Everyone has different tastes. For some, a small town might be the perfect fit. For others, a small town can feel like prison. This article was written for the latter.
Travel Want to get away? Cool! That means at least one connecting flight to a major airport, which will typically waste three to four hours of your time. Oh, and you’ll usually have to pay much more than you would for a direct flight out of a major city.
(In)Conveniences Need to stop by the Apple store to take care of an issue with your MacBook? No problem, that’ll just be a two-hour drive to the nearest major city. Perhaps you want to do some shopping for clothes? Your favorite stores are only two hours away. Maybe you’re in the mood for some authentic food? Only a two hour drive. Hope you have a nice car.
Seeing Your Coworkers. Everywhere. At the grocery store? There’s your boss and his wife. At the hair salon? There’s a manager in your group occupying the adjacent chair. At a Halloween party? There’s a coworker dressed scantily in an angel costume sucking on a bag of wine. It’s great. Better be careful you don’t vent about work in public, or talk about your dislike of small towns.
Coworkers Crossing the Line Have a coworker who continually disrespects your boundaries outside of work, even after you’ve made it explicitly clear on multiple occasions he’s crossing the line? Maybe you have a coworker who makes unsolicited advances and gets physical, even after you’ve repeatedly told him to stop. Maybe he even cries when you reject his advances.
Well if you do, you can’t punch him in the face because that would be unprofessional. After all, he is your coworker. You could block him on all forms of social media, but that won’t solve any problems. You could try to avoid him, but that’s damn near impossible when there are only thirty people your age in town. Of course, you could always drag HR into it and make things uncomfortable for you at (and likely outside of) work. More likely than not, you’ll just have to get used to him stopping by your office sixteen times per day to talk like you guys are BFFs.
Coworkers Sharing Details of Your Life at Work Perhaps a new colleague joins your group, one you get on well with, one you think you can trust. You treat her as a friend, because friends are hard to come by in a small town. As you normally are with friends, you’re honest with her about your opinion on certain things. Don’t worry, you can trust her to keep quiet, at least until you’re sitting at dinner with her, a manager, and two of your colleagues and she asks you “so why don’t you like living in [insert name of small town]?” To which the manager comments “well I hope you stay with the company.” Yeah, I think her neurons short-circuited that evening.
Dating Have standards when dating? Looking for someone who dresses well and is in good physical shape? Cool, that most likely leaves you with two prospects. Oh, and chances are they’re either your coworkers or daughters of your coworkers. #Awkward.
Options Do you sometimes find it difficult to pick a place for dinner? Have a tough time figuring out which kind of scene you’re in the mood for on a Friday night? Don’t worry, the decision is easy when you only have three choices.
Developing a Professional Network Looking to develop a network outside of your current employer? Gearing up for a career change? Looking for external opportunities? Good luck with that when your company is the only employer in town. Oh, and if you’re lucky enough to land your spouse a job at your company, layoffs can then become a family affair!
The above? Yeah, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Good luck keeping your sanity 🙂
