End-of-Life-ing a Lifestyle
I remember an MBA class where we did a supply chain simulation. We were pushing product from a factory to a distributorship to end customers. You play a role in the process with varying levels of cooperative information (i.e., perhaps the factory tells you when they forecast a production run or you get demand information from the retailer).
This was competitive within the class for grades (not my favorite method), and the bounded nature of the scenario drove up the incentive to essentially run yourself dry on product right before the end of the simulation.
The professor tried to forbid this, basically telling everyone we should run the business steady-state to the end rather than pretending like there was going to be a shutdown.
I have thought a little about this scenario as we begin our preparations to leave here. A lot of stuff around us is completely falling apart. The worst offenders are probably our bedsheets (where we would be better quoting a nub count rather than a thread count; they were wedding gifts), ice cube trays fatiguing severely down the center support, soap bottles requiring heroic pumping to get anything out, trash can lids stuck shut, and towels edging toward that mild-permanent-funk zone.
We have special issues around liquids, which we can ship in neither of our major shipments and would only be able to carry home in checked bags on the plane.
Plus, a lot of stuff just simply sucks here (at least at price parity with the US equivalents), like towels and kitchen products. Not to mention electronics. We don’t need ice trays in the States (this is a subtle thing that will be much appreciated when it’s back to automatic production), and we’ve already caught a few things on sale that are waiting for us at the house when we get back. There’s not much point in going on a shopping spree right now for much of anything.
There are some big decisions to make around 220V-only small appliances we’ve purchased and the mostly-PAL television and the mostly-A4 printer. Most of these have designated homes chosen already. We might throw in a few complementary half bottles of various cleaning and cooking liquids to anyone willing to take something big off our hands.
The simple timing of the two shipments (air and ocean) will be a prickly subject. As opposed to expatriating where you need everything, we don’t need a whole lot immediately upon arrival. The sheer accidental genius of leaving the guest bedroom suite intact in the house saved us from urgent furniture scarcity.
I will probably win the “relo employee of the year” award for my responsiveness (just a little eager!). I just did an inventory of the different parties involved in my move:
- Local HR representative in Turkey
- Local HR representative in US
- “Sending” HR advisor in Krakow
- “Receiving” HR advisor in Manila
- General administrative consultancy for administering expense claims, realtors, etc.
- General shipping contractor
- Subcontractor of the shipping GC to actually handle the job in Turkey
- Third-party insurance company to insure shipped items
- General contractor for providing exit assistance (closing accounts, getting out of leases)
- Subcontractor of the exit assistance GC to actually handle the job in Turkey
- A general consultancy for “settling in” to the new location, including neighborhood selection and employment laws
It’s quite a deal. But the ball is starting to roll…