• your mobile bill is invariably in the triple digits, yet the company frets about RIM/blackberry’s outlook exchange licensing fee (approximately <$100/user/year, and probably <$50/user/year since the company easily has 20K potential users)
  • your monthly expenditure on hotels exceeds your rent/mortgage

  • you net more money while on the road than working in your home city, because the per diems amount to a net-of-tax wage lift (and it’s not as if any consultant in most major cities cooks anything close to 21 meals/week at home or can get away with avoiding a cab fare for more than three weeks)

  • the costs of storing the extra stuff that you realize has no utility in your apartment exceeds your monthly bill for, er, utilities

  • you willingly pay 3x normal dry cleaning costs at your hotel because it comes back at 5pm if you get it to the front desk by 8am

  • the hideously exorbitant $450 annual fee for a platinum amex is totally worth it, because it gets you access to all the airport lounges and you know you will get delayed on a thursday night at least 25% of the time you fly, plus the travel insurance comes in handy when you remember you forgot to cancel your defensive hotel booking in london at 18h36 on the day of check-in
  • speaking of which, you gladly pay these various costs to keep yourself afloat, but you’ll be damned if you pay for your own shampoo every five months (n.b. the toiletries from the W, like many things, are superior to all major brand competitors)

  • the economic value of your hotel / rental car / frequent flier points is liable to exceed the cash value of your bonus, if you’re an analyst / associate / entry-level bitch
  • your cost of living as an expat in a place like kenya is automatically higher than if you were living in most of the continental US, by dint of the corporate requirements around your accommodation (furnished, serviced, securitised), transport (hakuna matatu), and food (pathetic american gut flora)

  • your salary is set at less than a fifth of your hourly bill rate to the client, except when it’s a developing world NGO and you compete to take a 50% pay cut anyway (where it would be a 50% pay bump plus business class flights for any commercial client)

  • despite this pay cut, the fact of state/local tax brackets in the northeast US and your success in obtaining a subletter for your mailing address ensure that net-net you’re about even
  • in fact, you would do this forever except for your husband & kids & lovely, darling friends back home

the blog is back in business. updates from the last three months in the UK and Kenya forthcoming…

  1. threecorners posted this