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Margaret Malewski
Margaret Malewski grew up in Montreal speaking English, French and Polish and interacting with many cultures. On leaving Canada in 1992, she has studied and worked in countries as varied as Poland, Switzerland, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, France and Singapore.
Margaret worked in Proctor & Gamble’s Near East division, based in Geneva, Switzerland. For almost four years she worked in brand management and marketing, conducting consumer research, setting strategy and creating advertising for the Always, Pantene and Head & Shoulders brands in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel. During this time, she witnessed hundreds of her colleagues and friends start international careers, trying to juggle their personal lives with their career ambitions that were taking them to all points on the globe. This led her to write published by Intercultural Press.
After publishing her book, she worked as a Program Coordinator for SIETAR BC (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) and is currently completing her MBA at INSEAD in France and Singapore.
ExpatWomen's Interview with Margaret
ExpatWomen: Margaret, congratulations on the success of your book, GenXpat, The Young Professional’s Guide to Making a Successful Life Abroad. For the people who have not read your book, can you please define what a GenXpat is?
Margaret: A "GenXpat" is a young professional (Generation X) who chooses to pursue an international career as an expatriate for the learning opportunities, extra pay and faster promotion such a career path can bring.
ExpatWomen: Since you published the book in 2005, what have you been doing? Are you planning to update the book with your new experiences?
Margaret: As the book was being published, I took on two roles. On the one hand, I was speaking to MBA student, international student advisor and expat professional audiences about the challenges of managing an international career that begins immediately after graduation. On the other hand, I was working with the UBC Centre for Intercultural Communication, managing and helping develop some of their intercultural communication programmes. In August 2006, I moved to Fontainebleau to begin my MBA at INSEAD - the only business school to have two campuses - one in France, the other in Singapore. I am currently on exchange in Singapore and travelling extensively around the region, to improve my understanding of the Asian business environment.
I am not planning to update my book in the near term - as it focuses on the big quesitons of expatriation, rather than specific time-and-place bound examples, it doesn't date as quickly as career advice books or books describing the culture of a specific country or location.
ExpatWomen: You include a Cost-of-Living Calculator in the index modeled off of your experience. Do you have an additional line items that you would add to this calculator?
Margaret: My informal cost-of-living calculator is based on three indicators - one is the cost of labour/services, as measured by a taxi ride, the next is the cost of food/consumer goods, as measured by trip to a grocery store, and the third is the famous Big Mac index, which has the benefits of being easily accessible online and comparing a product that is uniform world wide. From my time in Singapore, I think it still holds true. While services here are relatively cheap - as shown by the low cab fares - consumer goods, especially imported ones, are at world prices. The Big Mac index combines both local labour and an international brand. It shows a Big Mac in Singapore to be at 73% of the US price, which is probably a pretty accurate indication of overall cost of living here.
ExpatWomen: What advice would you give to young expat professionals about work / life balance?
Margaret: Work-life balance is a big challenge when going abroad. By choosing to go abroad for an exciting work opportunity, GenXpats are already implicitly choosing work over their relationships with friends and family - at least for the time being. Their excitement about the job opportunity and the higher-than-usual professional responsibility often leads them to log long work hours, and agree to frequent international travel. While there is a certain glamour to jet-setting around the world in business class, staying at expensive hotels and charging dinners to the corporate account, the truth is that the constant mobility can prevent GenXpats from taking the time to develop meaningful friendships in their new home base, and makes it hard to maintain the ones they left behind. Without these social networks, GenXpats often find themselves staying longer than necessary at work, simply for the sake of human contact.
ExpatWomen: You dedicate a chapter to identifying and working with cultural differences, and one on dating across cultures. How do you think this information can help young single expat professionals?
Margaret: Understanding the nature of cultural differences is critical to getting things done in a foreign country - and I am not just referring to superficial behavioral differences, such as forms of greeting or appropriate dress. These are easily observable and can be learned quickly. Rather, the chapter highlights how people's values differ across countries and cultures, and how these values underlie most of the behavioural differences you encounter. It is based on the premise that if you can understand how your values differ from those of the people in your host country, it allows you to decode and anticipate their attitudes and behaviours. It also allows you to see others as rational and logical according to their value system, which is extremely important to maintaining productive relationships.
Here is a recent example of clash between two value systems: direct vs. indirect communication. Last week, my Western roommates and I met with our Singaporean real estate agent. We had been asking for an additional key to our apartment for months, yet when we asked for it again the agent said, "Oh, I must have left it in my car. Let me go look" and then came back empty handed. One of my roommates became furious and started threatening the man. Since my roommate comes from a culture that values direct answers, even if they involve bad news, he perceived the agent as shifty, underhanded and unwilling to help. In reality, I suspect the agent simply didn't have an extra key, or there were some costs involved, but his cultural values prevent him from saying "No, I don't have one" directly. Instead, by saying he would go look for it in the car, the man was trying to exhibit goodwill, and at the same time clearly show that the key is not available. If my roommate had understood the underlying difference in communication styles, he may have probed more gently by asking whether there was anything that needed to be done to procure the key (thus uncovering what the real problem is). As it was, his anger simply made communication break down.
When it comes to dating across cultures, there are two essentlal challenges for GenXpats. One is that they frequently leave their home country at a time when most of their peers are beginning to settle down. It is important for GenXpats to consider how this will impact their personal lives: whether it will be possible for them to date abroad and, if so, whether they are prepared to do so. For example, a German colleague of mine, who was nearing 30 and rather keen to settle down, agreed to relocate to Israel. While he found many girls willing to date him, the strained history of the two countries made it difficult for him to find a lifelong partner there. After four years, he took another assignment in Russia. Again, same scenario. Now he is back in Germany in his late 30's, and is finding that most of his peers have married and had children.
The other challenge pertaining to dating across cultures is simply whether people can deal with cultural differences over the long haul. In the short term, there is the excitement of exoticism. However, in the long haul, profound differences in assumptions, religion, cultural references can be wearisome. The chapter examines in more detail the types of challenges different kinds of intercultural couples faces and helps GenXpats consider whether they are prepared to take this on and if yes, how to do it. |
ExpatWomen: What five tips would you give to women GenXpats who are about to leave on assignment?
Margaret:
I am not sure it can be summarized in five tips. By and large, professionally, Western women can work successfully in most foreign cultures. Most men, even in more traditional societies, have accepted that Western women have careers and acknowledge that they will need to work with expat women in leadership positions (which local women may never be allowed to take). However, in many cases Western women have to be more subtle in their dealings with men from traditional societies than they would at home. It is often important to help men save face, and not obviously show that they are taking orders from a woman, especially in front of other men. While many Western women may feel that this is a return to the "Dark Ages" in terms of gender equality, the reality is that local male colleagues respond better and work harder if they feel strong and appreciated rather than embarassed in front of their friends. Possibly the biggest challenge for women working abroad is the necessity to network and manage their careers. When sent abroad, it is crucial for any expat to keep their networks alive, especially in her home country. Women tend to have a harder time doing this, yet it is critical to ensure that they can find an assignment at home when they are ready to go back.
The bigger challenge for women is personal. Successful women tend to look for a partner who is as successful as they are. However, this often means making tough choices about dual expat careers. Whose career will come first? Who will be the one to follow the other? This is a bit of a catch-22: if a woman seeks a partner who is a successful as she is, it is unlikely such a man will be happy as a "trailing spouse". Yet is she prepared to put her career on hold?
Then there is the geographical challenge. If a woman is posted anywhere outside Europe and North America, it is harder for her to date the local men, as the culture in developing countries tends to cast women in supporting, rather than leading roles. So the main option for her will be to date other expats. Unfortunately, in many developing countries, expat men are swarmed with local girls looking for a "rich foreign man", who are more than willing to become trailing spouses and don't bring the problem of another career to manage.
Finally, there is the biological clock - while many of my male friends have had international careers up to the age of 35+, then married a local girl abroad, or come home to marry a younger woman, women have a harder time with this.
To summarize, living and working abroad is very exciting and rewarding, but like all worthwhile things, it involves tough choices and trade offs. Women, even more than men, need to carefully consider what they want from their lives and plan around it. There is a time span between graduation and age 30 or so, where women can take foreign assignments and then still plan to come home and start a family - with the awareness that choosing to come home may mean changing employers or taking a pay/responsibility cut. Another option is to stay home initially, start a family, and then get posted abroad. If starting a family is not a priority, then women have more flexibility around the assignments they choose to take, yet once again with the awareness that any position in developing countries may make it difficult for them to find a partner.
ExpatWomen: Thank you very much Margaret, we wish you every success in your studies and personal life. |
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