Chris

"Herman" wrote in message
news:441014.1034388089@britishexpats-
.com...
    > So here I am again. Yet another Saturday slaving away for free in the
    > office trying to meet the demands of 'screw em for all they're worth'
    > clients.
    > I worked about 2 saturdays in 5 years in the UK. This is my fifth in a
    > row in Sydney despite my best efforts at resisting the pressure clients
    > are determined to put on us.
    > If anyone was to ask me 'should i come to Sydney', in my present frame
    > of mind I would say 'no, the sun may shine but you'll only see it from
    > an office window!'.

And the beaches are crap down there.

Chris

MaggieLou

You are there because its bloody cold, damp and misserable here - swap ya......Is the grass always greener?

Herman

No I am not in a contract situation and no I do not work in IT. I am a chartered accountant working in the corporate finance area. We work with clients when they are involved in a corporate transaction - buying or selling a company. We work very closely with client teams and work to their timetables. If they set a rediculous timetable then we suffer (along with their employees) because 9 times out of 10 my Sydney bosses accede to whatever clients demand of us because thats the way it is here. You simply can not afford to offend or, god forbid, say "no" to a client here. In London we had so many clients knocking on our door and the bosses actually took action re 'work life balance' rather than paying lip service to it, that they were prepared to push clients to set more realistic expectations. If this failed the policy was that weekend days worked were given straight back as a days holiday. I suggested that here and my boss say "no way, I'm not setting precedents like that - it would cost us a bloody fortune". Sums it up really.
Anyway, enough bloody moaning, stiff upper lip and get the hell on with it.

Herman

Correct, I am senior management. I dip into this little chat room for a bit of light relief during the chaos of a 12 hour day. Probably spend less time in this place than the one hour lunch break I'm supposed to get, but never able to take.

cykit

Leo: I lived and worked in Canada and am living in the U.S. I can tell you that the working conditions are no different between the two countries. In the U.S., working conditions vary greatly from the long hours you described, to flexible easy hours with little to no work involved. It’s very vast here. Canada is much the same these days. Companies up there will let you go at the drop of a dime with little to no compensation. You should explain your theory to my friends up there who have all been laid off after slaving away for 12 hours a day. Furthermore, with far fewer job prospects up there, I’d say that things are even more competitive than they are down here in the States.

I also find it humorous that people bring up the “quality of life� issue. I cannot speak for Australia or NZ, but I can speak for the U.S., Canada and a bit on the E.U. As a Canadian, I have more than a fair bit of insight on the situation up there. The quality of life may have been better, say, 12-15 years ago, but it certainly isn’t the case today. I’d even venture that it’s worse. For sure, my quality of life is far better down here. Not to mention, I make more money, pay less taxes and have a better working environment. Of course, it could be just me…but it seems to be universal in the cases I see.

kango_jack

Herman
Being an accountant as well I can more than understand the pressures and timescales.
I think it is the same throughout our industry, my last position running the finance department for a maunfacturing company was constant pressure with long days and working weekends and evenings. What did I do about it? I decided quality of life was more important and moved to a lower paid position closer to home.
Having been through it before I don't plan to make the same mistake when I get to Oz. Lifes to short and if you only work to pay the bills its time to have a re-think.....
Annie

pommie bastard

Chris my good man the one thing that I found out early coming coming to Perth , where the beaches are great is that 95% or more of the people here never use the beach .When I lived 100yards away from one on a good day I never saw more than 40 people on a beach that was at lest 2 miles long , playing sand castles gets very boring

JustArrived

Hi,

Sorry Herman but I don't have much sympathy for your situation. It surely goes without saying that someone on your salary would be expected to work long hours and weekends if necessary. The senior management where I work have to come in regularly on Saturdays and Sundays. If they don't like it then they should have refused their promotion and extra salary.

If you were poorly paid then it would be a different matter entirely. There are plenty of people in the world who work harder than you or I ever will for a couple of dollars a day.

Chris

"Herman" wrote in message
news:442905.1034572043@britishexpats-
.com...

    > In London we had so many clients knocking on our
    > door and the bosses actually took action re 'work life balance'
    > rather than paying lip service to it, that they were prepared to
    > push clients to set more realistic expectations.

Well I'm not sure that this is a national "trait". It more sounds like a
trait which may differ between companies and managers.

Chris

pommie bastard

Sounds like you are turning Australian already , be greatful for a job and tip your cap to the boss.
Silly as it may seem in the 21th century , some want more than to be a wage slave . Conditions of employment are important , spending weekends in a office or other place or work unpaid is for those who have little self worth and live on their knees ie the average Aussie.

dpr21

Jeez PB what utter cr@p. You cannot expect to be paid a huge salary and work a 40 hour week. Office hours are meaningless in this situation - you do what work is required and because there's plenty of it you need plenty more time to do it - or delegate and manage other people. This is factored into the huge salaries and any accountant, actuary or other professional getting paid these higher salaries knows that (or they are bullsh*tting) - they are not working for 'free'. Secondly, if you are any good you negotiate your terms BEFORE you accept a position and if you don't like it - renegotiate or leave...Sorry you can't get paid 80-250+k and expect to be a jobsworth on a 9-5 day. These people knew that when they took the job on.
DPR

PS - I speak from experience. I was a 'highly paid professional' but unwilling to have that type of lifestyle so I changed to a 'less demanding profession' and now make less money but am happy with my workload.

pommie bastard

Hey have you heard of work place agreements the bottom of the heap gets shafted here far more than the top of the tree.
Sorry I only give time that is paid for , my time costs money same as most in health care like yourself?

Chris

"pommie bastard" wrote in message
news:443733.1034639624@britishexpats-
.com...
    > Originally posted by JustArrived:
    > > There are plenty of people in the world who work harder than you or I
    > > ever will for a couple of dollars a day.
    > Sounds like you are turning Australian already , be greatful for a job
    > and tip your cap to the boss.
    > Silly as it may seem in the 21th century , some want more than to be a
    > wage slave . Conditions of employment are important , spending weekends
    > in a office or other place or work unpaid is for those who have little
    > self worth and live on their knees ie the average Aussie.

My God you're a whinger... and a bludger too it seems.

Chris

    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

pommie bastard

My God you're a whinger... and a bludger too it seems.

Chris

    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com
[/SIZE][/QUOTE]

Yawn thats the best you can do , wanting a fair days pay for a days work is bludging I learn all the time next time I want a tradesman to do a job I shall not pay him.
To question an employers right to exploit his employees is whinging , I will never get the hang of being an Aussie hurts me knees to much , never was good at groveling.

65 million

Hi PB,

I must say that I completely agree with what you have been saying. The world as a whole is going "work crazy". Our bosses seem to forget that we would like to have a little more to our lives than being their financial slaves.

I like many other people on this website viewed Australian's as "laid-back" and I suppose many people wanted to head for OZ for the reasons of slowing down, not speeding up.

Seems safe to say that the old addage"australians work to live" and that we (the British) "live to work" is a pile of S@*TE.

I dont want to move to Melbourne to do longer hours, get paid less and get shafted by our employers.

Time to head for Queensland me thinks, should be able to put my feet up their?.