The weeks leading up to orientation were spent in a flurry of preparation. Of immediate importance was providing notice to my current employers, transferring ownership of tasks and systems management to other employees, bringing them up to speed on processes they are unfamiliar with and performing general knowledge transfers. While giving my notice wasn’t difficult, it was emotional. I’d been with my previous employer for many years and had formed strong working relationships with those within and without my department alike. My manager and coworkers were a pleasure, and I genuinely enjoyed the work I performed as well as the flexibility offered by my position. The looming change before me was intimidating not only because of the uncertainty of the future it offered, but also because I knew what I was leaving behind. Still, I had been there long enough to know that complacency was kicking in, and I was overdue for a change. It didn’t make it any easier.
My last two weeks flew by, and when I wasn’t at work I was spending my time going through my effects, cleaning up, packing, figuring out what to keep, and what to part with. Many cones in our class of specialists only received around three weeks of notice before they were scheduled to start orientation in Washington D.C., which after providing notice to previous employers only provided about a week or so of downtime to sort out the myriad of loose ends this life change would inevitably leave. Of primary importance during this time was maintaining communication with the State Department HR folks, and other staff resources which were assisting with the impending move, and sorting personal belongings for packout.
At this point, new hires have already received and responded to an initial offer letter and are waiting on or following up with a number of other forms and documents required to complete the employment on-boarding process and get themselves to D.C. Sometime after responding to the initial offer, candidates should receive the highly anticipated e-mail that contains their grade, stepping. and salary information. New hires are responsible for researching the various direct billing housing facilities available to them and making the appropriate arrangements for the duration of their training. They’ll also need to schedule and arrange a packout with with an approved moving agency. While the packout can be scheduled before receiving orders, travel orders must be issued and on-hand for the packout to occur. All of the information needed to complete this should be available to the new hires via the resources provided and communicated to them from HR and their orientation coordinators.
On the home front, new hires will be referring to their packout guide for the complete details regarding the process and answers to many of their obscure questions. In general though, items will fall into one of the following categories:
- Carry-ons and Baggage
- Unaccompanied Air Baggage (UAB)
- Household Effects (HHE / Storage)
- Leftover junk that you don’t want to take with you
Obviously one must attend to packing their own carry-ons and other baggage they intend on traveling to D.C. with. These are the essentials, clothes, professional attire, toiletries, and other necessary objects of life that one cannot go without for several weeks. Next up is Unaccompanied Air Baggage, which has a hard size restriction and a weight restriction based on the number of people in your household. Generally, UAB will be the first of your personal effects to arrive independently at post – and it will be the only shipment you’ll get while you’re in D.C. – so you’ll want to use the UAB allowance for the things you’ll want and need that wouldn’t fit into your baggage, as well as other comforts (favorite kitchen appliances, entertainment, favorite household fixtures, stuff that couldn’t fit on your carry-on or baggage for travel).
Household Effects (HHE) will contain the bulk of your possessions. Furniture, appliances, clothes, kitchenware, television, and all of the other fixtures that make you feel at home. Basically, anything that you want to keep. Your UAB and HHE will be packed out at the same time, with UAB eventually being delivered to your housing in D.C., and HHE being placed into storage until you arrive at your first post. At this point, you can determine which items in your HHE will follow you, and which will remain in storage. The major exception to this is D.C. posts, in which all of the items you have in storage will come out with your HHE. WHen you’re serving at post you’ll have the option to keep items in storage rather than have them delivered to you in your HHE shipment.
Now, for the most part you can rely on the moving company to do the heavy lifting for you. They’ll make sure things are packed according to their own policies, they may make an inventory, disassemble and move heavy furniture, etc. I would encourage new hires to take it upon themselves to be self-reliant when it comes to the documentation and packing of their desired effects. If the movers end up repacking it to suit their needs, so be it – but no one is going to care more about your effects than you are, so be diligent and don’t blindly trust in a third party to treat your possessions as if they were their own. I would also encourage new hires to create and maintain an inventory of their possessions and pick up the appropriate renter’s insurance. Diligence of this sort will come in handy if anything ever goes awry with your move and you need to account for lost, missing, or damaged items.
In my case, the schedule was so compacted that my pack-out date was scheduled for after my departure. This complicates things a bit more, but as long as you have a friend or family member willing to oversee it, it doesn’t pose too much of a problem. I’d definitely recommend giving the “It’s your move” guide a glossing over in order to fill in the gaps and get a better idea of the process. Don’t forget to provide some refreshments for your movers, they’ll really appreciate it and it will hopefully encourage them to go the extra mile for you!
Given that I wasn’t even able to attend my own packout, its probably not something I’m entirely qualified to write about – and I haven’t even seen the results of my HHE, and won’t until I get to post! I’ll definitely provide an update at that point, but until then I hope this is informative or helpful to some of you and I wish you the best of luck on your own packouts!