lisajhb

Just wondering if anyone has got some good stories to share about being screwed over at work. :curse: You know, from having to work in nero, to not being given a contract, to being done over in any way really. I could write a book on the subject. I am an English (tefl) teacher and if I had a euro for each time I have been told I am ten a penny, I could buy berlusconi´s yacht in cash. My latest drama has left me, yet again, feeling very much like a prostitute in the clutches of some dreadful pimp. I am fed up with people trying to screw me over ( no pun intended ) and dont get me started on tax evasion.

Lorna at Vicenza

I'd been working in the same place for just over six years. As the only office girl I had set up the brand new computer system, computerised the stockroom and coded all the products, did all the paperwork including invoices in several different currencies, followed clients and suppliers and shipping. I went to all the trade fairs (for no extra overtime) and several times even got up at 3am to drive to France with my boss - who couldn't speak any French or English and most of the time only spoke dialect. I did the time sheets and got the wages from the accountants office, did the banking, payments, receipts and just about everything and anything. I brought in new foreign clients and generally helped build up what had started as an artisan business.
Then I got pregnant.
Knowing that my boss would need to replace me I told him the news after just two months though I wasn't obliged to. I thought I was being nice - giving him time to hire some young thing and let me train her up in the basics before going on maternity leave.
Imagine my surprise two days later when I came home to discover a disciplinary warning letter - full of lies - things like I had been playing cds on the office computer, smoking in the office, constantly arriving late etc.
I went to my doctors and got a sick certificate for a week. Then i returned to the office pretending nothing had happened - not easy when virtually everyone in the place is ignoring you.
Then I got another letter, this time saying I had been stealing from the stockroom. I took it to the trade unions and they helped me to formulate a reply.
I returned to work and things were very strained - so I got another sick certificate for a week and then another week - and then after bursting into tears at a check-up and discovering that I wasn't really putting on any weight (stress) my gynaecologist filled out all the forms for me to get "early maternity leave".
I went back to work for a couple more days knowing that I would have legal early maternity leave at the end of the week.
My thick, uneducated and badly informed boss and his son had the mistaken belief that they could sack me outright after three letters. I knew better.
I also knew that they did not even know how to put fresh paper in the printers let alone do anything else in my office.
So I spent an hour at the computer removing all the easy to find alphabetical names from all the files and just put simple numbers on them instead. I never obliterated anything but I did move a couple of letters etc around into the wrong files. I removed the month cards from the "to pay" invoices and just left them all jumbled up in a pile and I accidentally split hot choclate over the "money due to come in" book . That entire office had been my domain for 6 years. They never went into my computer or filing cabinet (they just buzzed me when they wanted something) so they couldn't know that this wasn't how I'd keep files in the pc normally - so they couldn't prove that I had deliberately wiped client names off files and left a number there instead.
It was a minor satisfaction - what I really wanted to do was bomb the whole place!
I did however enjoy all the rest of my pregnancy happy at home and on a full wage packet.
The outside computer techy boy who'd helped me install all the accounting programmes etc. and who I'd become friends with rang me at home to congratulate me.
"How did you know?" I asked him. I hadn't made it public knowledge.
He told me that he'd had a frantic call from my boss asking him to send somebody round there fast to show one of the factory girls how to do a few things on the pc as Lorna was on maternity leave and they were up shit creek wtihout a paddle.
Good ! Talk about a perfect example of cutting off your nose to spite your face. I could have carried on there for months if they hadn't tried to fire me - and all because he was thick and said he was sick of paying maternity leave (2 factory girls had laft that year after having kids). He really was thick though as maternity pay was covered by INPS !!!!!!!

Patty

I would say thats unbelievable Lorna - but unfortunately, this being Italy - it's so true. You did good and I have to say you were alot stronger than I would've been in that situation ! Well done

On the whole I think that us English teachers get a real raw deal over here and if i could find another job ( a proper job !!) I would - my old workmates in the UK laugh at my pay and say they wouldn't even get out of bed for what I earn. I have worked for the same school for going on 5 yrs now and I only have a contratto a progetto - its not fair! However I can't find anything else - plus I'm too old (here in Italy - I'm positively past it ) Whereas in the UK, age counts for experience - I think here its only looked at as 'you cost too much' and therefore its cheaper to employ a 20 yr old. Maybe I'm cynical but I think I'm getting to the end of my 'teaching' tether

lisajhb

Wow lorna that was a learning expereince for you then. LOL. What arseholes! And patty, i know how you feel. Its insulting. Have you tried to get a few well paid private lesons going, you know, with medics and lawyers etc, in thier offices in their lunchtimes and so on. I do agree though that having a real job would, in theory, be better. But at the end of the day evryone is just out to take the piss really. Lorna, you were lucky you were actually on a decent contract that allowed you maternity. Proper contracts seem to be like gold dust.:curse:

Lorna at Vicenza

I suppose in a sense I was lucky enough to be protected by law and by my contract as once you are pregnant in Italy nobody can touch you really. I got all my early maternity leave, then the first 3 months after baby was born paid at 80% and then I opted for the optional further six months paid at 30%. After that I handed in my notice (no way was i going back to work in that office) - got paid 6 years of liquidation pay and then I signed on and got accepted for unemployment benefit too for 6 months !!!!!
That was a good day - I think it's the only time in 18 long years that Italy has actually given something back to me !!!!!!!!!!!!

Andys2k

Wow,
It is actually amazing what some companies will put there staff through just because they think they can. My wife works for the NHS purely for the benefits.
I just handed my notice in at my company yesterday over here in the UK, because I'm seriously being taken for granted. Running a regional office on my own when there used to be 4 sales guys and a sales director based here, all got sacked except me and its been left to me for the past 7 months now. I swear I've lost some hair!!!!!

I think the ideal solution working abroad is for a multi national where you are protected with lots of red tape (sometimes red tape does actually come in useful!)

lisajhb

Congratulations ?! In Italy working as a civil servant, or for the government in some capacity, is great as its a job for life, and as far as I know, no one can give you the elbow.

cornishvellan

i've got so many stories to tell about being used, exploited and basically taken the p*** out of in Italy which is one of the main reasons why i want to return to the UK.

it really is a mess here for work and even if you work for a multinational it doesn't guarantee you being treated properly (and have your rights respected) especially here in the south of italy. because managers know how hard work is to find here they make you work more hours and make sure you don't get paid for it. i worked in the office for a large well known electrical goods company and apart from having to do every bloody thing going (organise the cashiers and their takings, handle invoices, banking and accounts, receptionist, secretary to the manager as well as the capi settore, run the HR side of things and all 100 employees queries, really the list is endless what we were supposed to do in that office) and there were only 3 full-time and 2 part-time to run an office from 8am to 11pm, open 7 days a week (we would get told the day before that it was our day off!). however, because i was mainly responsible of the employees hours (their in/out is fed through a machine to a computer programme) i could see the hours they worked and also inserted holidays, pregnancy, etc. i was often told by the manager to remove extra hours worked or put in holidays when they had worked (he decided who). this caused a lot of confusion, arguments and bad feelings also because many workers wrote down their hours and would come to me with their pay packet complaining that i had been mucking around with their hours. although 'un posto d'oro' i left because i just couldn't cope with it all-and for 600 euro a month, it was a joke.

and do you know what the sad thing is? i was raccomandata because my brother-in-law is an executive with the company. i didn't get the job on my own abilities but because of who i knew. and because HE HAD DECIDED that i HAD to work there, i had no choice but to do it. that's italy my friends!

Lorna at Vicenza

goodness - getting the stick for messing around with people's time sheets and holidays when it wasn't your fault must have been awful. And what your boss was doing was actually illegal. And 600 euro a month is a BIG Joke. I thought I was getting a crappy deal earning 1.300.000 Lira when average here at the time was 1.5 mil Lira - and that was 8 years ago now.

So what are you doing these days Cornish?

lisajhb

Yeah 600 is terrible. Pathetic wages are a real slap in the face. Here, 600 MIGHT just pay the rent somewhere, but only just. A good friend of mine here was devestated this winter. She thought she had finally broken out of the tefl teaching world and had found a job working for a translation company. However, things didnt bode well from the start. They kept stalling her when she asked about the pay. They then wanted to have her for 2 months on an informal trial basis, without signing anything. The hours of the job were to be from 8 till 6, 5 days a week, translating from italian and german. This girl is megga qualified etc. Anyway, when she finally pushed them into telling her the wages, they let it slip that it would be 1 000 euros, before tax. She told them where they could stuff it as that wouldnt have left her enough to pay the rent and childcare etc. ( sinle mum) She is now doing translations for them on an ad hoc basis and earning more. Does that make any sense?!
And why oh why is it always considered a big no no to ask how much you will be getting paid, and to expect a straight answer?!!

Lorna at Vicenza

I could probably pick up another office job tomorrow. Every magazine or agency window I look at always has an offer for something along the commercial office line with English being a requirement ............ but none of the school hours would ever fit in with the office hours.
It annoys me to hear how much the Italians adore children ....... yes they do - but there are not enough bloody facilities for them - no company I know of here offers flexi-time. Job sharing hasn't been heard of yet and it would be easier to find gold in the local river than find a part time job.

cornishvellan

So what are you doing these days Cornish?[/QUOTE]

well i'm on my final two courses to complete an MA in Social Sciences with the OU (the last two courses focus mainly on youth justice) and am currently taking a course in bari for voluntary workers. i help out with LILA (lega italiana per la lotto control AIDS) distributing information about the association as well as other information regarding AIDS. this also involves handing out condoms to young people which is something i'm very passionate about-it amazes me how many young people don't worry about passing on disease and prefer to be 'macho' by not using anything. the association every year contacts schools to talk about AIDS and other sexual transmitted diseases but they have yet to be given the chance to do so. i had also been working voluntary everyday in a day centre for disabled adults but i gave up earlier this year because i had so many personal problems (my father died, then i got way behind in my studies, then i got pregnant and then had a miscarriage). hopefully i'll try and find time to go to the centre again before it closes.

for the past 3 years or so i've also been doing voluntary translations for an animal group in romania. when i started translating with them it was barely unknown and has now become the 5th largest italian animal welfare group. the association has done amazing work in romania, offering work for local people (at present 30 people work full-time and on proper contracts which gives them access to health, etc) and they also go into orphanages with dogs to help boost children's confidence (therapy with animals for children is very important). i also collaborate with LAV here locally and have transported (as well as organise transport for) many strays to tuscany. i'm not dedicated 100% to LAV as here in the south it can get extremely complicated (as my previous posts have discussed briefly). i do my best to help out when i can but fear that i too could become a victim of you know who.

are you working lorna or a full-time mum?

Lorna at Vicenza

Wow - you make me feel woefully inadequate as a caring human being. You are involved in so many worthwhile projects.
I'm not surprised LILA has never been let into any schools ....... most schools do not even have a basic sex ed programme (Vatican) yet the waiting lists for abortions in the hospitals are getting longer and longer.
My gyno once tried to tell me in a very simplistic "you know nothing" kind of way about the different type of birth control available.
"Yeah yeah I know" I said - "this works that way - this works the other way - but you still don't have the newer stuff available, one of my sisters in UK is getting an injection every 3 months and the other has tiny implant in her arm that lasts for 3 years and the consultorio leaflet still talks about withdrawl being a method of birth control - stupid or what ? !" I'm still not sure if he was impressed by me or totally put out !!!!
Another one told me that he was part of a "let's educate in schools group" but after one school had many complaints from the parents the project got scrapped. Condom machines only arrived in vending machines in the last ten years and still only on a chemist wall - not in pubs or clubs !!

Anyway - back to topic. Since I left that other office I have been at home. I get calls every September about taking on some lessons in a couple of language schools near here .... but my OH is often abroad and as they are all evening clases I can't ount on him to be at home for the kids - and I don't really want to teach 3 times a week from 6 til 9pm anyway.
I have a few private students of various ages and levels. They always arrive by word of mouth - I have never advertised. I get transaltions to do now and again and (don't really like the technical ones) sometimes a website to put into English and theier is a PR firm that soemtimes gives me work for advertisinf or trade fair promotions etc. Two years ago I was teaching in a high school and last year I was contacted by the sindacati to set up and teach from scratch a specialised English on the road course for the Polizia Locale. That was a lot of fun teaching them a grounding in basic grammar and then concentrating on things like road signs, fines, directions etc all in English.
That same sindacati are hoping to set up a similar kind of course next year but this time for the people who work at the sportello in the hosiptal .... telling people they need to bring a urine sample - fast for 12 hours - that kind of English.

I pretty much always have something going on and even though it's not regular and the money isn't either - the little extras help and save me always having to go to the bancomat to withdraw. I can do all this from home - the kids are never let down with daddy being away so often - it gives me something a little bit more "adult" to do rather than just fairy stories, Winx, Gormiti and bloody barbie and lego etc. and I can fit it all in around the kids school times.
I'm beginning to get rounded shoulders I think though from being at the pc so long - must improve my posture !!!
So - that's me really.

Jonnie-falafel

Hello people....

I'm kinda getting the message loud and clear that when I come to Italy self-employment is going to be pretty much the only option. Should I waste my time & money on a TEFL course - yeah or nay? Mind you, some of teh awful things that Lorna described do happen here in the UK. One woman I know, after reporting her pregancy, was watched for minor infringements of the HR codes and given so much hassle that she won a case for 'constructive dismissal' at an employment tribunal. However, the company concerned haven't yet paid the compensation over a year later! I've seen it the other way round too.... i know another woman whose hobby seems to be suing her employers (and anyone else she doesn't like)... she's undeservedly won compensation at three tribunals to date and has bought a house on the proceeds!

Jon

lisajhb

Dont stop cornish. Sooner or later italy has to wake up. I know its not unusual now for 14 and 15 year olds to be in sexual relationships, or to be having sex. I dont want to get into a moral debate about the emotional consequences, although they too need to be addressed. But surely we should be educating our kids? And our adults come to think of it. Its scary how ignorant many people are. My hubby needed me to explain the female cycle and so on, and although we had a laugh about it, its absurd that men are growing up not knowing about the basics. Do you see any hope that the vatican will wake up and have a complete 180 degrees turn around and admit that condoms do help prevent aids and so on and so on? we could start a new thread on the vatican influence, but maybe that would be too great a can of worms.