Most of us know expats that have been on the circuit for multiple years or decades in some cases. These expats , for the most part, feel entitled to being on the circuit permanently and any discussion around returning to their home location is quickly squashed.
Why does the company not put a limit on how long one can be away from their home location? This would infuse some new blood into the circuit which is sorely needed in my view.
As the company is seeking to reduce headcount this would likely be one way, it would be interesting to see if those who have boasted about “quitting if I have to go back” really do. It’s easy to live above your means on expat pay which happens very often.
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I'm one of those perpetual ex-pats of or to which you refer.
Someone mentioned Trecate earlier. That was pretty plush Piedmont when I stayed there. 2 years. That's what she said.
The best, must say, was Tonsberg/Slagen. My personal Grunge period.
Worst assignment was 6 months in the Green Monster in Katy, TX. Foul place to be.
I date myself there.
Re: strange drift of the conversation.
I've actually encountered more ex-pats of the Scientology bent than the other religion trod upon in some of these replies.
Still 10% cut, but I think they have better benefits.
Yeah - but LDS is the only system that explicitly states your Work Boss is number 2.
After the 10 percent.
Howard Hughes, Elon Musk - look at their main hires.
EM ain't stupid.
Money - blowing that jazzy trumpet.
The truth of the matter is we don't have enough seasoned expats to work our affiliates, esp w the added responsibility of training the affilate engineers and occasional BTC replacements. It's not like anyone can just show up and start contributing without at least a few highly experienced expats to provide guidance
Thanks @xnq+1jkqXSoD for making me sp-t out my morning coffee. So expats are not after the money as a primary motivation lol, give me a break.
There may be a very small few that meet your idealistic view point however the vast majority are the exact opposite in my experiences.
Are you sure you want to? You get to live in cr---y parts of the world, take less pay, and never stop working. Think you can handle it?
To most of the expats I know it's not about money it's about contributing and building something out of nothing and seeing locals succeed with your help. It's about moving on when you've contributed your knowledge and your team is ready to fly on their own. That's leadership.
Because Mormons
Cause Chad is better than Texas in so many ways.
Sure, it could have been Norway, or Trecate, or royal Qatar.
But it's Chad. And it's better than Texas.
Op, you need to correct your perceptions. There is a very firm limit on expat duration (for new expats). Good locations are no longer lucrative; you will probably lose money versus staying in your home location. (At least, you will need to downsize to a much smaller house or apartment.)
Yes, there are some expat ‘lifers’ floating around. They are the ‘sins of yesterday’…..as prior management left them too long . They are now too financially expensive to localize, based on benefit schemes and other things.
Anyway, the first thing that would help is to recognize the truth…. The current expat program is a bit broken, in that it underpays and can be hard to access. (Talk to any expat about their frustrations.). It suffers because the past program was too gratuitous. It is almost impossible to get the current expat program fixed, because all people remember is the past overpaying program. They think you are complaining about nothing.
So please, careful not to spread half-truths. It hurts rather than helps. And know the lifer-expats are in a whole different bucket….and we need to mentally and verbally distinguish between the two when raising points about policy.
Because there is no real leadership in HR. How Tracey hasn’t fallen after the business week article… case and point.
It really depends on what part of the company you’re talking about, OP. I wouldn’t want to go to the horrible locations most Upstream expats go, for example.
Agree. As-----s need to let others have a chance. Total good old boys network.
Probably because we’ve proven we can reliably do work in tough locations vs whine about it in online forums?