Q & A Table of Contents
How Can I Convince My Boss To Transfer Me Overseas When I Can’t See How It Would Benefit The Company
From: Elizabeth, Montreal, Canada
Question: I work for an international company. Being a family-owned company (Italian cultural background) the advancement opportunities for the employees are very limited. My current position in the company would be a difficult one to fill in with good candidates (I work in the claim department; my position requires installation technical background as well as management skills). I have
followed intensive training in order to overcome the lack of installation experience.
The advice I need from you is on how to negotiate the opportunity to travel overseas for the same company. The way these companies work (no communication between sister plants, different product specifications) I find no advantage for my current employer in offering me such opportunity.
The owner of this company greatly lacks leadership skills. There is no open communication between employees and management. Rumors from people that have been working here for a long time are that the owner is not an approachable person. In the past, I have tried to establish communication with the owner via email without success. My access to information on this company is very limited; therefore I have not been able to find advantages for the company in allowing its employees to work in its overseas operations.
What can I do to create an opportunity to work in one of our sister plants overseas when I cannot see how the company would gain by this transfer?
Response: The situation you raise is complex. If you are unable to communicate directly with your boss, finding out what drives his decision-making is likely to be difficult.
First you need to examine what interests of your own will be served by getting transferred to an overseas division. You need to understand what the underlying needs are that you are hoping to satisfy: both professional and personal. Then you have to look at your desire to move from a whole different angle: how will a move add to your value as an employee — for the overseas division where you would like to work and for the section of the company where you’re currently employed.
Checking your assumptions about this with colleagues could help verify whether a move would indeed make you more valuable.
After having focused on your own potential gains, you need to consider the gains and losses the company could derive from transferring you. What difference would your absence make to colleagues in your department? What impact would it have on colleagues at different levels in the company hierarchy — and from different professional focuses? If you make a series of assumptions about possible answers to these questions, it will help you do a better job of research among your colleagues to determine whether those assumptions pass a reality check.
You need to be clear in your mind who makes what decisions in the company. If everything is decided by the boss, does he do it in a closed office or are there people upon whom he depends for advice and/or confirmation of his ideas? Unless he acts completely alone, checking with the people with whom he does communicate may help you find potential allies as well as potential ways to sell the idea of your transfer.
Quite frankly, if after all this research it remains clear that having you move overseas offers the company no benefits, I think asking for the move just as a favor to you is over-reaching. If moving is important to you and not to your company, you should look for other ways to accomplish your objectives — including changing employment. In this world, it is not unrealistic to expect a company to revolve around its owner. Expecting a company to revolve around the personal desires of an individual employee is somewhat less reasonable.
Good luck with your research and your development of a plan for meeting your interests,
Steve
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