Review Meetings

My review went pretty well. I completed most of my serious objectives. My boss, Christophe, told me I have to be more assertive this year. Every one of you could have told him that. Other than that he seemed very pleased with what I did. We discussed the rumors as well that I would be sent back early, and he said that if it was mid-year and there was a manageable amount of money left, he would try to put me on the GPE group payroll so I could finish the year. So that was good news.

The START meeting was disappointing but good in its own way. They just wanted to inform us that they are actively searching with our home country HR teams to try and find us (all expats except upper upper management and experts) positions and move us back early. They didn't seem to have a real plan developed yet, but they told us they would get back to us in a month with something more concrete. In the meantime, I guess I just work as normal and wait for a call from the HR chief in the US. Then we have 2-3 months to move back is what it sounded like.

There were three of us there, and we were the last ones to have a meeting amongst the START bunch so there was a good reason for the rumors - they were more like meeting minutes.

I asked about what my manager had said and Sandra told me that the home country has priority - basically if they find a position for me, I'm going, and there's nothing Christophe, CRCD HR or I can do about it. I guess they can tell HR US not to look very hard for jobs, but that probably wouldn't reflect well on the HR manager in the US.

Fair enough, glad to know. While this isn't great news and they don't seem to have a concrete plan, at least they're telling us rather than hiding it and springing it on us without a moment's notice. I'm planning on going back in April or May. If we stay later, party. We can't go before March, I already bought my ticket to Phoenix.

Now I have some moral questions - should I take 2 months of vacation right now - which I will likely lose when I go back to the US? I'm taking a week in February - vacances scolaires - everyone takes a week in February.