NEW YORK (Reuters) - At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jaleesa Garland, a marketing manager at an e-commerce startup, came across an opportunity to relocate from the San Francisco Bay Area to Tulsa, Oklahoma - a city previously not on her radar.
It was an enticing offer: $10,000 in relocation assistance and community-building opportunities provided by a recruitment initiative called Tulsa Remote. When the pandemic hit, her company got rid of its San Francisco office and allowed employees to work from anywhere. Garland moved to the south-central U.S. city with a population of about 400,000 in October 2020.