As organizations continue to grow, shrink, and mutate, employees are getting used to doing the mobile shuffle: from working on-site to working in flight, on phones, and from hotels. The greater the distance and the longer the stay, the bigger the worry: I’m losing touch with my team and I don’t know what to do about it.

The more far flung our companies become, the more employees are sent to remote locations to head up global business units. Two years away can feel challenging at least, developmental at best. Longer than that and they start to feel adrift.

I’ve been away so long I think they’ve forgotten who I am.

Could they really forget where they put you? Have you been gone so long you’ve lost the connections that could bring you back?

What should you be paying attention to?

It depends on your career goals. If you enjoy working independently, you’re not into climbing the corporate ladder, and prefer a boss with no face, and you’ll probably enjoy the freedom of a cell phone, a lap top, and the great out there.

If you’re hard charging, upwardly mobile, politically savvy, and like the view from the top, you’re not apt to get there by staying at the home office or your office at home. You are apt to improve your chances with an international assignment that affords you continuing visibility with the home team. The trick is, don’t stay away too long.

There are pros and cons to staying close and moving away. If you want to know how successful your company is and how it compares to the competition, work outside the walls.

If you want to maximize networking opportunities with people who interface with your company but don’t pledge allegiance to it, work outside the walls.

There’s a downside to spending too much time outside instead of inside. You’re out of the loop. You won’t know who’s in and who’s out, who’s calling the shots and who just sounds  like they are. As people are shuffled about, the person who assigned you to a place of many syllables may no longer be your boss, and the new boss may not know who you are. There may be no compelling reason to bring you back.

It’s not unusual for the most dedicated of company loyalists to take on tough international assignments in tough international terrain.  With their families in tow, they turn around the untouchable, and in turn, expect to be rewarded with a promotion and a ticket home. That’s when they learn they can’t get  there. Why? No one else is willing to work in East Lambchopia, much less haul a family there.  What thanks do they get? Glowing letters on embossed letterhead,  praising their efforts on behalf of the home team, that ironically, is back home.

What’s the bottom line? Take care of your career, because no one else will do it for you. That’s not a slam on your company,  that’s a reality. Business and industry are making it clear to anyone who will listen that they have closed the career development store. They’re no longer selling career ladders, pathways, and roadmaps to where you can be in five years. You’ll need to buy your own flashlight, compass, insight and foresight. And remember, out of sight is like hindsight: it’s too little, too late.

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Yes! You may use this article by Executive and Career Coach, Joyce Richman, in your blog, article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.joycerichman.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started her own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.