Extraction 4

I am officially engaged in what is called “departure clearance”. The day after I submitted my resignation letter, the administrative assistant to my supervisor initiated the online departure clearance process. Within minutes, a series of items appeared in a special location in the Aramco intranet. The list includes the following:

• Housing rentals (appliances and the few remnants of crappy Aramco furniture I retained)
• Housing inspection (to make sure I didn’t knock holes in the walls or run a line from my sweet water tap to my washing machine)
• Furniture warehouse (tied to the housing rentals item)
• Mail center (submit forwarding address)
• Recreation rentals (I never rented anything from them)
• EPiC library (Upstream technical library)
• Training library (I don’t know what this is)
• Medical assets (I don’t know what this one is either)
• Domestic camp (only applies if you are the sponsor of a maid or houseboy)
• Dental services (I never had dental work done here)
• Medical liaison (get copies of medical records from this office)
• Telecom billing (I never turned on the long-distance code dialing)
• Passport office (once the car is off my iqama, I have to turn in my iqama and passport)
• Personal effects (packing and shipping my stuff)
• Industrial security (I have to turn in my Aramco ID)

Being in departure clearance is a lot like playing a computer game. The objective: remove all of the items by the payroll close date of the month you are leaving so all of your final payments can be processed with your normal paycheck for that month.

Some of these items were automatically marked “completed” and I never had to deal with them. That’s a good thing because the remaining items require an astonishing amount of time and fuss to complete. 

For example, you can make an online request for your medical records. There is a button on the request form that you click that says “I want a complete copy of my medical records”. I clicked it. Two days later, I received an email saying the records were ready for pickup at the hospital. I went there right after lunch only to discover that films and other digital records were not included in the packet. In other words, you really don’t get a complete copy of your records. For digital diagnostic items, you have to fill out a separate request by hand and submit it to the same office. Then you wait another two days and take more time off from work to return to the hospital to pick up the second packet.

The Recreation Library is another good example. You have to turn in your library card. Sounds simple enough. But the guys working the checkout desk can’t help you. You have to speak to the Saudi supervisor who takes the typically endless smoke, tea, prayer, and gossip breaks throughout the day as well as the usual lunch hour. “Turning in your library card” really means you must make at least three or four visits to the library at different days and times in the hopes that you will catch this guy at his desk. You have to do this during normal working hours so that means more time that you aren’t doing your own job.

My appliances and house were inspected last week. I signed papers for both inspectors. I waited one day and the items were still on my departure clearance list. So I began emailing. The system lists the name of the person who has approval authority for the item, so it is easy to email them a screen shot of the item clearly showing their name and the code, asking nicely when I might expect the item to be approved (and removed from my list). It took five emails to both groups (total of ten emails) before I was able to get those items cleared off the list.

I’m pleased to report that as of this afternoon, I’m down to the last three items, all of which are pretty important: iqama and passport, ID, and personal effects. 

I am now trying to sell my car. I’ve still got a bit of time but I’m learning not to take any of that for granted. The game timer is steadily, relentlessly clicking down.