They are making domestic jobs so horrible that folks will
Do anything to leave here
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With the exception of Lead Country Managers (LCM's) expat assignments will be few and far between. You will need to be a refinery or chemical plant manage to be eligible for an expat assignment.
Even technical subject matter experts are becoming commodities that can be hired in country.
No.
Ge-z… I’m happy I was an expat when all allowances were there and high I actually made a lot of money.
Damn I’m actually happy I no longer work for Exxon!
Lukeoil? Ha! Their employees cannot say no to an assignment for threat of being pushed out a hospital window if they return home. Clever TMO, clever.
I love the Lukoil Washburn one of the competitors considered! Thats right Lukoil!
And they say it’s because they want the package to be competitive. They make it competitive by adding so many companies in the list (as a benchmark) so they actually look average. Some of these companies are not really benchmark comparisons but yeah why look at the details, if it makes TMO look good. This annual email from TMO is the most dreaded email for the year as it’s always extremely vague, written like it’s a positive but it’s always a negative outcome for expats and them losing money
Good summary @1jtz+1mSyO3zh. Spot on!
As previously mentioned, unless you go to a hard to staff, you will lose money. Below are listed the benefits that have been eliminated or significantly decreased:
- appliance allowance eliminated
- MEA reduced
- housing allowance reduced
- travel allowance reduced
- majority of premiums reduced
- travel days eliminated (have to use vacation days to go back home then travel back to assignment location) this could be 4 days or more of vacation just to go home, depending on host location
- pet transport allowance eliminated (average cost $2K per pet) - significantly more to places like Dubai or Australia or where a titer test or quarantine is required
- COLA (difference in C&S and IC&S) eliminated or significantly reduced
- car allowance significantly reduced
- TMO and Cartus are both a joke
- no language lessons or assistance at host location
- international school assistance reduced
- No housing assistance (home sale or retention - no household storage - nothin)
- interim living days reduced by a week
- required change of health insurance to Cigna over Aetna
Expat position - it's only worth it if scores major political points for career development in your organization. Don't do it mainly for the money unless you have no life and don't care.
Connecting the last couple of posts.
TMO says they tailor their policy based on the number of ‘declines.’ But you are not counted as a decline unless you have fully accepted the position/move first.
TMO provides inadequate information up front. So you really don’t know the full financial implications until you and your family are too far into the move and new assignment to back out….you might even be fully relocated before you realize you are losing money.
So TMO’s metrics look great. No official declines. Policy is healthy. That is what they tell management.
In the meantime, a high performing valued expat is now pi---d and starts wondering about the company’s ethics in these dealings.
Tmo is so good that they can't even tell you how much you will get paid until you've actually been in the position for a month or two.
You won't get an ecs prior to accepting...
No. Make sure you request the ecs (estimated compensation sheet) prior to accepting.
Well, that depends OP. If you are of Indian decent, still have family there, and like living in a overcrowded country where everything has been trashed because of overpopulation then yes. You might enjoy going to India for a few years. After all, India is the future of ExxonMobil. Still, you will probably lose money if you're US based. Otherwise, the answer is a big NO. It is not worth it. Exxon is shutting down and selling everything it can in any respectable places like Europe. Singapore is done, too. So, expat assignments are a big no no.
An expat assignment is BS; the hours are endless and the package is not worth it when you run the numbers. If you are in the rare position of working rotation (month on month off) do that. You’ll work half a year for the same salary without up-rooting the family. Just do that if you can. Good luck.
Only if you want to show you're a team player. Financially probably not worth it.
Talk to another expat on the same assignment. They will tell you of the package is making, breakeven or losing money. (It is pretty safe to say, everything will be in the breakeven or losing money category.) Then you have to decide whether several years abroad is worth it. Maybe yes and maybe no. And maybe the response is a little of both. It is possible to have a rewarding experience and still feel like the company is not fairly compensating you for the ‘hard parts.’
They changed the policy to facilitate and encourage expat assignments from India to USA and to discourage expat assignments from the US abroad.
It is another part of the same offshoring master plan.
Don't you get it?
YOU ARE BEING REPLACED BY CHEAP LABOR IN INDIA.
You lose money buying / selling cars.
You lose money selling your house… or maintaining it vacant from a distance.
Premiums are slashed.
Cost of living was just updated to slash that too.
You’re provided 0 assistance (new TMO May policy) upon repatriation.
The changes are OK if you’re non-US (MEA is a higher % of your salary). If you are US based, these are all now money losers for any uplift outside of hardship. And… you should really question if hardship is worth it.
If you truly want to expat, other O&G companies still have reasonable packages. It’s just EM that has went full tilt against HC10 countries.
No; you actually lose money now unless you go to Nigeria, Angola or PNG. Never accept a job in Singapore or London as you will lose so much money but they will tell you it’s your opportunity to grow….. I’m good with growing but not losing money when the company keeps boasting how much money they are making.
No.