I Wonder How Much All That Cost

So yesterday in an HR meeting, our HR VP confirmed something to us that we had long heard rumors about: the headquarters for our particular group is moving from Reston to Tyson's (again). Which means that the head of our sector is moving back to Tyson's. Which means my group is moving back to Tyson's. After I got over my initial disappointment (I've moved on to my mid-range disappointment now), I started to figure out just how many times my Company has moved me, and compared it to my other two companies before this one.

State Department Federal Credit Union (15 months) - They brought me in out in Old Town Alexandria and kept me there for the entire time. Never once moved.

Quest Diagnostics (2 1/2 years) - They brought me in over in Chantilly and kept me there for the multi-year stretch.

Northrop Grumman (4 years and counting) - Here's where it starts to get insane...

I started in Dunn Loring where I remained for about two months. Before too long, I was moved from there to a building out in Merrifield. I had a nice long stretch there (about half a year) until I was moved from Merrifield to Herndon. We had a month there before we crossed the beltway and went to Tyson's. I got to enjoy the long, grueling commute for almost a year before I was moved out to Chantilly. By then I had my new house, so the commute was actually pretty nice. I must have stayed there for about a year and a half before people realized they had not moved me in a while, so they moved us to Reston earlier last year. I've been here for about a year and sometime this year, we're moving back out to Tyson's. So in a little over four years (by the time we move), I'll have been in seven locations.

The argument for all this movement is it makes business sense and it will help cut costs. But I can't figure out how we're cutting costs if we have to keep paying to move people.