Thursday, March 31, 2011

Generation What? Gen Z and Alpha


Relatively little has been established about this generation

Born: Roughly between the years of 1995-2010







Values:  Self-directed, individualistic, and media mongrels




Generation Alpha

Born: 2010 onwards


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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Generation What? Generation Y .....

Generation Y is the money spending generation, having seen economic expansion and experienced the booming economy, money has allowed for travel, gadgets and fun. Let’s take a closer look.

Generation Y / Gen Yer / Generation Next / Millennials  / Echo Boomers / 24x7’s

Born: Between  years of 1977 to 1994 and 1981 to 2000,

Age: Between 11 and 34

Education:  Seen as an incredible expense but the most educated generation, they will continue to study to enhance themselves in the work environment

Influences: 9/11 - World Trade Center, Pentagon attack, Oklahoma bombings, terrorist attacks, AIDS, Internet access made available, Kids shooting kids, School uniforms, Death of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa, Timothy McVeigh execution, Globalization, George W. Bush. There major influences are Friends, The Simpsons, Media and sports stars.

Family: Comfortable with a looser family structure, single mother / father family units, merged families (step mother or father) and have a new respect for the family unit.   They are coddled kids, every child gets a prize even when you come last.  Their parents have protected them from all the wrongs / evils of the world, and they are therefore more sheltered than any other generation.  They are kept busy, with homework, after school activities and most of these kids have schedules.  They consider their parents as their heroes.

Money: Have grown up in a world that has seen economic expansion.   They are eager to spend money and therefore work to indulge in fun and gadgets. They shop around for the best deals and bargains. They are part of the purchasing power of the family and take part in purchasing decisions.

Values: Achievement oriented, loyal, confident, diverse, fun, sociable, techno savvy, spiritual, they want everything now, optimistic, realists, members of a global community, high morals and very tolerant, competitive, like personal attention, street smart, and Individual in their thinking.  They value their lifestyle over upward mobility. If presented with a work promotion that will throw their life out of balance, they will choose their lifestyle.

Motivation:  They value their children, parents and family, they believe they can change the world via technology, they hope to be the next great generation to turn all the wrongs into rights.

Work: Ambitious but not entirely focused. They want a balance between work, life, community involvement and self-development / mentoring by managers.  They are entrepreneurial, effective, tenacious and good at multi-tasking but will be gone at 5pm, they view work as a means to an end and live for the weekends.

They look to the workplace for direction and to help them achieve their goals.  They will test authority but will seek them out when they need guidance and more readily accept older leadership than other generations.  Gen Y are global and networked, they have grown up in a world with cell phones, computers and the internet, they are always connected. They believe they can work flexibly anytime and anywhere, and that they should be evaluated for their output rather than where and when they got it done.  They want long term employment, but on their own terms and with more of a collaborative work environment. There is a decrease in career ambition and would rather have more family time, less travel and less personal pressure.

 “Me First “ Attitude in work life.

An Expat Gen X person, would be good in an organization looking for flexible, creative and ambitious candidates. This generation are willing to learn from managers and are willing to be molded into the organizations culture and goals.  They would not be the group of candidates required for their own experience and knowledge, but are rather seeking to gain this from the company they go to.

And in History…

1978 - Mass suicide in Jonestown

1979 - Three Mile Island nuclear reactor nears meltdown

1979 - US corporations begin massive layoffs

1979 - Iran holds sixty-six Americans hostage

1980 - John Lennon shot and killed

1980 - Ronald Reagan inaugurated

1986 - Challenger disaster

1987 - Stock market plummets

1988 - Terrorist bomb blows up flight 103 over Lockerbie

1989 - Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill

1989 - Fall of Berlin Wall

1991 - Operation Desert Storm

1992 - Rodney King beating videotaped, Los Angeles riots, child focused violence

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Generation What? The first Generation babies .... Gen X



Born: Between 1965 and 1980

Age: Between 31 to 46

Education: Seen as a way to get there














History onwards …..

1965 - United States sends ground combat troops to Vietnam

1966 - National Organization for Women founded

1966 - Cultural Revolution in China

1967 - American Indian Movement founded

1968 - Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy assassinated

1969 - First lunar landing

1969 - Woodstock

1970 - Kent State University shootings

1970 - Women’s Liberation protests and demonstrations

1972 - Arab terrorists at Munich Olympics

1973 - Watergate scandal

1973 - Energy crisis begins

1976 - Tandy and Apple market PCs

1978 - Mass suicide in Jonestown

1979 - Three Mile Island nuclear reactor nears meltdown

1979 - US corporations begin massive layoffs

1979 - Iran holds sixty-six Americans hostage

1980 - John Lennon shot and killed

1980 - Ronald Reagan inaugurated

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Monday, March 28, 2011

Generation What? The Baby Boomers .....

Having spoken about the Traditionalist Generation, we now move on to the Baby boomers and how they left and are leaving their mark in our lives.

Baby boomers 

Born: Between 1946 and 1964

Age: Between 47 to 65

Education: Seen as a birthright

Influencers: Civil Rights, Space Travel, the Vietnam War, the Sexual Revolution, and the Cold War/Russia.

Family:  Came from privileged backgrounds, due to their parents’ hard work and savings.  Long work hours and living to work resulted in an imbalance and the family unit disintegration with the highest divorce rate and 2nd marriages in history. 

Values:  Value success but also think of themselves as a special generation, due to their radical views and democratic outlook. They have a broad continuity of values with older and younger generations and have a tendency to define the world in terms of the generations. The Baby boomers are post War Babies who grew up to be the radicals of the 70’s and yuppies of the 80’s. 

Money: As a group in general, they are the healthiest, most educated and wealthiest generation of that time and grew up with an optimistic outlook for life, their futures and the world as a whole.

They strived for the American Dream, they are well established in their careers and hold positions of power and authority, and as a result they are seen as being greedy, materialistic and ambitious.

Motivation:  The strongest motivator for this group is being valued, prestige, perks and their need for money, they define themselves by their professional accomplishments.

Work: Baby boomers live to work, they are loyal to their careers and employer. They have a strong work ethic, are multi-taskers and traditionally found their worth in working long hours (they established the 60 hour work week). Working hard gave them the self-worth and fulfillment they required.

They established “flat” organizational structures, democracy, equal opportunity, and creating a more humane, warm and friendly workplace.

They were rebellious against convention and tradition due to their conservative parents , however they were also independent, confident and self-reliant with a competitive edge and goal orientation.

This hard work ethic led to this group being hesitant to take too much time off work for fear of losing their place in the corporate environment.

Now, the Baby boomers  strive for a work life balance with a leaning towards a healthy lifestyle and strong family bonds.  

Baby boomers defined a new form of working – living to work, they were / are scared that not working hard will result in failure, being successful is all important.  As expats, they may be a bit set in their ways and struggle to find their feet within structured work units.  They do however, have the knowledge required to complete tasks and will be of great benefit to the organization as a whole when dispatching experience and information into the workplace.  Although they are aiming for better work / life balance at this stage at life they are still achievers and are still looking at climbing the corporate ladder given the opportunity.

And more from history

1950 - Korean War

1954 - McCarthy HCUAA hearings begin

1955 - Salk Vaccine tested on the public

1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, AL

1957 - First nuclear power plant

1957 - Congress passes the Civil Rights Act

1960 - Birth control pills introduced

1960 - Kennedy elected

1961 - Kennedy establishes Peace Corps

1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 - John Glenn circles the earth

1963 - Martin Luther King leads march on Washington,DC

1963 - President John Kennedy assassinated

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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Generations What? Lets begin with the Traditionalist.....

Have you considered how the period you were born into determines how you will be as a person? How you and your school mates reacted towards circumstances?  How to cope with the generation gap that we all feel between ourselves, our grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren?  How some people cope with change better than others?  I am going to discuss each in a series of blogs.

There are 6 generations defined in Wikipedia and research has been completed on most of these, with a few speculative websites.  They are Traditionalists, BabyBoomers, Generation X, Generation Y, Generation Z and Generation Alpha. I will discuss Traditionalists in this first blog and how as an expat their experiences can be of value.


Born: Between 1900 and 1945

Age: Between 66 to 111.

Influencers: WWII, the Korean War, the Great Depression, the New Deal, the Rise of Corporations, and the Space Age.

Education: Was more of a dream than a reality

Family: Generally came from the Traditional Nuclear family unit 

Values: Hard work and saving for tomorrow was their aim.  They valued the family unit and community above all else and were respectful of their elders and authority.

Money: They put money away, paid cash for everything and saved for retirement.

They were raised by survivors (not the reality type, but the real deal) and experienced hard times while growing up.  A hard childhood was followed by a time of prosperity.

Motivation:  Your experience is respected

Work: Was of the utmost importance to their livelihoods, they believed in working hard, were dedicated to their jobs, made sure they got the job done, were always on time and punched in and out for the hours required.  They worked hard to gain senior positions, where time on the job and working hard resulted in promotions. They believed in long term assignments which gave them job security and stability. Conservative in their outlook on life, they believed in hierarchal work and home structures, with clear chains of command and top-down management with job - recognition and respect for their experience.

As an expat, this group of aging people can bring experience to a company.  They have had their careers and are looking at either topping up their pensions or experiencing the world. They are no longer looking for upward mobility in the workplace, but rather enjoyment. They still respect authority and have a gentler more respective outlook on life in general.  If they are employable, this shows that they have kept up with technology and the changing times and generations.

A group well worth having around.

Events in history during their time:

1927 - Lindbergh completes first transatlantic flight

1929 - Stock market crashes

1930 - US Depression deepens

1931 - Star Spangled Banner becomes national anthem

1932 - Lindbergh baby kidnapped

1932 - FD Roosevelt elected

1933 - The Dust Bowl

1933 - The New Deal

1934 - Social Security system established

1937 - Hindenburg tragedy

1937 - Hitler invades Austria

1940 - United States prepares for war

1941 - Pearl Harbor; United States enters World War II

1944 - D-Day in Normandy

1945 – FD Roosevelt dies

1945 - Victory in Europe and Japan

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Friday, March 25, 2011

Expatriate Spotlight on Andorra la Vella in Andorra






Thursday, March 24, 2011

Expatriate Spotlight on Algiers in Algeria


Algiers cost of living* compared to Houston Tx:

  • Alcohol & Tobacco is more expensive
  • Clothing is cheaper
  • Communication is cheaper
  • Education is cheaper
  • Furniture & Appliances is cheaper
  • Groceries is cheaper
  • Healthcare is more expensive
  • Household is more expensive
  • Miscellaneous is cheaper
  • Personal Care is more expensive
  • Recreation & Culture is cheaper
  • Restaurants Meals Out and Hotels is cheaper
  • Transport is cheaper
*As at 1 January 2011


Hardship compared to Houston:

Salary Purchasing Power Parity (SPPP)


135,205.39 Salary in Algiers

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Mediterranean Tsunami – More Likely than you think

Expatriates living in retirement in the sunny climate of the Mediterranean region may be wondering if the devastation in Japan could happen to them. Not only have tsunamis hit the Mediterranean in the past, there may be more to come.

The first known tsunami in the Mediterranean occurred in the Syrian region around 2000BC, while the first tsunami in Greece destroyed the Persian fleet in Potidea, Chalkidiki, in 479BC. There was also a large tsunami that hit Alexandria in 365AD, killing approximately 50,000 people.

Shorter distances in the Mediterranean mean that tsunamis hit the coasts faster despite travelling at lower speeds because the sea is not as deep as those in the Pacific Ocean.

The last large tsunami that struck in the Aegean Sea was created by the Santorini earthquake of 1956. The tsunami wave that hit the east side of Amorgos was approximately 25-metres high. The most recent tsunami followed the Turkey earthquake of 1999 with the seismic wave affecting the coastal areas of the Marmara region.

The zone extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran and India is the second most seismic zone on the planet, which records some 15 per cent of the earthquake activity worldwide.

According to seismologists there it is highly likely that strong earthquakes will hit the Mediterranean region sometime in the future. Informing and preparing the public is imperative. Those living in coastal areas should head inland the minute an earthquake strikes. Although nothing on the scale of the recent tsunami in Japan and the one in Southeast Asia in 2004 has occurred in the Mediterranean in recent decades, putting tsunami warning systems in place would be helpful to everyone living in the region.

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Comparable Worth: Equal Pay for Equal Work – Expatriate Salary Purchasing Power Parity


Comparable worth is a principle that states that people who perform work of equal value should receive similar levels of compensation regardless of gender, ethnicity, nationality etc, but with the exception of legally allowable differences such as level of performance, seniority, location based allowances etc.

Jobs have an organization value that can be measured and compared across jobs of widely differentiated content. Tools such as job evaluation can be used to explain these differences in terms of levels of work, skills, competencies, length of training and the amount of responsibility etc.

In the USA, despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963, it is legal to discriminate in pay if the job of one is not precisely identical to the work of another. Critics of equal pay for equal work argue that comparable pay for comparable work (comparable worth) would be far more effective in addressing gender pay differences in the USA. Comparable worth implies “comparing” rather than a precise measure of equality. Employers constantly “compare” jobs internally through job evaluation and externally through compensation and benefit surveys.

In the USA this principle applies largely to gender based pay discrimination. However what about expatriate pay? Expatriate compensation typically uses home salary as the basis of an assignee’s pay. For example, examine two equally skilled, experienced and performing expatriates doing work of equal value, side by side, in a third country. The expatriate from a higher paying / higher cost of living country earns more than their colleague from a lower paying / lower cost of living country. Does it mean that the two expatriates should be paid the same amount to achieve the principle of comparable worth?

Comparable worth seeks to ensure comparable pay for comparable work. The reality is that each dollar earned by the expatriate from the lower cost of living country will go further in their home country than it will for their colleague. To ensure that the principle of comparable worth is applied it is necessary to ensure that salary purchasing power parity (SPPP) is achieved.


No company pays the “market rate”, because there is no single universally accepted, appropriate rate for any job. Actual pay is influenced by market related targets, competition, perception, retention fears, circumstance and legacy. Expatriate pay is further influenced by cost of living, hardship and exchange rate differences. Whether we have comparable pay for comparable work or equal pay for equal work or even equal pay for equivalent work the principle is the same. People who perform work of equal value should be rewarded equally without discrimination. In the case of expatriates this implies salary purchasing power parity.

International Cost of Living Q1 2011

Well Q1 of 2011 is almost behind us. What a year it has been already with the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan and the Humanquake in North Africa and the Middle East. 

Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world in which to live, out of 300 global locations. The cost of living for an expatriate is affected by both the availability and prices, of goods and services representative of an expatriate lifestyle, local inflation, and the exchange rate between the home and host country. As a result the cost of living has a significant impact on an expatriate’s salary package. We expect that Japan will remain at the top of the rankings for some time to come.


Japan, Tokyo (1)
2. China, Hong Kong (3)
3. Japan, Osaka (5)
4. Japan, Nagoya (9)
5. Japan, Yokohama (13)
6. Australia, Sydney (17)
7. China, Shanghai (19)
8. Australia, Canberra (20)
9. Kiribati, South Tarawa (23)
10. Singapore (26)


Most expensive cities in South Asia (Global rank in brackets)
India, Mumbai (109)
2. India, New Delhi (136)
3. India, Chennai (139)
4. India, Calcutta (141)
5. Maldives, Male (147)
6. India, Hyderabad (149)
7. India, Bangalore (167)
8. Afghanistan, Kabul (208)
9. Bangladesh, Dhaka (263)
10.Pakistan, Lahore 278)


Most expensive cities in Europe (Global rank in brackets)
Switzerland, Geneva (4)
2. Switzerland, Zurich (6)
3. Norway, Oslo (8)
4. Russia, Moscow (10)
5. Liechtenstein, Vaduz (12)
6. Denmark, Copenhagen (14)
7. United Kingdom, London (16)
8. France, Paris (21)
9. Monaco, Monaco (22)
10.Jersey, Saint Helier (24)


United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi (27)
2. Qatar, Doha (49)
3. Bahrain, Manama (87)
4. United Arab Emirates, Dubai (89)
5. Israel, Jerusalem (102)
6. Lebanon, Beirut (138)
7. Palestinian Territories, West Bank (152)
8. Kuwait, Kuwait City (156)
9. Syria, Damascus (165)
10.Iran, Tehran (170)


Most expensive cities in the Americas (Global rank in brackets)
Venezuela, Caracas (2)
2. Brazil, Sao Paulo (7)
3. Brazil, Rio de Janeiro (11)
4. Brazil, Brasilia (15)
5. Bahamas, Nassau (25)
6. USA, New York NY (33)
7. Canada, Toronto (37)
8. Falkland Islands, Stanley (42)
10.Canada, Vancouver (54)

Spending and Cost of Living
Spending patterns amongst expatriates on international assignments can vary a great deal. How do spending patterns impact expatriate salary calculations? 
Read More

Negotiating an Expatriate Package
Read More

Figures used in this report were taken from®’s cost of living database as at 1 January 2011. The above ranks are based on the overall cost of living index using all 13 basket groups with New York as the base city (Cost of living index = 100).

About®’s Cost of Living Data®’s cost of living data is based on prices for the same quantity and quality of goods and services, representative of expatriate lifestyle, in each city. The data is collected and updated on a quarterly basis. The cost of living data is used by® clients to calculate salary purchasing power parity, cost of living allowances, and customized (i.e. clients can select their own base city) cost of living indexes for expatriate assignments online, using®’s 3 premium content calculators.

Clothing (2.5%): Clothing and footwear products.
Household Accommodation (30%): Housing rental, utilities, local rates and residential taxes.
Miscellaneous Items (3%): Stationary, Linen and general goods and services.
Restaurants Meals Out and Hotel (2%): Dinner at Restaurant (non fast food), Hotel Rates, Take Away, Drinks & Snacks (fast Food).

Founded in 2007,®’s mission is to organize the world’s cost of living indices, exchange rates and relative hardship indices and make it accessible and useful to all.

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