yogibear1

Hey Mate,

There is a myth here about working hours being less than in the UK and as most people have said the Ozzys start earlier and mostly get home about 4 - 5pm. As a bricky this really depends on the weather and this again depends on where you are living. I have a mate who is a self employed bricky on the gold coast and he brings in about $1200 a wk maybe a little more, but in the summer it rained so much he wasnt working so much. There are so many brickies here but still a massive need for good ones so if you thats you, you will have plenty of work.

Good Luck mate

James

Amazulu

Most engineering places in Perth do a 45 hour week. I usually do 48-50 hours, which gives me a 100 hour fortnight. I'm a contractor (grabbing type) and get paid for every minute that I work, so the more the merrier.

drb

I'm currrently working on the extension of Robina town shopping centre and worked 12pm till 5.30am (17 & half hours!) on monday which was not pleasant (and also probably highly frowned upon by health & safety). From my own personal experience on the gold coast is that there are way more people than jobs available so employers know they can work the arse off you and you'll take it cos if you dont then there are about 50 other people who will take your job off you!
My girlfriend works for a recruitment company and she reckons for every job that they advertise they get approx 150 people applying for it - everyone wants the gold coast lifestyle but it seems there just arent enough jobs to go round

BadgeIsBack

Agreed. Depends on whether your company is one that subscribes to a balanced worklife. Caveats observed: If you work for the govt, expect some sort of mediocrity but a degree of structure and security, if you work as a tradie, it depends on the boss and way things are being operated, if you work in an admin job expect fairly regular hours and a few rules,especially in a processing/back office or customer facing role, and at times a bit of fustration -which I think goes with the territory.

We have to do 37.5 hrs a week but I got away with 35 for a while as I was not too under the pump.

Typically, I do 7.30-3.30 or 7.30-4.15p, or 09-430 depends on how I feel and whether I have taken lunch. In practise it is flexi-time. Recently I have done 43 hour weeks and have accrued 6 days off as time in lieu. You get so many personal days too which you can use if you speak nicely to your mgr saving you having to use sick or vacation time. You are not often allowed to accrue vacation days but er, many people do just that.

There are extended 2 hour lunch breaks on Friday, evening drinks and morning tea twice a week. Massages, subsidised sports and classes, TV etc help with any demands. Free cab home if there is a need to stay late.

Geelong Gent

In my experience "long" hours to an Australian equate too part time from that we used to work in London

Over the past 6 weeks I have clocked up just over 650 hours