All you do is complain about the company, the country, the people...everything. But it's not as if somebody is forcing you to stay here. You make that choice every single day. Frankly, if I was THAT unhappy and if I despised my surroundings that much, nothing could prevent me from leaving. It boggles the mind that so many of you are willing to stay despite obviously being miserable.
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You really are an id..t to be asking this question!
Point?
Most people commenting here are former, not current, employees and most if not all left on their own and were not laid off
Hey dufuss. When you quit a job in your home country, travel half way around the world, then find out you were lied to by HR and your benevolent master(s) f#@k you around.....it's no surprise expats are pi---d off, angry and finally quit. It's also no surprise expats dispise the company after all that.
I didn't want to stay and I left after taking sone money. Still I despise the company and the country, no wonder.
In case you have not noticed. They're leaving by the car load. Can the Company keep young promising Saudis? No. Can the Company keep talented Expats? No. Can the Company attract new talent, Yes, but just long enough to pay back that expensive Western Uni education and then off they go. They have run off so many people they grind the remaining young into a position where the only real option is to leave. It really is a shame how this once great company is being mismanaged.
Actually, most of the new hires HAVE approached it differently. Look around the camp. Very few modifications. In my area, most of the people hired since 2018 are gone already. Read that the current head of HR is retiring. I wonder why ...
True, it is a complete unwinding and erasure. Can be easy or difficult. It all depends on what self-inflicted wounds you acquired in your time there...cars, boats, housing, modifications, motorcycles etc...If I had to do it again, knowing what I do now, I would sure approached it differently...but wouldn't we all?
Just quiting in KSA is not a simple matter of not having to get up the next day to be at work for 7.
There is a whole checklist of things to do from turning in your library cards to paying off your loans to closing all your local accounts, selling your cars, shipping you belongings, closing your bank account and making sure your money has transferred out.
The last thing you do is turn in your keys to housing on the way to to the airport, in a taxi. You effectively have to erase the entire life you had to set up because you were half way around the world from were you were hired.
Worse most people would need to reestablish themselves back home, from finding a place to live, to getting a car, to finding doctors, etc.
It is an expensive proposition just to quit for many out there, especially when the monthly check disapears.
Sour Grapes 🍇 perhaps?
Alas it is clear you don't want more western expat and is unfortunate because any multinational company takes the best of their different cultures, work commitment and experience. Even in last big layoff , Aeamco release people as per their salary and nationalty regardless PMP, so, was a loud and clear message to all of us.
Simply answer, the money.
I agree with you. Things can change there, massively, in a very short time frame. You have an impression on how things are from ASC and it is only once you are there that you slowly figure out things that you wish you would have known beforehand.
No complaints about the Saudi people in general. Some of them were very generous and empathetic. No complaints about the Country other than the dangerous drivers. It wasn't my Country and I accepted that things would be different. The company, however, changed massively during the six years that I was there. The attitude toward expats went from "keep till retirement"to "get all we can before they run away", "get rid of them if we don't need them this very minute."
I left on my own terms and many others did too or were laid off. Now, the company needs expats but can't find qualified ones because it doesn't want to pay much and the word is out that Aramco isn't a good place to work anymore. Ex Aramcons like me come here to make sure that future candidates know that. Call it a public service. Saudi trolls try to attack us, but that just proves our point.