The World Has Come to Me
Three years ago, at this time, society was in the middle of a world-wide pandemic. At that time individuals were more concerned about staying healthy or not infecting others if they were ill, as opposed to either finding a new job or traveling to far away locations.
For nearly a decade now, several of my clients have come via an organization that helps provide spousal resettlement services to families that move due to a job transfer of one of the spouses. An example of this may be the following. One of the spouses works for example, for a pharmaceutical company. That spouse is usually in management and is based out of one facility. They would benefit from first hand exposure to working in another facility to learn another aspect of the company business, or perhaps learn a new product line or service. So, a transfer of the spouse to the new facility is arranged by the company. However, the spouse had their partner and children to consider. Certainly, they did not want to live without them. Sometimes these new assignments might be a permanent relocation. Therefore, the need not only to move the employee, but their family was necessary. And, as part of that, was the need to provide support to the family to help them relocate in the new location, and in many instances help the other spouse find a job position in the career they were in.
Prior to the pandemic, these relocating families came to my area of the United States in the New York City metropolitan area from all points in the Unites States, and at times from other countries. With the advent of the pandemic, ways of working began to evolve for a larger scope of the employed population. While certainly some individuals worked schedules that allowed them to work from their home, and connect with other associates around their company via computer online before the pandemic, for a period, that became the predominant way of working. Those that had not had that experience before, liked it for several reasons. They did not have to do a drive or public transportation commute to their office which collectively took several hours out of their day. The need to be home to assist children with school work that was being provided virtually, began to emerge. Beyond that, the family member who had often been an office commuter found they valued time with their family.
So, as such American based families when presented the prospect of relocating at the request of a company to a different facility, began to balk at such an idea. Why couldn’t that employee work with the associates in another facility online as opposed to in person? What benefit was there uprooting their family? Perhaps their family had already relocated during the pandemic, (from a city environment to a suburban environment, or a suburban environment to a rural environment), and that became more important than career growth and advancement in their own company. Additionally, now their possibility of taking their skills elsewhere was not restricted to their own geographic area, but a much wider area, if an employer would let them work virtually.
However, for those who had such opportunities from other countries, especially those who were scheduled to have them in the 2020/2021 period, a different mindset emerged. Perhaps they were employed in the facility of an American based company in their country, and the desire always had been to be transferred to work in the United States office. Or for those that had other crisis’ going on in their part of the world, (think War in the Ukraine, unrest in South American countries, a more restrictive government in China to private business), their employers did not want to lose their higher achieving employees from those countries to an ultimate shut down by their government.
So, over the course of the last 18 months, most of my clients from the company providing family resettlement services have been foreign born. As it was in the past, when it occasionally happened, it has remained an item of great fulfillment to me. While we may be from different cultures, different habits, or ways of doing things, fundamentally I find that the wants and needs of people, wherever they are from, are very much the same. They want what is best for their children. They want to find work (particularly the partners that have been relocated because of their spouse’s move), that allows them to use their talents, to give back to others, to contribute. And, they want to both understand as much as they can about the American way of doing things, while at the same time welcoming a touch from their home country when I can locate networking groups or activities hosted by those from their native culture or country.
In August 2023, my wife and I will step on an airplane for the first time in nearly 4 years for a wedding trip to California. However, even though our travel has been restricted within the United States over that time, and all by car travel, it has not been like I have not had a chance to meet others from other lands and cultures. It is one of the perks of the type of work that I do, and which I enjoy doing. Are you open to the special opportunities that your work provides to you?
