Unforeseen issues and last minute hold ups notwithstanding, come the
\n5th of December, I will be taking on a newly-created operations and
\nstrategy role with a regional utility company in based Auckland. It
\nis a smaller company than my last but the role manages and oversees
\nthree departments: the call centre, the dispute and complaints team
\nand the network management centre. However, with 150,000 individual
\ncommercial and residential customers, not to mention vendors and
\nthird party field teams to manage, the initial challenge will be to
\nlead further improvements in customer service and deliver new
\nservices for customers within the next 18 months. I am looking
\nforward to the novelty of working with a smaller team again in a
\ndifferent industry. In the longer term, one of the attractive
\naspects of the role is that I would assume a greater strategic role
\nin larger regional operations. I was shown around the operations
\ncentre and met a few folks who seemed pleasant and happy in their
\nwork. After what I understand have been a few tough years, they
\nseems to be a close knit team who are keen to develop and progress.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, whilst things are looking hopeful and we are confident of
\nmaking a go of things here, the uncertainty over permits and visas,
\ntogether with some unexpected hassles has all added to an certain
\nlevel of underlying stress. Though our visitor’s visa are still OK
\nfor another four months, I hope to have my work permit sorted within
\nthe next two or three weeks which, in turn, will allow us to start
\nthe long process of applying for residence visa for all the family.
\nThe only major unforeseen problem that we have encountered thus far
\nconcerns the shipping container that has all our worldly possessions
\nin it. After weeks at sea, it finally arrived at the port in
\nWellington and was unloaded at the container base. The NZ shippers
\ncontacted us regarding a few pieces of paper work and we thought that
\nall was going well. A week later, we were asked to provide a UK
\nprescription for just eight pain killer tablets that we declared had
\nbeen packed inadvertently by the shippers. Obviously, having used
\nthe prescription to get the tablets, we were unable to comply. We
\nwere then asked to get a private NZ doctor’s letter and prescription
\ninstead. This we did and, on all information and advice, hoped to
\nhave our container released. However, to our annoyance, it turns out
\nthat all this activity took us over a previously unmentioned time
\nlimit that is applied to shipped items belonging to those with
\nvisitor’s visas. This, we were cheerfully informed, meant that we
\nare now liable for VAT on the shipment as Customs now deem our
\nbelongings to be ‘imported’ goods rather than personal possessions.
\nThe only upside to this is that clothes and personal effects
\n(jewellery, handbags etc) are not included in the calculation and
\nsome element of depreciation will be deducted against the furniture,
\nbooks and kitchen stuff. If that is the only thing we missed in our
\nresearch, then we’ll take it on the chin and move on. It seems
\nchurlish to complain when some, like the folks affected by the
\nPakistan earthquake, are homeless with just what they can carry in
\ntheir arms and no money to start again.<\/p>\n
Now we know where I’ll be working, we’ll be off on a recce next week
\nto find rented accommodation we can move into before the Christmas
\nholidays, which is also the big summer break here. From there, we’ll
\nbe better able to search for schools and find a new home to buy.
\nWith Christmas just six weeks away (where did the year go?), we’ll
\nstill be house hunting, living out of cases with most of our stuff
\nstill packed in boxes in the garage or shed and our friends and
\nfamily will be thousands of miles away. However, the best present
\nthis year will be the very real possibility that our new life in Te
\nIka a M?ui ? Aotearoa (the North Island of New Zealand) moves from
\nbeing a dream to a reality. We’re convinced that “she’ll be right”
\nas they say here. That said, we’re not quite there yet and I need to
\nensure that my work permit application is correctly completed and the
\napplication filed next week if I am to start work on schedule, so I’m
\noff to start on that before catching the All Blacks v Ireland match a
\nlittle later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unforeseen issues and last minute hold ups notwithstanding, come the 5th of December, I will be taking on a newly-created operations and strategy role with a regional utility company in based Auckland. It is a smaller company than my last but the role manages and oversees three departments: the call centre, the dispute and complaints […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[258,25,264,37],"tags":[760,261,762,759],"class_list":["post-216892688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emigration","category-life","category-ponderings","category-work","tag-emigration","tag-immigration","tag-ponderings","tag-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216892688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=216892688"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216892688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216893274,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216892688\/revisions\/216893274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=216892688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=216892688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=216892688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}