the troubadour

Really.....perhaps more than Americans but not that you would really notice...more reserved but can identify with a number of points the poster mentioned as being not too dis similar in OZ.....

the troubadour

Find OZ has become far more corporate as well. Yep a change or in my case soon to pack up full time work all together. Early retirement. Certainly not living to work.

denzil75

Do you think there would be any chance of them just letting her go? Such a tough situation to be in, especially when decent jobs are hard to come by. What exactly does she do? Would she be willing to accept a decrease in pay to go elsewhere? There are some really good places to work over here with decent people, it seems both you and your wife have been extremely unlucky with your job placements. Don't let this awful situation put you off staying in the States if this is your only reason for wanting to go back to the UK, I'm sure there are work places back in the UK that are just as bad. Have you thought about moving to a different area in the States? I'm not sure where you are now.

Let us know how your wife gets on today if she decides to go in. The US does have the EEOC for dealing with discrimination but I'm not sure how strong her case would be, especially dealing with a law firm.

Ethelred_the_Unready

I'll pass on Oz! No desire to live there...I'm definitely an old world kinda guy.

Ethelred_the_Unready

Hi Denzil,

Problem is, if she quits, she won't get UI. I have openly told her that money doesn't matter...she shouldn't be working with attorneys. They constantly berate her for nothing. She had to call in sick today and is a mess over it. I don't even know if she can go back. I wish there was a CAB equivalent over here.

It's not my only reason for wanting to move back home. I am simply not cut out for it for a plethora of reasons. There's only so much one can adapt to, when fundamentally, there is so much about American society and culture that I do not agree with. The work thing is really just the final straw. I have tried living in 2 very different states. If anything, Florida was a tad easier than Massachusetts, which is ironic considering I picked Massachusetts because I thought it'd be more like the UK...boy was I wrong!

Rete

Please rephrase that to "she should not be working with those attorneys". I am a legal assistant and have been working this field for over 20 years and have actually been with the same attorneys now since 1987. There are few attorneys in our office who would act as those attorneys your wife works for.

SEL_boy

You not mad or alone in thinking like this.

I've been here for about 16 years now, and I've been extremely fortunate in my work situations - I've only had two jobs in all that time, and I've been lucky in that my co-workers have all been at least decent sorts, and often very nice people indeed.

Having said that, everything you say rings true. Everybody seems to live to work; the health insurance situation is miserable; holiday allowance is a joke; corporate doublespeak nonsense is rife; consumerism is virtually a religion.

I'm in just the same state you are as well -- I'd love to move back, but my USC wife (understandably) doesn't want to leave her aged mum, and we also have two kids that I'd hate to take out of school - the older one certainly, because I believe it's important for them to have a stable home and school situation if it's at all possible.

Hope you can resolve the problems with your wife's bosses. She doesn't deserve to be treated like that. Nobody does.

Xebedee

There are actually employee-owned firms about (workers' co-operatives) and its been my hope to get hired on with one for years now. It hasn't happened yet, so barring any mysterious acts of Allah, I'm shooting for an early retirement as being employed (owned) here in the US absolutely fu(king sucks!
Just gut it out, try self-employment or go back home is what I'd say.

Bob

Yup.

I think the big difference here though, just how far people are willing, or just have to commute for work and with hectic childcare needs, there just isn't time to go to the pub for drinks after as everyone has to head home or trying to avoid the massive traffic.

Except those in the early 20's bracket.

Bob

Timberlands is just up over the road from the OP, well a bit further than that, but it's all relative...they're a good place to be. Not quite employee owned, but not far off it.

Same for Canondale, mountain bike company, but they're the other way, just over the border with CT.

toopie28

I understand your wife's pain. Been there. But there are good days and bad days.

She needs to speak to her boss and let him know that she will not be spoken to in that manner. This is the country of lawsuits and if she reports his behaviour to HR (this is where the corporate thing comes in handy) or his boss then he will be more careful OR risk a lawsuit.

I remember when I got my first corporate job - one of the things that shocked me was the way the people would be. Talk your ear off one minute and then ignore you the next. WTF??? They would say - let's do lunch one day and then look at you like trash the next. I learned pretty quickly. And stayed away from them.

So I understand where you are coming from. It's hard adjusting to a different country - different culture. I've been here 15 yrs and would love to move to Europe - but my husband is American and I can't do that to him - way too much of a culture change for his age.

Good luck - hope your wife get's through this.

denzil75

Sounds like half the Mom's at my kids schools!

helwardman

I've come across this while working in offices both in the UK and USA, so it's not just an American thing.

toopie28

Actually, yes - to be fair I should have added that I had not worked in a corporate environment anywhere other than the US. So nothing to compare it to.

N1cky

I would agree with pretty much everything you have put, I would also add the lack of trust is ridiculous a recent example being.

Another department has recently moved in with ours and there was talk of putting a locked door between the 2 so they couldn't access files in our office while we weren't there. I had to point out that I thought it was ridiculous that we couldn't ask 2 employees who had worked at the company for over 10 years each not to go poking around while we're not there. These people work in Finance, if we can't trust them to follow a simple instruction should we be trusting them to work at the company at all?