Monday, January 23, 2006

The worst part of this whole experience

So far, so bad. This experience has been less of a tip toe through the daisies than I would have hoped. I find myself thinking, what exactly kind of experience did I sign up for? I was all up for cultural exchange, and taking part in a new culture, learning a new language and new things about my industry. What I didn’t sign up for was feeling alienated and alone. It sucks to have people not do things, and you sitting by yourself in an office thinking no one gives a shit about you. Companies are hesitant to spend the money to send people overseas because a) Its ridiculously expensive and b) They have poor retention in those employees after repatriation. Now I can understand about the poor retention! After feeling alienated, alone and not cared about, I’m certainly not going to be that excited about remaining loyal after coming back to the states, either! Not that I need someone to hold my hand for every little thing, but it would be nice for some responses when things are requested!

Before I used to have Holcim tattooed on my ass; I actually thought they cared about their employees. But not so much. Its not even just this aspect of being alienated in Mexico…….I feel like I got shafted this weekend. I wrote a nice formal request to my boss in Dundee to attend conventions to the American Concrete Institute this year, and was vehemently denied, even though it has a direct benefit to my future development in this industry. Not even just my future in the industry, but also my future with the company! It would be that much easier to repatriate if people remember me because they’ve seen my face once or twice over the course of the year....but what do I know, I'm just a lowely engineer.

Funny how quickly one can turn so cynical.

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