You are working just nicely in your company, probably made up of mostly local colleagues that share your interests and once in a while, you’ll hang out with them in a pub across the road especially on Fridays when everyone wind down and bitch about work or talk about the upcoming games over beer.
Suddenly out of nowhere, your boss introduce the new kid in town, literally a new kid in town called Jane. And Jane is not from your country, in fact, this might be her first time in the country and your boss says she is now working in the office as part of the management team. She is what we called the foreign talent. She filled up a seat that most of the senior staff have been eyeing for months ever since the good old Heath retired. She doesn’t hang out with you all for a beer because she needs to get home early for her kids. You felt that she is a hinder to your ideas because she is talking about international standards when you are targeting local audience.
A week later, you notice a swanky new car parked at the office carpark and joked ‘who has won the lottery?’, then at the end of the day, you are told its Jane’s and it’s part of her expatriate package. In fact, the house she lives in is part of the package.
At work, she called for endless meetings and asked everyone to pitch in ideas. No longer a smirk and a grunt will do at the table. She wants presentations and reports. She wants changes!
Jane is making your work life a living hell, now you just wish you can call in sick every single day. And guess what? You are not alone, many of your coworkers had the changes she is bringing into the company.
Welcome the foreign talents! That’s not a nice impression of introducing foreign talents. However, they are definitely here to stay. I have just listed the extreme circumstances surrounding foreign talents invading your local company but WAIT, it is not all bad.
First, you need to understand why your company is bringing someone foreign into the company. It usually because a certain lack of attributes in your workplace that your company needs to have in order to move forward. For example, exploring a new market or expanding globally. I’m not talking about the low wage workers here because I would have called them foreign skilled employees. They comes with skills that could possibly assist the company invade or conquer the areas yet to be explore.
Secondly, if your management is a responsible one, they would have taken time to explain why they are doing this. Just by planting someone from a foreign country on already well established environment without explanation will cause confusion and speculations. So if your boss haven’t taken time to talk to you about the change, it’s time for you to ask. Ask about the direction the company is heading.
Thirdly, it is not all bad. I would know because I have been one myself. And all you know, the incumbent needs help too. More than you know. They need you to show them the culture of your workplace, they need help in going through the procedures and process already in place with your company.
Ultimately, everyone just want to do their job right. The pressure is for the foreign talent to prove their worth to the company especially since the company has paid a substantial amount to move him here and it’s not all about the money too, it’s also about achieving their worth equivalent to what they are being paid.
Instead of being defensive and rounding up your colleagues who don’t like Jane and to gather enough signatures to push her out of the company. Think deeply… If a company could hire or train someone who has her exposure and experience, why would the company want to spend more money to hire a foreign talent? Companies are all for money pinching and cost saving (psst.. That’s why nobody replace the coffee machine in the pantry for half a year..).
Now second thoughts, can you identify what are the attributes that Jane has and you don’t? What does she has to bring on the table? What’s her unique selling point? Don’t be so quick to judge others before looking inside you. What do you have?
And then, some final thoughts… Are there attributes you can adopt or improve on or learn outside of your work? If Jane speak Chinese and your company wants to expand its business to China, wouldn’t you want to pick up that language to give you an edge for the next promotion? Heck, you might even be the foreign talent that get sent to China branch.
Have you encounter any foreign talent in your company? What do you think of them? Share your views below with us!
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