Well, it's the first afternoon of my first day of work. So far, everyone has been very nice and warm in their welcome. I went to lunch with my boss, and had a good chat about where I can expect to fit in at the company, and what type of work I can expect to do. It sounds like I'm really going to be on the ground floor of a rapidly-growing business in China, which isn't bad considering I haven't really been involved with any sort of business operation anywhere. It all sounded interesting, if not a little over my head. It'll take a while to figure things out. But I'm sure I'll survive. Maybe even thrive, if I'm lucky.
The theme of the day, however, has to be the overwhelming list of beauracratic hurdles over which I must leap before I can comfortably call myself "settled" in Shanghai. As part of my onboarding materials, one of the HR reps here handed me a flow chart for how expense reports are handled. It's a ridiculous document, with rectangles, arrows, diamonds, and PASS/FAIL indicators, all of which work to detail the very involved process for being reimbursed for expenses. Slightly less funny is the realization that EVERYTHING in China works like this. Nothing is simple. Everything requires documentation, paperwork, and a whole lot of headache medication. I suppose it serves me right for assuming that the only two logistical obstacles standing between me and a real life in Shanghai were finding a place to live, and getting a Chinese cell phone number (still haven't even gotten that far yet). How wrong I was. I must apply for permits, sign contracts, get contracts stamped with official company chops, open bank accounts, receive a physical...and that's just in the first few days! As if that weren't enough, each of the things on my ever-growing list of things to do are co-dependant on other things on that list (for example: opening a bank account requires an official Chinese Residence Permit which, in turn, requires a stamped employment contract and a clean bill of health as approved by the Chinese authorities). Make sense? Good...maybe you can explain it to me.
All of this will, ultimately, get done. There are worse things than getting to live in Shanghai, as a 24 year old with no dependants, experiencing a brand new field of work while at the same time immersing myself in a language and culture so distant from the one in which I grew up. People less fortunate than I have come to China and survived the beauracracy, so too will I. But that doesn't mean I'll do it without at least a small bit of frustration...and not the kind that you eat for dinner.
I did receive some good news from Joanna, the friendly HR representative. I will be getting reimbursed for the costs associated with getting my visa and work permit, which are not insignificant. So that's nice. Let me just pull out this helpful schematic to figure out how in the hell I go about doing that, and whether I'll still be in my twenties by the time the process is finished....
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