Would it be fair to ask my new employer to increase sign-on bonus because of delayed start date?

Question

The employer I accepted an offer from on March 3rd, with a start date of April 4th, offers new out-of-state employees one of two options for relocation assistance due to mandatory on-site policies:

1. $7,500 post-tax cash
2. Managed moving services that include moving your items from your home into storage, one month of corporate housing, moving your items from storage to your new place, paid travel, etc. before my start date

The moving company option I picked for relocation is telling me now, three weeks after I signed my offer, that its going to take 5 weeks to get my stuff to my new location. It’s been a constant back-and-forth between them and the corporate housing company to get any information out of them.

Had I known this, I'd have just taken the $7500 so I could be moved there by now and enjoy a week or two to explore before starting work.

Ultimately this means I will have to be moving well past my start date, during the middle of working. My immediate options are to push my start date and miss out on income or to pull from my PTO - neither of which I want and could have been avoided if it was communicated to me that it would take this long to actually move. Had I taken the $7500 cash and managed this myself, I'd have been moved by now and my family could have taken advantage of the spring break week for the moving process.

I feel like this is costing my family and I in both unnecessary stress and now it looks like financially (or PTO). Would it be taboo to ask my employer to extend my start date and compensate me for the delay in time?

Answer 1

I had a company-supported move two years ago (during first-wave Covid) and the total move expenses reported to me (for tax purposes) was in excess of $30,000. $7500 to DIY sounds very low, but maybe your case is different. (For the record, I was not moving to or from the coast, but to a neighboring Midwest state).

Due to Covid, I had numerous delays in buying a house for my furniture and things to be moved to, and had to negotiate with my employer and relocation company a couple of extensions to the agreed-on period of about a month.

I would strongly recommend to try to work with both parties and suggest reasonable accommodations of your needs.

I don't see it mentioned anywhere in your question, but it would be reasonable (in my opinion and experience) to expect you to get an apartment near your job and "move" there without your family for a week or two so you can start work on your start date. It would be reasonable (again, in my experience) to expect the company to help you accommodate temporary lodging and possibly trips back home to visit your family, make final preparations, etc. within the guidelines of your relocation package. Your question didn't give a lot of details about the relocation package but some of this extra stuff may or may not be included.

Your employer may also be willing to have you come on-site to sign final paperwork, pick up equipment and other first-day things, and then work remotely for a couple weeks while you transition. If your employer is used to relocations, none of this should be a surprise for them.