When the honeymoon is over too quickly

Last week we had our monthly cicollective webinar and looked at the early days in an overseas assignment. Often that's termed the honeymoon period with high levels of positivity and strong learning opportunities.  (If you are a member of cicollective you can view the saved webinar here) Usually at this point in an international assignment expats who have arrived in their new locations are increasing their cultural intellligence at a significant rate. Usually experiences at work and school are positive as the welcomes and support are high.

Sometimes, however, that may not be true.  For whatever reason the early days may not be a honeymoon where you eagerly hit the ground running.  Instead they may be challenging times.  

I wrote about that situation last year as Australia experienced flooding through significant areas -many of which were mining areas where new expats often arrive at this time of year.  For those expats there may have been a strong sense that 'this wasn't what I signed up for".  

There are a number of reasons the early days can be difficult and natural disasters is proably an unavoidable one. Others may be avoidable. Unpleasant surprises about the location (infrastructure, safety levels, cost of living, language, cultural differences, housing, schooling, partners work opportunities) can often be avoided by good pre-departure preparation.  Security and Cultural breifings, reloaction services, connections to other expats in the location, local mentors, even providing links to websites or sending emails with photos of the environment can ease the surprise levels and can be solutions easily provided by IHR or Global Mobility.  Leaving well includes doing the research and gaining the information needed to build realistic pictures of life ahead.

If you, the new expat, are finding the early days difficult, there is much you can do to take care of yourself. Realigning your expectations with the reality may be painful but ultimately a helpful step.  You may need to say goodbye to your old visions of what you thought life would be like.  Then you can look ahead. Given what you now know -how can you make the most of this assignment?  

Reading the blog entries on this site under the Thrive in Tough Times category will give you some more tips and strategies and many more will be given in this month's webinar topic; Thrive in Tough Times!  Hope to see you there!