operation to New Jersey. Mind you the distance via train takes workers about 5 to 10 more minutes out of the way of their usual way of arriving to the old location, and of course there is the extra expense for the New Jersey leg of the trip. We can view the old office from the windows of our new location. We are across The Hudson River from each other. The new excursion is not any more strenuous than the old except for the added trips to the pocketbook for the transportation. But from the reaction of the workers you would have thought we were being sent to Alaska.

It amazed me the lies people came up with to say they could not go to New Jersey and thus had to stay in The Wall Street office. One woman, an almost 6 feet loud mouth, who once said loudly on the floor that she knew Geraldo Rivera in the biblical sense and laughed heartily about it while some looked on in horror, that her husband would "not allow" her to go to New Jersey to work because it was not "worth it" financially for the family budget to go. Meanwhile, for all of the years we worked the job, she exclaimed often the various episodes in her household that told every one in listening distance who had no choice but to hear her boring stories, that she ran it. She finagled a way to stay in New York, and bragged that she wasn't going to Jersey. She manipulated the situation which she has a history of doing and the director of the department was given an earfull about the inappropriateness of her staying in The New York Office. He was told if her husband has her best interest at heart than she should act upon those interests and start looking for a new job. The director has stated that as soon as the floor in NY that we occupied is eliminated, so would she. He was reminded that should that not happen and she was snuck into a position in The New York office, there would be a mutiny among the troops of NJ who made the move, and did so in a dignified manner. If she was able to maneuver a position in NY because of her loud mouth, he would have several formerly quiet workers loud mouthing him and all others as to the unfairness of the situation and then demanding her getting on board and coming to Jersey or getting out of NY and going home to her husband who thinks the move is not financially solvent. One guy said his mother was deathly ill and could not take the chance of being in NJ should she take a turn for the worse. He said he therefore needed to stay in the New York office. He was immediately told he could take a medical leave of absence to get things straightened out and would have a job waiting for him whenever he was ready no matter how long it took. He was informed that to make it official and in adherence to "The Family Leave Act" paperwork regarding his mother's illness would have to be submitted. He quit the same day. The train to Jersey, The Path, cost $1.50 each way and if 20 rides are purchased at the same time there is a discount to $1.20. The job offered everyone who didn't live in Jersey a $75 dollar travel expense, that would be taxed, for three months to offset the extra expense for those who decided to come to NJ. Everyone grumbled, but most got on board with the move. What was one to do with the job market the way it is in the financial services industry, and why give up the longevity of a position one has had for at least 5 years, as is the case of most of the employees of my department.

What was most evident in the move was the attachment to New York many of the workers had. This attachment was derived from the elitism of working in The Wall Street area and having the address of the job change to a New Jersey address had many in an uproar. Even those who lived in New Jersey and made the trek to the job on Wall Street did not want to work in New Jersey though their commute may have been easier. It is simply the supposed prestige that a Wall Street address provides to those who can quote the such, and having it eliminated and replaced with a New Jersey address seems to have non-plussed many a person. Some of my co-workers were outraged at the suggestion of the job moving to New Jersey when first told, but many have gotten with the program after a month of being there.

What other reasonable choice do they have?