A Challenge or a DEATH Sentence

Me myself and I have been working abroad as an Expatriate for 5 years, I have worked in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.   

Now if you are not aware about all the obstacles of working abroad and it is your first time then I would be more than happy to share with you a few points.   

Now before you get your ticket and your visa there is an extreme large amount of documentation that has to be stamped and attested then scanned and send, you need to complete some medical tests to prove that you are fit to work and everything has to be submitted to the HR vocal point. After they have received all your documentation then they have to go through a four to six weeks procedure to get your visa approved and then you are ready to go.   

Now after all the heartache, tears and pain to let go of your mother and your loved ones you get on the plane and off you go.    

You then arrive in an unknown country with a culture that you are not familiar with, you become aware that the temperature is up to twice as hot than to what you are used to, the local people barely or very poorly understand English and as a South African you have an accent that is difficult to understand. You see men wearing white dresses and kiss each other on the nose, and women that are covered in a black dress that you cannot even see her forehead.   A taxi driver picks you up at the airport and the sign board he is holding up with your name is spelled in a way that you do not even know that he is looking for you. After eventually finding the taxi driver, he assists with your luggage to get to the car and drives you to a hotel, most of the time the hotel is perfect and there is no issues.   

The next morning someone phones you and you cannot properly understand him as his accent is totally not understandable, so you try to figure out what he is trying to tell you and at what time he will pick you up.   

After he picks you up you normally go to the Head Quarters of the company to start the documentation for residence visas and working identification card etc. and once again an endless process starts to go for medical tests and gather all documents in order to apply for you family’s visas, get it stamped and attested and submitted. So, if you start with this documentation procedure at the wrong time of the year due to public holidays the process takes three to four times longer than normally expected, but eventually just before you totally lose yourself, everything is approved and you are ready to get to work.   

So, once you start to work in this new environment the type of people around you are very similar to those I have described above. It is new systems, procedures, policies and soon you realize that you are not with your previous company (If you actually enjoyed your time there) and you might get the feeling of being totally lost.   

You then start to talk to yourself for self-motivation “because your wife is still in your home country” and very soon you get yourself together and you start to adapt and you start to perform.   

After about three months your wife and children join you in the new country and you are extremely happy to see them, once again a tireless procedure has to be followed through for medical tests and documentation that has to be submitted, for residence visas and health insurance coverage, after this exercise is completed then the documentation headaches are done. You get issues with an apartment or villa with some money for furniture, you buy a car and before long you are settled and adapted. Now in order for a newbie expatriate to settle on a personal level it takes approximately one year, you get to the point where you and your wife’s stops to have a long shopping list and you can actually start to save some money.   

Meanwhile back at the ranch, with a lot of pressure and stress and working long hours, you do not get time to spend with the family and you are neglecting your own health, there seems to be no balance at all, and remember one thing that being and expatriate means one thing and one thing only, you are in a new country to work, and this is exactly how you will be treated and nothing more or less. You work your hands to the bone as you as an expatriate do not really have any say, whatever your manager is saying he expects you to complete the task yesterday and nothing less, you come to find that in general there is a poor level of skill and you find yourself explaining and training people how to do things that you actually have forgotten how to do, this never ends but eventually you get used to it and just do what you need to do.

Then something happens, which not you or your closest friend knew about, you get a phone call from Human Capital Department that you have a meeting with an HR representative, they then inform you that your services are no longer required and your service will end effective immediately.   

You experience all different kind of emotions, sad, mad, insecure, unhappy, heart broken, frustrated, I mean how could they do this, you have been working so hard, it also never seemed that your manger is unhappy with your performance, I mean he never said anything, and you try to find answers on what and where everything went wrong. All HR is informing you is that due to the stock level prices, the company are cutting on manpower and they are very sorry for any inconvenience.   

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So, after receiving this kind of love letter you have to inform your wife, then you need to start packing and once again a lot of documentation has to be completed and before long, you are back in your house in your home country and asking, What the HELL happened? What did I think to do this? How will I pay my depths? “When will I find a new job? how will I find a new job? This whole experience has a psychological impact on you and your family and somehow you need to get through it.    But guess what? after praying, believing, applying for a few jobs and playing some golf and doing some camping and fishing, you get a phone call with an even better job offer than the one before, and you need to start making some big decisions  

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  So once again the first question, is it a Challenge or a Death sentence? From my perspective, it is a Challenge, and I realized very quickly that every situation you find yourself in that is challenging just makes you stronger for the next challenge. A word of advice would be that if you are not up for a challenge then do not become an expatriate, or do not change companies or let me be frank do not try anything. You need to push yourself every day, you need to challenge yourself, and remember that if you are struggling with something today then tomorrow when the same challenge crosses your path, you will run over it, laugh at it and feel extremely satisfied.     

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I would like to dedicate this post to my family, who has supported me through the rough time we went through,  I need to state that the most important thing in life which gets you through anything is not money but it is love, support and prayer.    

 So, take the challenge, have a good strong relationship with your partner and I promise you, you will do just fine.