G´day Chaps. Background information: Most of the Administrators in the Far-East outfits have about 12 to 24 days of annual leave per year. They see the six times two weeks off a gracious gift. They are present from early morning until late afternoon at least. A good Guy/Gal leaves when the Team leader gets up and get his Jacket or Coat to leave. Then the collective dinner get drunk run with the coworkers and the "second stop" before going home around midnight to show up for another round next morning about 08:00 hrs at the office. Two weeks out of that pattern is heaven !
I was commuting for many years on diffrent contracts, have seen many Families and relationships braking apart despite the efforts of keeping it together and make it work. Commuting is not for everyone ! Commuting to and from Asia can be even worse !
You have a contract, stating terms and conditions that means alot and everything to you but nothing for your Asian counterpart. Long nosed round eyed people have a diffrent understanding of the written word on a piece of signed paper. This paper is maybe the "holy gral" for you and the countersigner just use it in the same value as the toilet paper.
AAI is using time on and time off and if you live close at the base it is your luck but the roster is not that stable due to the nature of business.
KAL has shortcomings but uses 20 days on and 9 days at home as a contractual base, you get two or three days of travel and you can use 24 days of annual leave over the year. In General people talk about 20/10 contracts.
THY is using 3 weeks on and 1 week off theoretically as contractual base and you fly home and back on theire time.
China needs to either accept the fact that quality people will come when they get quality treatment. It will be a balance process. As long as there are people out to take the
and do what it is offered then you will have a hard stand that you will see the Chinese turning in and change the system for a few Foreigners, you are not welcomed, you are needed to fly a plane and make some people earning money, that is all.
Humans do not count, China has enough of them and they can be replaced anytime. I could bore you more with the Confuzian system and the random punishment that is used to earn "Asian respect", we call it fear. We learned that people with fear have not creativity at work and the contribution towards the job remains as a minimum to avoid a possible punishment. People who are able to do the job without any punitive pressure have a better performance. It may take another century until this wisdom is landing on Asian shores but until then I am not seeking anything close to there.
More then 3 weeks away from home, you need to have a ugly wife at home and your kid´s must be bastards and you are the Desperado.....