I write a lot about mobile gaming and AI on this blog, so this one’s a bit different. On [date], the Rocky Mount Telegram published an op-ed I wrote about remote work and what it means for a town like this one.
I had about 400 words to make the case, which meant a lot got cut that I wish I’d kept. But the core of it is simple. Rocky Mount doesn’t have a talent problem. It has a distance problem. The people who leave aren’t chasing a different town, they’re chasing opportunity that happens to sit somewhere else. Remote work is what let my family close that distance without giving up the career I’d spent twenty years building.
Below is the full piece as it ran in the Telegram on September 24th, 2026.
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Rocky Mount does not have a talent problem. It has a distance problem. The people who leave to build a career are not looking for a different town, they are looking for opportunity, and right now that opportunity mostly waits for them somewhere else.
My wife grew up here and left for school and career opportunities. I grew up in Fayetteville. Opportunities eventually took us both to Los Angeles. Twenty years later, the ability to work remotely helped bring us back home.
In 2001, I sold my Chapel Hill-based startup to a company in Los Angeles and we moved there to keep running it. In 2021, during the pandemic, we moved to Rocky Mount to be closer to family, cut our cost of living, impact our community, and build a life in a place that felt like home.
Today I work remotely as Director of Player Experience and Insights for Jam City, one of the largest mobile game publishers in the world, collaborating with colleagues across the globe from right here in Rocky Mount. We bought a home here, our kids go to school here, we spend our money here. My wife transitioned her greeting card business here and now sells online and at local markets. Remote work brought my career home. Entrepreneurship brought hers.
We came back with twenty years of experience and relationships already built. Someone starting out here does not have that head start yet, and that is the gap Rocky Mount needs to help close. Local professionals, colleges, workforce groups, and employers all have a role to play through mentoring, skills training, and connections to opportunities that do not require moving away.
Remote and hybrid work is not perfect. These jobs are competitive, employers can change the rules anytime, hybrid roles mean commuting, and both types require real places to work and reliable internet. It is also not the whole answer. Rocky Mount needs to grow local businesses and attract new businesses. But when someone works remote or hybrid and gets paid, that paycheck stays here. It shows up in our tax revenue, our restaurants, our stores, and circulates in our community.
Coming home was the best decision my family ever made. I want that decision available to more people, without asking them to give up their careers to make it. Rocky Mount already has the people. Now it has to connect them to the opportunities.
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If you’re in Rocky Mount, NC and thinking about a similar move, or you’re already doing the remote or hybrid work thing here and feel like you’re figuring it out solo, I’d like to hear from you. I write about this stuff regularly on this blog: remote work, building something on the side or full-time, what it actually looks like to grow a career from a town this size. Stick around or reach out.
Michael Raeford
