The Art of Coming Home

This is a very interesting and useful resource for anyone who has ever left home, lived or visited somewhere else for a long time and then returned home. The experience has a name, and it's called reverse culture shock, and I wish I'd had this book to read when I was experiencing it. I highly recommend this book for anyone working for a big corporation that has employees working in foreign countries. You have a huge responsibility as an employer/HR Manager to ensure that your employee's return to the home country goes as smoothly as possible. The author devotes a large section of the book to the long-term career problems facing overseas workers returning home to their old jobs. Being posted to a foreign assignment means that employees are out of the loop of promotions and career advancement, and many find that their employers don't have a place for them once they've returned home. Also, a negative experience of one employee tends to discourage others from seeking or accepting assignments in foreign countries.

Craig Storti has made an important contribution to both people going to work in another culture and those returning to their home culture.

If you spent months in Paraguay or Latvia longing for modern supermarkets, octo-plex movie theaters and mega-malls, coming home will surprise you. All that consumerism, all those different breakfast cereals, all that plenty and pizzazz may not play as well with you as you had remembered. Never mind. Eventually you?ll again expect to be offered 15 different kinds of herbal tea with your $18 lunch, but when you first return and the deprivations of your overseas station are still fresh, reentry can include a big shot of culture shock. Companies pay plenty of attention to executives and workers who need help and advice when they?re given an overseas assignment. But Craig Storti thought it was time to address the needs of those same expats when they return and face the challenge of readjustment. He does so expertly in this practical guide, which includes hard logistics and some soft psychology. We from getAbstract highly recommend this book to homecoming expats and to those who play crucial roles in managing their reentries.

This book captured and helped make sense of the unsettling experiences my wife and I had in returning to the US after four years living and working in England. I think the best time to read it might be before you leave, but I only found it after returning (and hearing the author speak to a group of repatriates).The book includes good practical insights and suggestions for employees, employers and co-workers, spouses, families, and teens/kids experiencing what the book calls "reverse culture shock."