How To Talk To Friends & Employers About Your Move

1. General Tips & Thoughts
2. Telling Your Friends
3. Telling Your Employer(S)

Not only can moving impact your own life, but it can also be very emotional for friends and even impact your employer. Therefore, you want to be very careful and take the proper approach when breaking this delicate subject. Here are some approaches and ways to consider talking about your upcoming move.

General Tips & Thoughts

Obviously, you want to go slow and be sensitive. With that in mind, consider the following:

• Collect Your Thoughts: You want to consider exactly how much to tell everyone. Maybe there are some private areas or boundaries you want to discuss? If so, be clear in your thoughts about this ahead of time. Also, think about when might be the proper time to talk with specific people.
• Talk One-on-One: This is almost always better than telling everyone all at once in a sort of group setting. Being one-on-one will also be more effective at revealing a person's true emotions and it makes it easier to deal with everything.
• Prepare With Mock Conversations: Consider actually having a mock conversation for practice. Think about what they might say and the questions they might ask. This will also help you to plan out answers and responses.

Telling Your Friends

You most likely already have a good idea about exactly which friends you want to tell ahead of time. Just make sure to think of their feelings before your own. You have obviously had more time to adjust to this idea, which may come to them as a shock. You might even want to consider talking with them in different locations, like a beach or river, on a road trip, or even at your house after some one-on-one time.

Telling Your Employer(s)

Generally speaking, having such a discussion with your employer will be much less emotional and more business-like and professional, unless you also consider each other very good friends. However, there are still some specific things to consider first:

• Temporary impact to employment: Depending on where and when you are moving, this will perhaps require that you obtain time off from work. In this respect, giving them prior notice is a good thing and may end up being what is needed to ensure their additional support.
• Permanent impact to employment: On the other hand, there could be a more permanent impact. You might need to request working from a different office or even telecommuting during and after the move. It might even mean that you will be leaving the job altogether (obviously, you would want to have something else lined up first).
• Impact to payroll: Although this might be the least of your worries, if you move to a different state, it could mean changes in the amount withdrawn or withheld from your salary or paycheck. Notify the payroll department as soon as possible about your change.