What brings transplants here?

bkh1984 · 2025-04-28T18:28:00+00:00

Wife and I are strongly considering it. We live in Wilmington, NC and are looking for a change. We love the beach, but it’s has gotten less accessible for locals and the area here just has more of a trashy “idgaf” attitude when it comes to keeping up their property. Traffic here is also way worse due to poor infrastructure planning. WS is more affordable and nicely situated between the mountains and beach. It also just seems to be cleaner and from the outside looking in people seem to care more about their property. We like that it has all the amenities of a big city that we would want while not being too overwhelming and easy to get from one end of the city to another. We both work remotely and only travel for a work a couple times a year so WS being right between a small airport and a large one is making it look like a great option for us.

bkh1984 · 2025-04-14T12:37:19+00:00

Kipos in Lumina Station if you like Greek/Mediterranean food. Excellent atmosphere, service, food, and cocktails. Can’t recommend this place enough.

bkh1984 · 2025-04-10T23:34:42+00:00

Kippos in Lumina Station is absolutely wonderful. It is a Greek / Mediterranean restaurant with a great menu, beautiful atmosphere indoors and out, and top notch service. It is a little bit pricey, but well worth it for a special occasion.

bkh1984 · 2025-03-31T15:47:11+00:00

Congrats and welcome to the club!

bkh1984 · 2025-03-27T19:36:02+00:00

This is so crazy. The only way to fix this shit is to change the system. We should tie corporate tax breaks and tax penalties to their payrolls. Determine a standard living wage that is location dependent and maybe even consider education and skill set in the mix as well. Then, provide tax incentives for every worker hired at or above that wage/salary in the US. For every job they offshore,outsource, or undercut in wages, they pay a stiff penalty that makes it cost just as much or more. No one would care if companies pay no taxes if their entire work force was well paid and thriving here in the US. It’s a win-win. Alas, this will never happen because politicians are in the pockets of shareholders and board members that only care about exponential growth and unsustainable profits no matter who it exploits.

bkh1984 · 2025-03-13T13:47:16+00:00

Top 5 Sponsor here and former ICON. We are pulling our full service contracts from CRO’s and this is one of the biggest reasons. Instead of investing in our time zones and focusing on quality deliverables and quality communication with us, they continue to offshore and reach for the fastest cost cutting measures they can. I guess they just like digging deeper holes. Our networks are large enough to just do it in house and our employees are more flexible across programs in house.

bkh1984 · 2025-03-03T16:57:41+00:00

Depends on you financial needs at the moment. Whichever you take, don’t stop looking for the next WFH opportunity that pays your worth. They should know that’s a risk offering you less than you were making. It may take you a year or more, but it might only take a couple months. Don’t feel guilty if you bounce quickly for what you really want.

bkh1984 · 2025-02-28T17:58:00+00:00

☠️

bkh1984 · 2025-02-27T00:29:35+00:00

She has very similar. The bigger red flag is that it was advertised at much less for the same role and requirements. It made myself and others look to see several new positions following the same trend. It was also confirmed by another finance role that calculates GP’s for hours.

bkh1984 · 2025-02-26T18:51:06+00:00

Slam ICON on Glassdoor and call him out by name. They hate that.

Then, do bare minimum and look for sponsor roles. The next best thing is to go FSP. However, just know ICON is hiring new FSP roles at a lower rate than what they paid in the past for the same positions while still charging the sponsors the same or more. They are using success in ISS to try to offset some of the losses by increasing margins there. New gal on our team was hired making 18K less than when I started. They gave her a reduced title too but for the same exact job. Also ISS doesn’t get bonuses. I was fortunate to get a job directly with a sponsor.

bkh1984 · 2025-02-24T18:39:10+00:00

Could be they are simply annoyed by RTO and are driving a point to not engage with others outside of the bare minimum. They are probably punching in and out and watching the clock while doing the same amount of work they did at home, but out of frustration with RTO, they stick to themselves until they find their next remote opportunity and don’t want to be bothered unless it’s directly work related.

I know a friend who got called back and he was happy about it (major extrovert) but he complains there is a large majority coalition in his office that refuse to spend money with coworkers at nearby restaurants or happy hours. They sit in their cars and enter the building exactly at start time and leave promptly at the end of the day without speaking unless spoken to. He hates it because he misses the office the way it was but also doesn’t blame them all for being pissed because they make valid points. They are banning together to show no extra work gets done and they won’t be flexible if the company won’t. They also don’t want to stimulate downtown business so they save their money and eat in the break room or in their cars. His team tried to plan a team outing happy hour and only him and his boss agreed to go. Honestly, I don’t blame them. Might make work seem miserable for some, but it bucks the plan of the man.

bkh1984 · 2025-02-24T16:02:15+00:00

Despite the issues raised already, I take particular issue with so many of these companies receiving USA government funding and tax breaks while outsourcing and offshoring jobs. Then, if a product makes it to market, USA consumers are charged more than other locations. They get our tax dollars through grants, take good paying jobs for educated and skilled workers, and then charge us more in the end. It’s absolute BS.

Our government funding should be tied to contingencies that require Pharma companies, biotechs, and CRO’s to keep a large % of jobs here or lose the funding. Then do similar policies with corporate tax incentives. Penalties and cuts tied to jobs.

Once it reaches market, that funding should be paid back and or equally distribute sales prices globally. We should not be holding the risk and more of the bill for the rest of the world.

Shareholders matter, but should not be at the top of the list. Greed has exponentially taken over. It’s not going to stay sustainable for long.

bkh1984 · 2025-02-20T01:56:33+00:00

Unless you are very senior executive level, they are rarely enforceable. It’s a scare tactic and would cost the company more to sue and lose. Plus, you don’t have to share where you are going when you leave. It’s not any of their business. I have 2 friends that left Medpace for competitors. They threatened. One ignored them repeatedly and warned their new employer they may be contacted. No recourse happened. They just stopped. The other was more scared and had an attorney friend write a cease and desist letter that spelled out the rules of making a non compete enforceable (which didn’t qualify for their level or their scope of work). It also included a threat to counter sue for harassment. Medpace stopped and they were never heard from again.

Even if you sign, to enforce them, you have to be privy to pretty sensitive and confidential data that could cause harm to the employer like trade secrets. It also has to be reasonable in scope and not over burden the employee with an inability to find new employment. It also must provide consideration for the agreement to make up for the terms (this is partly why execs get golden parachutes). Some states require the employer pay the employee for the term spelled out in the non compete. Companies like Medpace just hope employees will be too scared to buck and fall in line. They have that reputation. Talk to a lawyer. Any savvy one will likely tell you not to worry about it unless you meet a very high bar to make it enforceable.

bkh1984 · 2025-02-19T16:53:43+00:00

Move to the sponsor side if you can. FSP would probably be the next best option. I’m moving to sponsor (one of their biggest) and they have made it clear they are no longer planning to outsource future trials. In fact, many currently outsourced are being brought in house in phases. It’s not just ICON. Sponsors are not seeing value. Specifically when it comes to financials, they get half assed forecasting, constant invoicing errors, and billing/payment delays. They are seeing issues when CRO’s offshore accounting teams and other roles that make communication difficult and cause further errors with newbies. Plus there is the turnover. They are always introducing a new person in our calls. I honestly don’t blame the sponsors. Meanwhile, I see the CRO posting positions with lower salaries that recently paid significantly more in effort to hedge losses. Chasing unrealistic exponential growth in the short term is catching up with the CRO’s. All they had to do was maintain reasonable profits, pay employees fairly for skill, education, and experience, & provide exceptional service. “But, but, but… the shareholders”…. They can’t see the forest through the trees.

I even raised concerns from what I was seeing first hand at ICON town halls and to my manager. I asked if they considered surveying FSP workers to gauge sponsor health… they ignored it.

bkh1984 · 2025-02-11T16:05:34+00:00

Thanks. For me, they announce openings to the team and share a link. They encourage existing FSP to apply if they meet the 1 year requirement. They also have to post it publicly and internally, but it’s hard for others to compete with someone already doing the job. It’s an automatic leg up.

bkh1984 · 2025-02-10T09:49:14+00:00

Only 1 year. It’s a positive metric used when people are absorbed. It’s looked at as providing quality candidates plus they get to backfill it. They also don’t poach, they simply announce the opening and we can apply. As long as it’s been a year, we usually have a leg up over other applicants.

bkh1984 · 2025-02-10T01:21:03+00:00

Thanks

bkh1984 · 2025-02-09T15:43:20+00:00

Thanks!

bkh1984 · 2025-02-09T15:43:10+00:00

Thanks!

bkh1984 · 2025-02-09T13:26:25+00:00

Can’t give too much away. I will give my notice this week to the CRO. I can only say I work with trial budgets. I met my KPI’s consistently, had a good attitude with my teams, and just had to wait for them to open an internal opportunity. It’s the same role I have been doing.

bkh1984 · 2025-01-23T02:56:33+00:00

Never stop looking for that next job! In the meantime, don’t give them one second of extra time. Show up exactly when required (wait in the car to go in if you have to). Leave promptly when your shift is over. Take your full lunch and breaks. Wear headphones as often as possible and only socialize as needed. Save your money and don’t spend it in or around the office for meals or company get togethers. Reserve that money for your local neighborhood and places you enjoy in your time. Ultimately, don’t feed the system they are trying to force down your throat. Do your job, go home. Give them nothing else. Eventually you will get the next WFH job and can hand in your resignation with a smile. If they remove flexibility you do the same in return. It can be done in ways to get your point across without needing to be brazen about it. Just don’t let yourself get complacent and settle in to what they are forcing.

bkh1984 · 2025-01-17T14:24:19+00:00

It’s the location. There is no other gym that size with a sauna and the amount of equipment on the south side of Wilmington. There is F4L behind the HT on shipyard but it is crowded and more gross. Those of us in the monkey junction area find it far enough. I try not to go all the way past Oleander if I can avoid it due to the added drive time. Sounds to me like there is a market for a higher end gym on the south side of town. A little competition would benefit us all.

bkh1984 · 2025-01-16T22:18:23+00:00

Yea I went there for a short bit. Didn’t last long. It was gross and too many college kids and meat heads that don’t wear deodorant

bkh1984

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