The State of Things
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write, but I’m really feeling on top of my work now, which is a lovely change. There are still inscrutable things, and barbs, and complications, but really a lot of the reason I’m here is to de-barb the system. But, that’s a culture change and is therefore something that must be both slow and impassioned all the way through.
I’m pretty close to rolling out some of my Real Work, meaning the long-term-focus make-things-better work. And the reactive work is calming down as things settle in.
Even on a foolishly conservative basis, I would figure about 50% of the reactive work currently on my desk could become automated monthly reporting within a month or two. A lot of questions are obvious to be asked and easy to be answered, but if the answer is reconstructed every month from scratch time is certainly wasted.
On the personal front, we still have no visas, and no stuff, but we do have our apartment, empty as it is. I see no nearby end to the struggles to become a “normal expat,” which is kind of frustrating but not really on my mind very much.
I find it striking that, without the HR infrastructure afforded you when you actually have work authorization before embarking, most of the responsibility is actually placed on the employee. Like, I have had to complete and sign legal documents written in Turkish to arrange for my move. I can’t imagine things work like this in a conventional scenario. It is somewhat presented as my responsibility to arrange things like notaries and couriers.
Just think, I imagined we would need hand-holding help just finding a bank or house! Child’s play compared to producing backup documents to push your household goods through customs. I negotiated the price and terms on our apartment myself! I’m handling all the maintenance requests, as soon as I can find someone there who speaks English!
Our expat services group will basically hang up on me if I call, because I’m not even officially legally working outside my native country.
I suppose you’re just supposed to light your corporate card on fire using it so much, but the manufacturing analyst in me says that just isn’t right. So, we’re kind of living on the cheap (with the notable exception of our hotel, of course), making it up as we go. Which — honestly — at this age and level of responsibility to others is not so bad.
At least we have a washing machine now, because paying 8 TL (5 USD) per pair of boxers was not looking reasonable to me. Luckily we never had to use the hotel’s laundry service.
Next Friday is the first day I will receive my (much deserved, in my opinion) per diem, which I will continue to receive until I am an employee of an out-of-country office (which means work visa). [A per diem is a daily allowance (duh) given to defray extra expenses and compensate for inconvenience.] This per diem is roughly equivalent to 1⁄3 my US salary, so nothing to sneeze at!