Moving Day

No matter how many times I've moved and how much I plan in advance, moving day always brings some surprises and stress. This past moving day was no different.

Last Monday the movers were to arrive at 9 am to pack up my belongings to be shipped back to the US. Surprise number one, the movers arrived on time! While this was great news, the guards at my front gate wouldn't let them in because the person in maintenance who was to go ahead was late to work. After a few phone calls, a visit to the maintenance office and a few choice words to the late arriving employee (really, is it so hard to leave a note?) the movers were finally allowed inside the complex.

Although this occurred at 920, they somehow didn't make it to my flat until 945. When they finally arrived, there were two packers and a supervisor. Hmmm, enough people to pack and get everything out by 1 when I was due to go to work? I didn't think so and when I asked the supervisor, he responded that this was an all day pack. Unfortunately, I had been told that it would only take a half day and that was all the leave I had taken (and had left!) so I told him they needed to be finished by two at the very latest. This was not just because I needed to get to work, but because, for most apartment complexes, there is a blackout period in the middle of day where truck are not allowed to go in or out (a two hour lunch break if you will).

He acquiesced, and the movers got to to work. Now, here's the kicker. Despite the time constraints, the fact that there were only 3 of them there, and the fact that I was packing and moving some of the boxes, the supervisor did NOTHING. He stood over the other two workers while they packed. His only job was to get me to sign a couple of papers and then write the contents of each box on the box.

Even after a year in India, this type of division of labor still surprised me. I can't imagine that this would have ever happened in the US. Luckily, the other guys had it together enough to get everything done on time.