The FIRM

Just had to share this little story with you...

Many of my friends and acquaintances work for a company that I will only refer to as "The Firm".

In my opinion, The Firm controls a few too many details of their lives, mostly disguised as perks (mortgages, invasive medical exams, drivers who monitor and restrict their movements, safety training that scares the heck out of people, and rules rules rules). Don't get me wrong, some of these things are incredibly nice and convenient and I have certainly appreciated when I've benefited from my friends' situations, but the reality for them is that there are times when they come at a cost (mostly privacy).

The Firm has a policy for everything, and from what my friends tell me, there is very little deviation from the policies. Meaning, every situation is not handled individually, with a brain.

My example: a friend came to Rio to live in temporary housing (which is another story altogether... after living here much longer than a year she and her husband, daughter and large dog are still in cramped temporary furnished housing, simply because they were not initially intended to be here longer than a year... as per the Firm's policies, can't make an exception...) which meant she was not sending a shipment of furniture. Her family did, however, want to have bicycles in Rio. Shipments = expensive. Our friends suggested to the company that perhaps it would be more cost effective to just purchase them some bikes (which could then be company property, or whatever). Instead, the Firm shipped their three bikes in a container which cost $5,000.

I realize that to buy the family bikes could have set a precedent that could get out of control, but personally I think this is the kind of stuff that should make shareholders livid. I could give endless examples. Expats are NOT cheap.

Mr. DRL works for a small company and we are the only expats. There are benefits and drawbacks to this. The benefits are that the expat policy is basically nonexistant so we make it up as we go and as needs arise. The drawbacks are that there are very limited resources for us, but that has meant we've just had to get resourceful ourselves!

Comments

[Jackie]

my husband and i are currently trying to get his company to pay for us to come to Rio with our 3 children (14,9 and 7)
they do not have an expat benefit package program within the company and so we are going on only what we would like. I am curious what sort of things, coming from Canada also, that you might think would be beneficial for us to have in this package for relocating.

[pinnacle security]

Economy will do. But kinda stressful isn't?

[irs back taxes]

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[loans till payday]

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