First real chinese project; working in wai di (outside of town); fitting in

So.... my travel schedule has been crazy as of late, with as many flights as days, and more cancellations/rebookings than I have flights.

 

I've just arrived in Beijing to backfill a colleague who left the company.  (Yeah thanks Andy, i'm loving picking up after you!!**!)

 

It's looking to be a bit of a nightmare at the moment.  For two weeks some other colleague covered for the position, and now he's trying to hand over to me, with what little understanding of the project he has.  And a new PMO manager is putting pressure on us to get moving with planning, scope, progress, all that good stuff.  Great.

 

The team have been working long long hours day and night, weekdays and weekends.  We're here for another few months.  Quite how I have enough shirts to come with 12 days away at a time, and how I can continue to live my life (including needing to find new accomodation in Shanghai and move house), I don't know. 

 

Far from the norm, I understand the situation this project is at the moment one of the worst.  I'm not at all familiar with the background, so I don't yet understand the full reasons why it is such a difficult project at the moment.  It does demonstrate our willingness to go the extra mile for our client, but it's a little scary as a consultant who has just arrived and begins to realise what he's got himself in for.

 

We're an hour or so outside of Beijing, which sucks, and we're all staying in a not very nice local hotel.  One day when I figure out where we are exactly... I'll see if I can find a better hotel - our expense policy allows it.  I personally don't find it a nice place to come home to, what with the frayed towels and the discoloured bathtub.  Moving to a nicer hotel presents some interesting challenges though - singling me out as 'different' from the others.  Asia being strongly collectivist in mindset, it's often not wise to be anything other than a sheep. 

 

But cultural exchange is part of the game, and maintaining personal happiness and sanity is an important aspect as well.  If I'm miserable, I'll end up leaving the company, simple as that.  Indeed, in this industry many do just that.  But for now, I'm not going to be the one to suggest that pampering is a simple means to improve talent retention...