The must be willing to relocate to San Francisco meme has been doing the rounds on Twitter to great effect. The best jokes have a grain of truth to them. I think it is absurd to expect to draw on an infinite supply of debt burdened twenty somethings to relocate to the hottest real estate market on the planet.

A long time ago I worked for a company who hired globally and was willing to relocate people to work in Sydney on very generous terms and worked hard to make the process as painless as possible–and just to be clear, I’m not having a go at this companies’ policies, I like living in Sydney, I’m sure you would too.

What I want to discuss is the potential this creates for a conflict of interest.

Say you’ve up and moved your family to Australia. Your partner has had to leave their job, your kids have left their school, everyone’s left their circle of extended family and friends. It’s a huge upheaval.

Your company is not just your sponsor, but your spouse and your children’s. You’ve got a strong incentive to keep your employer happy with you–your contract stipulates a 6 month probationary period. Not to mention the 12 month lease you just signed on a three bedroom apartment.

You believe in the company, you just moved your family half way around the planet to prove it, and you want to succeed at this job. But, do you really want to take big risks if it could mean finding yourself having to explain to your partner that you have to find another job in the next two weeks or you all have to leave the country?

Employers, in asking people to relocate and placing them in the position of having to make long term commitments to work at your chosen location, are you putting those employees in a position where they can speak freely and act in your best interests?