We look at how short-term transfers often create problems for the families left behind…

Monika Byrd said goodbye last month to her husband Shane, a sales manager, as he left for what was to be a four-week assignment in Chicago.

Byrd picked up the slack at home, curtailing travel for her own job and doing all the chores Shane usually does. To help her 12-year-old son through his stepfather's absence, she talked with him often about Shane.

Then, the assignment was extended to two months. "You take a deep breath and say, 'What does this mean?'", says Byrd, a curriculum specialist for a non-profit educational organisation."We have to adjust and plan."

Welcome to the shifting sands of short-term corporate transfers.

Short-term assignments are hot: Instead of relocating employees and their families for two years or more, some employers are reducing transfers, both in the US and overseas, to several weeks to 12 months, and leaving the family behind, according to several surveys of relocation trends.

While the trend has benefits, it's also raising unforeseen problems for many families.

Some 28 percent of international transferees went overseas for a year or less in 2004, up from 10 percent in 2000, says a survey set for release soon by GMAC Global Relocation Services, the National Foreign Trade Council and the Society for Human Resource Management.

A survey this year of 203 companies by PricewaterhouseCoopers says short-term assignments to many parts of Asia and Europe are expected to rise by 30 percent to 50 percent in the next two years.

Although no one tracks the length of domestic postings, short-term US transfers also are increasingly common, relocation consultants say.

Short-term assignments handled by American International Relocation Solutions, Pittsburgh, which moves employees, administers relocation benefits and oversees daily services and housing for transferees of Fortune 500 multinational companies, are definitely rising, says Patrick White, managing director.

Shorter postings reduce costs for employers and eliminate the strain of uprooting spouses and children.

The average yearly cost of long-term transfers is three times the annual salary of the transferee; if the whole family goes along, "a three-year assignment can easily cost USD 1 million", says Scott Sullivan, a senior vice president, GMAC Global.

Short-term assignments also avoid the security risks families might face in foreign locations.

But families are finding that short-term postings raise other obstacles.

The spouse left at home must do "your job, plus 100 percent of the chores, plus filling in for your partner with the kids. The days are extremely long, tiring and mentally exhausting," writes one wife in a study of families involved in short-term assignments by Anne Copeland, director of the Interchange Institute, a Brookline, Mass., non-profit research concern.

For a working spouse with a child to care for, the pressure can be immense

Marian Weston of Exeter, England, whose husband, an engineer, works short-term assignments for his employer, had to scramble to cope when their teenage son encountered learning problems while her husband was away.

Weston had to get a diagnosis of his dyslexic tendencies and find a tutor, as well as keeping her husband, who was in Damascus, informed. She found herself emailing her husband "all times of the night," says Weston, who is writing a book about how transfers affect families.

Also, more than half of short-term assignments get extended to 18 months or longer, estimates Jane Malecki, senior vice-president, Weichert Relocation Resources, Morris Plains, N.J.

This can be an unpleasant shock for families, forcing longer separations or a delayed family move.

For couples living apart, "marriages either become stronger, or they implode," says Robin Pascoe, a North Vancouver, British Columbia, author and creator of a website on relocation issues, www.expatexpert.com.

The break-up of  Byrd's first marriage came on the heels of her former husband's short-term transfer to Africa; the strain of separation, she believes, helped foil her efforts to preserve the marriage. Her husband eventually married a woman he met in Africa.

Byrd's current marriage is strong, she says, and being apart helps her see her husband "from a new perspective".

For most families, however, a transferee's return home brings "a very high likelihood of family discord," says Lauren Herring of Impact Group, St. Louis, a relocation-consulting concern.

The employee has been immersed in a different location, while the family has not. The transferee also is likely to be burned out; 14- to 16-hour workdays on short-term postings are common, making it hard to settle back into the daily grind at home.

Meanwhile, spouses who stay behind have picked up new roles and skills, and it can be irritating to shift back. In some cases, Pascoe says, the transferee "comes home expecting the family to be thrilled to see him, and instead they're bitter and angry".

The shift is so new that employers have almost no perks or supports for families. Most employers pay a per diem for expenses, and about one-third give incentive payments, one industry survey shows.

But relocation experts advise families to consider asking for other benefits, such as a stipend to cover additional household expenses like lawn maintenance or child care; cross-cultural training for the family so they can understand what the transferee is experiencing; frequent home visits; and, perhaps, a visitation overseas for the family.

Employers would do well to be responsive. Numerous studies show family problems are the most common cause of transferees' returning home early or quitting. "If the family is unhappy, the assignment is at risk," Dr. Copeland says. "This is no less true for short-term assignments."

First published January 2006

Subject: Short-term assignments