My Journey into Relocation and Global Mobility Part 7A- We Save Money So Expats Can Buy Houses and Live Better 😊. Life In Bentonville!

In the last post, I closed by starting my new role at Walmart. I had just joined and quickly discovered some things I did not know. There was a Global Talent Team, a Domestic Team, and my team—Global Mobility—each serving the mobility world, reporting to different people, and located in different places. Now, let us discuss the dynamics of my team.

My team consisted of a payroll manager, two consultants, and my good friend Ian, who headed tax. The payroll person was responsible for sending out the global assignment letters and other payroll functions, as expats were on a different payroll system. This person was the only one who knew that process inside and out. The consultants spoke with the relocating employees and then handed them off to suppliers and assisted them throughout their assignments. Ian, who handled tax, acted as a liaison between employees and tax providers and provided counsel to the company on tax-related questions, of which there were many. We also had substantial support from internal attorneys who handled the immigration and visa processes.

One would expect Walmart to have a powerful procurement process, and I know it did, but not in our department. During my time at Walmart, I never met anyone who handled contracts or pricing, which was fine by me.

Based on my experience at Disney with the mobility team, I was not touching the supplier network. This was good news for my friends at Graebel, George Bates & Bill Graebel , as they performed all the household goods.  This became the second time I made sure Graebel remained as supplier—more on that later. I also attempted to help other RMCs by inviting them to present to the team, as we considered outsourcing, and, of course, and was constantly asked by RMC’s to help them meet Medina for domestic work.

It is truly amazing how about a year later, many of those I helped then and over the past decade suddenly began suffering from convenient amnesia. I guess once you no longer provide business, you are no longer worthy. Ironically, a key word in the international shipping world is reciprocation. Guess it only lives in that world. Sour grapes on my part, but I digress….

There were some internal grumblings about certain aspects of the department, and it was very clear what they were. At the end of the day, Global Mobility deals with employees in the midst of the most stressful times in their lives—changing jobs, moving to a new location, and/or relocating in or out of their home country. These are all major stressors. It is important to know how to deal with people during such times, and this is not easily taught; it is acquired over time, and you either have it or you do not.

Some in our department chose to take a hard stance on seemingly trivial issues, like magazines. Employees wanted their magazines and did not want to read them on their phones, or perhaps the magazines were not available online. Some in my department were adamant that we should not spend the extra money mailing these items. That said, when an expat calls specifically to mention how they or a family member is missing their cooking magazines and asks if we could please send them with their mail, how in the world can someone deny this request?

Additionally, there were some team members who were reluctant to train others to take on their responsibilities as backups. The reasoning, in some cases, was that by training someone else, they would be essentially preparing their replacement. I attempted to explain, logically, that the team needed backup to cover situations like travel, vacations, or illness. Of course, as you can imagine, when travel did come up, we found ourselves scrambling to manage without proper support.

What may have viewed as a win for the person traveling, being that they were the one subject matter expert, turned out to be a black eye to the department.  It simply made us all look bad.

Being a subject matter expert is critical, but as Theodore Roosevelt said, "Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care." This department lacked a certain empathy to our internal customers and that had to change.

I figured it was a good time to reach out to the person who had held my role before. Perhaps he could offer some insight into the department's perception and share why he decided to move on. Fortunately, he was still at Walmart and agreed to meet with me.

After the meeting, I couldn’t help but wonder why I was even there. This person was a much better fit for the role than I was—he had lived in the area, was well-versed in Walmart’s culture, and was a seasoned mobility expert. He was extremely professional, careful not to say anything negative about anyone. But, having played a lot of poker, I know how to read body language and facial expressions. It was clear to me that I was, for lack of a better word, screwed.

At this point, I had hit the 90-day mark, and I was traveling home every other week. Allegiant Airlines flew from Bentonville to Los Angeles on Thursdays and from LA to Bentonville on Sundays. Over time, I got to know the crew well. Anyone familiar with this airline knows you pay for everything—getting a soda for free never happens. Every now and then I got the free cocktail, especially on the Sunday flight back to Arkansas, where they saw the tears in my eyes from leaving my family.

Although it was never explicitly promised during the interview, I knew that Walmart managed its e-commerce operations from San Francisco. I handled some of their relocations directly and often spoke with my contact there. She casually mentioned the possibility of me moving to San Francisco. For a brief moment, the idea of relocating there seemed plausible, and that hope kept me going. However, as time passed, it became clear that the company was committed to keeping this role based in their corporate office.

Having worked in relocation and managed thousands of moves, I thought I could handle the back-and-forth travel, going home intermittently. But I quickly realized that I wasn’t cut out for that lifestyle. After discussing it with my wife, we agreed to put the house on the market. The constant travel just wasn’t sustainable for me anymore.

The market had dropped, and the offers we received weren’t great—though, in hindsight, that turned out to be good news. My family was scheduled to visit in about a month, and I was living in a one-bedroom apartment in Rogers. With the plan for them to join me in September, I started looking for a more suitable place and found a 4-bedroom home.

I flew back to CA, grabbed the family, and we headed to Bentonville. We went right from the airport to the home I rented, and there they were: brown recluse spiders. For the second time in my career, these spiders caused a major disruption, but this was nothing compared to the emergency landing in Amarillo Texas.

Stay tuned!