It looks like some of the most egregious parts of the expat policy are being fixed, with the new communication. Hilariously, the email seemed to go through extreme lengths to explain how the old policy was never ‘wrong.’
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Written by someone who has clearly never been on assignment. The pension calc disregards expat premiums… so, there is no benefit there.
The assignments overseas used to be a fair trade of cash for: long work hours, substandard health care for your family, loss of 1st world amenities. Now, we’ve decided to lower that cash offering by getting rid of the vehicle allowance, soon to lose the housing allowance, etc.
From a cash perspective, it doesn’t make sense to sacrifice so much anymore.
The whole expat thing has been a gravy train for years. People going on assignment after assignment and extending assignments way past their original date by working the system and local country contacts.
And there are the late career assignments that are of no value to the company but pad the pension account with the 3 year average. Managers playing the game and scratching each others backs.
Life is short. Don’t trade value time chasing money for expat assignments. It can be a lifestyle trap that is difficult to escape
It's 2023... We probably don't need that many expats. Truly.
Spoiled stooges. Let’s talk about the terrible toilet paper on campus instead of how many subsidies you are getting back.
What is the current tuition policy for children? There is long standing bias against families in S&D. My advisor told me flat out to forget everything being an EXPAT due to the size of my family.
EM could get itself in a real muck with this tuition thing, if you ask me. It creates a pay to play situation for career-furthering developmental opportunities, that is stacked against employees with children (and specifically women and non-US employees.)
Women are less likely (statistically) to have a spouse willing to tackle supplemental home schooling to operate within the EM tuition limits and keep children on track with home-country curriculums.
Non-US employees have a lower base salary and are unlikely to be able to bridge the gap, financially. Their children are more likely to need language support, too, which requires a higher-tuition school.
So the policy pretty much creates biases and glass ceilings.
It’s also not in line with industry. Most expats receive full tuition to keep their children in a curriculum-appropriate international school. Caps are usually done on duration. So full tuition for 5 years, and then reduced tuition.
The actual $ impact is unclear, as always. You have to dig around in your end-of-May payslip to do if it is a benefit:
- Some intra regional premiums being reinstated (no idea where)
- Housing spendable deduction is removed for those who are keeping a home in their home location (probably neutral as all repatriation allowances cease, but you get money in-hand every month instead of nebulous policies that may change.)
- Housing allowances in some areas increased or decreased. They don’t tell you impacted locations, so roll the dice on that one.
- The cost-of-living adjustment was decreased in some major work hubs, with general reference to Europe. (Sounds unfavorable.)
- Flexible Spending Account now allowed for expats. (Careful on this one, if it requires any international mail. It probably won’t be worth the effort unless fully electronic in submission.)
No mention of schooling….so as default, go in with the assumption that you will be covering some portion of your children’s tuition.
If anyone reads into this email with further insight or has received clarification on items, please comment.
Can anyone repost the email here? Or save on a sharpening and give some keywords to search on?
Was the email only sent to expats?
What was the change?
Except the part where you can see that they’re backing out of house sale support. Now, you will just go on assignment with no financial assistance… another instance where you’ll have to foot the bill or manage the issues without company help.
I expect the #s still add up in their favor once you include that loss.
It was a nice email. I'll need to see the actual numbers before stating they fixed anything in my case. I'm guessing they'll do a little in the right direction to throw us a bone, but still maintaining the advantage they've created on the Company side of the balance sheet. After being an expat for 20 years I'm done after this assignment, going to repair the family and relationship damage it's done to my life. My recommendation is that it's a great way to gain some targeted valuable experience, but don't stay on the "circuit". Enjoy and appreciate your normal lives