Remotely Roanoke

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The story below is from our January/February 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you! 

Roanoke’s remote workforce is growing.

For those who were not classified as essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic like healthcare professionals and grocery store workers, the way in which they worked likely changed. Many workers started working from home; some never went back to their offices.

With a newfound freedom to work from anywhere, a number of remote workers relocated to the Roanoke Valley.

“The region continues to see positive in-migration where several more populous areas of the state are seeing more people moving out than are moving in,” John Hull, executive director of the Roanoke Regional Partnership, says.

The Census’ American Community Survey measures methods of commute, which includes telework and working from home. As of 2021, the Census estimates 13% of the workforce in the Roanoke metropolitan area works from home, which is up from just five percent prior to the pandemic. The number equates to around 18,600 workers in the region’s economy.

“Remote workers are an important talent attraction opportunity. Anecdotally, those stories are coming in. Remote workers are driven by an ease of living, outdoor amenities, arts/cultural amenities, the mountain/metro mix and a lower cost of living. Efforts to boost broadband availability throughout the region have also really paid off by opening more of the region up for remote workers to take root,” Hull adds.

Meet Anna Bertino, Mark Armstrong, Brian Gaines, Bryan Sullivan and Victoria Wheeler, just a few remote workers who decided to relocate to the Roanoke area.

Anna Bertino

Remote work is largely all Glen Allen native Bertino, 22, has known, except for an in-person internship. She graduated from George Mason University in June of 2021, when the pandemic was still dominating news headlines. When it came time to start looking for jobs, the idea of working remotely only seemed natural to her. Since then, she has been working for the Falls Church-based digital marketing agency MtoM Consulting.

With the flexibility to live wherever she wanted, she decided to move to Boones Mill with her partner who had inherited some land there from his grandfather. “I had never really been to Roanoke before I packed all my stuff up,” she remembers with a chuckle. “I was looking to get out of Fairfax and wanted to be somewhere I didn’t have to worry about a commute.”

After having lived in the Richmond and Northern Virginia areas, Bertino has come to appreciate the greater sense of community she now has in the Roanoke Valley. “I didn’t know my neighbors growing up. Everybody was doing their own thing,” she says. “Now I really feel I know my community.”

To become more involved, she started volunteering at Healing Strides of Virginia. She and her partner are also on the PLAY PRIDE softball league, which is for LGBTQIA+ individuals and allies, in Roanoke.

Bertino doesn’t foresee a circumstance in which she would take a full-time office-bound position. “I love remote work. I really like the flexibility that it offers. Sometimes I’m down in Grandin. Sometimes I’m at a coffee shop. Sometimes I’m at the public library. I get to make everywhere my office,” she says. “Hybrid work could be an option for me because I’m a social person, but it would really depend on the position.”

Mark Armstrong

Armstrong, 38, grew up in Bonsack but moved away to attend Hampden-Sydney College.

Since graduating from college, he has lived in Norfolk while attending Eastern Virginia Medical School, New York and, finally, Tampa, Florida.

With a background in medicine and biomedical engineering, he started working in the medical device industry while in Florida. Since April of 2020, he has been a medical director for global medical safety for BD, a medical technology company based in New Jersey.

Working remotely, he provides corporate oversight for issues that involve medical safety and risk management.

“If I have an Internet connection and enough monitors to look at all the documents at once, I’m good to go,” he explains. “It provides me a lot of flexibility. It’s been really great. I enjoy it.”

Although he enjoyed working remotely at first, the isolation of the early days of the pandemic was difficult for Armstrong. He finally decided to move back to the area at the end of 2020.

“I chose to move back to be closer to family,” he explains.

Now a resident of Daleville, he says being back in the community he grew up in has given his life a greater sense of balance. One of the downsides, however, has been the fact that many of the people he knew from 20 years ago no longer live in the area. “I’ve been hoping it would be easier to plug into a social group,” he says. Becoming active at his church has helped, though.

With a flexible work schedule, Armstrong has been spending as much time outdoors as possible. “There are so many opportunities to get outside,” he says. One activity he particularly enjoys is paddleboarding at Carvins Cove.

While Armstrong isn’t certain he’ll stay in the area forever, he doesn’t foresee moving very far north or south again. “I’d like to stay in the Mid-Atlantic. I like Roanoke. I like the mountains. I know the area well, so I’d like to stay,” he says.

Brian Gaines

Originally from upstate South Carolina, Gaines, who has a doctorate in rhetorics, communication and information design, worked for several years as a visiting assistant professor at Virginia Tech until the great resignation happened and he found that working in academia wasn’t for him.

Gaines, 39, now works remotely from his home in downtown Roanoke as a user experience designer and strategist for New Jersey-based The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research.

“The organization I work for prioritizes work-life balance,” he explains. The company expects him to be available between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., but he doesn’t have a strict work schedule.

Some of the benefits of working from home Gaines enjoys include the fact that he can sleep in later, can travel when he wants to and doesn’t have to wear business attire. “My dog is always at the office with me, which is always a plus,” he adds.

He has even been able to discover different restaurants in his neighborhood that he was too busy to sample when he was commuting to Blacksburg every day.

Gaines says he expects remote work to continue to gain in popularity. “Given what we went through for the past three years now, more and more companies are seeing the value of allowing people to work from home,” he says. “There’s a lot to be said for being in an environment where you can be your most productive.”

Bryan Sullivan

Sullivan, a Rochester, New York native, moved to south Roanoke with his wife and children in May of 2021 from Los Angeles, California.

Sullivan, 47, had visited the Roanoke area off and on prior to his move because it’s where his sister-in-law lives.

“After COVID, we wanted to live near family,” he says. “I’m looking for what’s best for my children right now—Roanoke is definitely that. It feels like a true community.”

As a partner at the Los Angeles and New York-based law firm Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP, he’s largely accountable to himself so he didn’t have to get approval to move across the country. “No one is checking my keystrokes,” he says.

Since the move, Sullivan has found the most difficult part of working remotely has been building meaningful connections. To put himself out there, he connected with local political leaders, after having been involved in progressive politics in Los Angeles. His family also joined the Hunting Hills Country Club. “I try to find areas where I am interested in and can meet people who have similar interests,” he says.

Victoria Wheeler

Wheeler, 31, relocated to northeast Roanoke from Kentucky in 2022.

“I was like well I’ve got a job locked in and a solid foundation under me, I can go somewhere else,” she remembers. “Roanoke stole my little heart.”

The Colorado native has worked as the leadership giving officer for the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit think tank, for the past four years. Since her very first day, she has exclusively worked in a remote capacity.

“We’ve worked really hard to build systems and structure that will help our teams thrive in remote environments,” she explains.

Despite working remotely, she follows a set work schedule. She utilizes a service called Focusmate to keep her on track throughout the day. It pairs her with someone else who is also working remotely. They briefly talk at the beginning of an hour of intense focus to share what they will be working on, complete their tasks, then reconnect at the end of the hour to share what they accomplished.

With a set schedule, Wheeler sees the biggest benefit of remote work as being location flexibility. “The flexibility to live and travel where I want when I work is definitely huge,” she says. Coworking

Just because remote workers have the ability to work from anywhere doesn’t mean they don’t find value in still going into an office on occasion. Coworking spaces provide remote workers with an office setting on their own terms.

Venture Studio Hub opened last year in Wirtz in Franklin County with the idea that a coworking space was needed in the predominantly rural setting. A bit more established and in the heart of Roanoke is the Roanoke CoLab.

Bertino joined the CoLab at the insistence of her boss after she expressed her struggle with a lack of social opportunities as a remote worker. “I’m an extrovert. I like having people around,” she says. “The CoLab really met my need.”

Wheeler also goes to the CoLab. “I like having a place to go that’s outside of my house so I can keep home and work separate,” she says.

Coworking

Just because remote workers have the ability to work from anywhere doesn’t mean they don’t find value in still going into an office on occasion. Coworking spaces provide remote workers with an office setting on their own terms. Venture Studio Hub opened last year in Wirtz in Franklin County with the idea that a coworking space was needed in the predominantly rural setting. A bit more established and in the heart of Roanoke is the Roanoke CoLab. Bertino joined the CoLab at the insistence of her boss after she expressed her struggle with a lack of social opportunities as a remote worker. “I’m an extrovert. I like having people around,” she says. “The CoLab really met my need.” Wheeler also goes to the CoLab. “I like having a place to go that’s outside of my house so I can keep home and work separate,” she says. 

Lessons Learned

All five remote workers say they have learned some important lessons that help them stay productive while also maintaining healthy work-life balances. Armstrong finds it helpful to keep work duties to a designated office space. “Treat your job like a job, even if you’re at home,” he advises. Wheeler agrees with Armstrong that boundaries are needed for remote work. “It’s easy for your work to always be with you,” she says. “Having a space that is dedicated to work and being able to put it away is hugely important.” Maintaining a regular routine helps Bertino stay on track. “You have to be diligent with yourself,” she says. 

The story below is from our January/February 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!