Originally Posted by NickyC (Post 7866180)

Gee, it's a tough life, isn't it? Many people would give their right arm to have to commute to Bondi.

Anyway, glad to hear things are improving on the work front. :)

Originally Posted by Hutch (Post 7866804)

Have to admit, there's a couple of great moments in that commute. The first bit when I'm tooling down the Bondi bypass and you can see the harbour bridge and the city beyond. Then there's the bit through the airport and that moment where you drive right under the runway and there's usually these ****ing great jets taxiing across them in front of you. I used to commute into London and it beats the Hammersmith flyover, that's for ****ing sure. I shall remind myself of this next time I'm bumper to bumper on southern cross drive.

Originally Posted by Hutch (Post 7865790)

Small update re my return to work. I'm working for Surf Life Saving Australia in Bondi, Sydney. It's my first time in fulltime employment in 15 years (!) and it has been something of a shock to the system, but I'm settling in now. The money's good and since SLSA are a charity I can take $16,050 of my salary in a tax free form every year and also claim for $5200 worth of sit-down meals. I get four weeks paid holiday, plus every public holiday (Queens b'day, labor day etc), plus 10 sick days, plus a couple over Xmas - basically works out at just under two months off!

There's some weekend work involved, which is fine (I knew about it when I went for the interview) for which I get a day in lieu rather than overtime. And I can work from home for the 3 days out of 5, which is brilliant. At the moment (for the first three weeks basically) I'm travelling up everyday while I get acquainted with the job. The commute takes two hours each way thanks mainly to the fact that I have to drive via the airport - the last 40km of my 140km journey take an hour. But it's cool - I have my iPod in the car and loads of good podcasts on it to while away the time. Come a week monday I'll only have to travel up on Wedsnesdays and Thursdays and I'll do that by train rather than car so it's not 'wasted' time.

It's great working for an organisation I have a vested interest in (I'm an active patrollling surf life saver) and it certainly helped me to get accepted quickly as most of the people in the office are 'clubbies' too. Every lunch time I walk downstairs and swim some laps in the (accurately named) Bondi Icebergs pool. Then I buy a latte from the club cafe and eat a packed lunch watching the surfers do their thing at South Bondi. The people I'm working with are a sound bunch - there's a couple of other Brits in the office too.

At some point I'm going to be starting doing training courses natioanlly and internationally. SLSA's software, merchandise, policies etc have been adopted all over the world (including by the RNLI) and we support that on-site. So there's trips to surf branches around Oz and international trips to Thailand etc.

It's been a bit different not being at home all the time - my son misses our chats to and from school - but that can all resume in a week's time. So yes, I'm basically counting my blessings - we were a heartbeat away from bankruptcy (indeed we still are with regard the UK side of things) but there's money coming in now and we feel we've turned a corner. Life is indeed what you make it.

Originally Posted by Hutch (Post 7865790)

Small update re my return to work. I'm working for Surf Life Saving Australia in Bondi, Sydney. It's my first time in fulltime employment in 15 years (!) and it has been something of a shock to the system, but I'm settling in now. The money's good and since SLSA are a charity I can take $16,050 of my salary in a tax free form every year and also claim for $5200 worth of sit-down meals. I get four weeks paid holiday, plus every public holiday (Queens b'day, labor day etc), plus 10 sick days, plus a couple over Xmas - basically works out at just under two months off!

There's some weekend work involved, which is fine (I knew about it when I went for the interview) for which I get a day in lieu rather than overtime. And I can work from home for the 3 days out of 5, which is brilliant. At the moment (for the first three weeks basically) I'm travelling up everyday while I get acquainted with the job. The commute takes two hours each way thanks mainly to the fact that I have to drive via the airport - the last 40km of my 140km journey take an hour. But it's cool - I have my iPod in the car and loads of good podcasts on it to while away the time. Come a week monday I'll only have to travel up on Wedsnesdays and Thursdays and I'll do that by train rather than car so it's not 'wasted' time.

It's great working for an organisation I have a vested interest in (I'm an active patrollling surf life saver) and it certainly helped me to get accepted quickly as most of the people in the office are 'clubbies' too. Every lunch time I walk downstairs and swim some laps in the (accurately named) Bondi Icebergs pool. Then I buy a latte from the club cafe and eat a packed lunch watching the surfers do their thing at South Bondi. The people I'm working with are a sound bunch - there's a couple of other Brits in the office too.

At some point I'm going to be starting doing training courses natioanlly and internationally. SLSA's software, merchandise, policies etc have been adopted all over the world (including by the RNLI) and we support that on-site. So there's trips to surf branches around Oz and international trips to Thailand etc.

It's been a bit different not being at home all the time - my son misses our chats to and from school - but that can all resume in a week's time. So yes, I'm basically counting my blessings - we were a heartbeat away from bankruptcy (indeed we still are with regard the UK side of things) but there's money coming in now and we feel we've turned a corner. Life is indeed what you make it.

Originally Posted by Olibeneli (Post 7871985)

Good news on how the job is panning out. Can I ask will you defo take the 10 days sick or only when you actually are sick. I never understood the sick entitlement when my staff told me they were taking a sick day.....my questions on if there were sick and what was wrong went down "well".

Originally Posted by northernbird (Post 7872170)

My husband takes his sick whether he is sick or not. His salary is calculated in such a way that he actually pays for his sick days so he sure as hell is going to take them.

Originally Posted by northernbird (Post 7872170)

My husband takes his sick whether he is sick or not. His salary is calculated in such a way that he actually pays for his sick days so he sure as hell is going to take them.

Originally Posted by Hutch (Post 7876494)

Yea I'll be taking them too. Like you say, it's factored into your salary. When I mentioned it in the office, how I found it weird that they actually pencilled in 10 sick days per employee, they all looked at me strangely and looked very puzzled when I said there was no such arrangement in any job I held while working in the UK.

Originally Posted by Hutch (Post 7876494)

Yea I'll be taking them too. Like you say, it's factored into your salary. When I mentioned it in the office, how I found it weird that they actually pencilled in 10 sick days per employee, they all looked at me strangely and looked very puzzled when I said there was no such arrangement in any job I held while working in the UK.

Originally Posted by NickyC (Post 7878391)

But if you always take all your sick days in a year you never accumulate any.
What happens if one year, you get really sick and need to take, say, a month (or even six months) off? Your sick pay will run out after 10 days - how will you survive then?

Originally Posted by Hutch (Post 7876494)

Yea I'll be taking them too. Like you say, it's factored into your salary. When I mentioned it in the office, how I found it weird that they actually pencilled in 10 sick days per employee, they all looked at me strangely and looked very puzzled when I said there was no such arrangement in any job I held while working in the UK.

Originally Posted by NickyC (Post 7878391)

But if you always take all your sick days in a year you never accumulate any.
What happens if one year, you get really sick and need to take, say, a month (or even six months) off? Your sick pay will run out after 10 days - how will you survive then?

Originally Posted by Olibeneli (Post 7881481)

I had an exact example....lady I employed went on a baby drive to get pregnant.....needed to go for special IVF treatment for 2 days...she was not sick...... Is this sick leave ?.....if so why ?. What is the difference between that two day IVF and me deciding I need to go on a 2 day golf improvement course....neither of us are sick and none of it benefits our work. I upheld she took the two days as holiday and so did my Australian boss. On the other hand, if she became sick from the treatment and could not work....then its sick leave. The IVF treatment or my golf course example are both things planned and avoidable....not so with genuine sickness.



Lastly - I did add that I hoped her treatment went well and prayed for her....and she did eventually get pregnant. Had it been treatment for, say, an ectopic pregnancy then yes....sick leave.