The Proximity Trap: When Your Role is Just a Convenient Address
A real estate guide to career decisions: renovate your role, relocate, or risk being left behind
Welcome to Frank Takeaways. I'm Frank, writing the notes worth keeping from decades at companies like Slack, Etsy, and Google. I run a coaching practice dedicated to guiding leaders through the tricky stuff of building products and high-performing teams.
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In careers, like New York real estate, location is everything — until it isn't. As a New Yorker of 19 years, I've learned that proximity to "good neighborhoods" can be as deceiving as proximity to power. Being "close to everything" isn't the same as being essential to anything.
That's why when you spot a beautifully renovated apartment listed below market rate, you know there's a catch. My first apartment, a one-bedroom in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington DC, was exactly that: beautiful renovation, great price, questionable location.
"Just four blocks from the Metro!" I'd chirp defensively when asked, adding "or a short walk if you run." With major bus lines a block away in either direction, it was, technically speaking, "close to everything" — with Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant to the west and U Street to the south.
And yet, it would be years before the neighborhood regained its bustling, dynamic nature and the desired status it held in the 1920s. That is, unless you count the suspiciously empty but immaculate Salvadorean pupusa shop that, despite being the best food in the neighborhood, never seemed to need customers to keep its lights on.
The Location Trap
Like that apartment, some professional roles seduce us with their proximity to where things happen. "You'll be working closely with the product team!" they say. "Direct access to senior leadership!" But being adjacent to value isn't the same as creating it.
I've seen enough of these "strategically located" roles to recognize the pattern. They're the professional equivalent of that apartment with "great potential" — impressive on paper, but somehow hollow in practice. You know the type: the job description reads like a greatest hits of corporate buzzwords, promising "cross-functional collaboration" and "strategic oversight." But three months in, you realize you're just a well-positioned bystander, watching the real action from your convenient vantage point.
These roles often come with impressive titles that mask their true nature. "Strategic Programs Manager" sounds better than "Professional Meeting Attendee." "Cross-functional Team Lead" carries more weight than "CC'd on Important Emails." Like my old apartment's "short walk" to the Metro, these roles' proximity to importance becomes their defining feature — and their limitation.
The trap is real, but easy to miss. Just as living next to a vibrant neighborhood doesn't automatically make your block dynamic, sitting in meetings with decision-makers doesn't automatically make your role impactful. I've watched a Chief of Staff transform from note-taker to kingmaker by building systems that executives now rely on. Meanwhile, others spend years in similarly positioned roles, accumulating knowledge about what's happening around them while never quite becoming essential to any of it.
The In-Between
There's another peculiar aspect to these roles: you often find yourself caught between floors. Think of that Product Manager who's too senior for the engineering stand-ups but too junior for the strategy sessions, or that Product Operations lead who's CC'd on executive emails but never invited to make the decisions they document.
Like those rare New York apartments marketed as "between floors 3 and 4" (yes, that's a real thing), you're neither here nor there — a building superintendent to your peers, a friendly doorman to leadership. Always adjacent, never integral.
I watched a colleague, Sarah, discover the true cost of this limbo. After years of being "involved in everything" but driving nothing, she found herself with a wide network but surface-level impact. Her role, like my old apartment's location, had seemed like an asset until it became a liability.
It's worth noting that these roles rarely start off this way. Like neighborhoods, they evolve — sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Maybe you've grown beyond the role's original scope. Maybe the company pivoted, leaving you in what used to be prime real estate but is now off the main drag. Or perhaps the market changed, and suddenly your location isn't as strategic as it once was.
The real danger isn't in staying or going — it's in doing nothing at all. The question isn't "Where am I?" but "What am I building here?"
The Choice: Stay or Go
Your location isn't your destiny — it's your launching pad. And sometimes, the smartest move is to move. Just as not every up-and-coming neighborhood actually comes up, not every adjacent role can be transformed into a power center. And that's okay.
I've been in prime corporate real estate before—five years at Google, with the invaluable experience and extraordinary network to show for it. But somewhere after year four, I noticed a shift in what I was learning. The lessons were less about my craft and more about navigating Google's particular maze. The question became: did I want to master this specific ecosystem, or was it time to apply what I'd learned somewhere new?
Moving isn't failing — it's often the opposite. Think of it like selling a property in an emerging market: you're not walking away, you're cashing in on the equity you've built. Your network, organizational wisdom, and battle scars from navigating complex systems — these are portable assets that often become more valuable in new contexts.
If you’re at a crossroads, ask yourself:
Do you have the political capital to drive real change?
Are you learning about your craft, or just about organizational navigation?
Is the organization actually ready for the transformation you envision?
Would your energy be better spent building something new elsewhere?
Before making any moves, consider starting a conversation with your manager. When coaching people through this transition, I often suggest opening with something like: "When I reflect on the last six months, I'm proud of what I've accomplished, but I also find myself wanting to contribute more directly to our key initiatives."
This conversation can reveal opportunities you didn't know existed, or confirm that it's time to look elsewhere. Either way, it transforms you from a passive observer of your career to an active participant in shaping it.
If you decide to stay and invest in transformation, fantastic — that's what the rest of this piece is about. If you decide to seek out new territory, that's equally valid. After all, real estate agents don't just sell renovations — they also help people find their next home.
Remember: Whether you stay to transform your role or leave to apply your learnings elsewhere, you're making an active choice. The only wrong move is no move at all.
Making Your Location Matter
So how do you turn your professional address from a convenient waypoint into prime property? Here's how to make your location matter:
Build Essential Services
Turn your position between teams into an advantage by solving problems neither side can tackle alone
Create tools and processes that make everyone's work easier
Develop expertise in the gaps — where no one else is paying attention
Create Gravity
Turn routine meetings into problem-solving sessions
Build forums that bring teams together around shared challenges
Make your space a workshop, not a waiting room
Fix the Foundation
Tackle the problems everyone sees but no one owns
Map and improve how work actually gets done
Anticipate and build connections before they're needed
Remember Sarah? After her awakening, she stopped being a waypoint between Product and Engineering and started being the place where their hardest problems got solved. Today, teams seek her out not because she's conveniently located, but because she's essential to their success.
The Location You Make
Looking back at my old Columbia Heights apartment now, I can't help but smile at that first real estate tour and its emphasis on "convenient location." It wasn't wrong — it just wasn't the whole story. Today, that neighborhood has become a destination in its own right, not because of what it was close to, but because of what it became.
Your role, like any piece of real estate, is worth what you make of it. Stay or go, act or wait, build or browse — these are all valid choices. But remember: careers, like neighborhoods, don't just grow — they're built. So what are you building?