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As a WA state government employee my general conditions are:
-7.5 hour days with a 30-45 minute lunch break.
-Flexitime arrangement, working roughly 30 additional minutes a day equates to one extra day off per month.
-4 weeks annual leave, 17.5% loading on pay during leave. 10 paid public holidays per year and 13 weeks long service leave on normal pay every 7 years.
As a WA state government employee my general conditions are:
-7.5 hour days with a 30-45 minute lunch break.
-Flexitime arrangement, working roughly 30 additional minutes a day equates to one extra day off per month.
-4 weeks annual leave, 17.5% loading on pay during leave. 10 paid public holidays per year and 13 weeks long service leave on normal pay every 7 years.
Most staff come in around 8-8:30 and leave 4-5pm.
Ahhh the luxuries of being a government employee, i assume they kick in a bit of extra super for you as well.
I currently work for a company that is big on face time as opposed to productive time. Also annoyingly irrespective of the time you start, the time you finish matters. Even if you have an early start and productive day, leaving before 6pm is frowned upon.
Considering I live in a place that has its latest sunset at 6.45pm in summer, most evenings are dark when I get home.
Also the middle management are absolutely appalling. They talk themselves up, attend meetings without understanding the grass root issues, provide no direction or structure and talk down to you like you're an infant.
This is mostly a company issue here though and I digress. However I do find the work culture in Australia less agreeable than the UK which had healthier work/life balance and my industry was held in higher regard.
I cannot comment on the US as have never worked there but many of the above comments around presentation etc being important are consistent with what I have heard.
I currently work for a company that is big on face time as opposed to productive time. Also annoyingly irrespective of the time you start, the time you finish matters. Even if you have an early start and productive day, leaving before 6pm is frowned upon.
Considering I live in a place that has its latest sunset at 6.45pm in summer, most evenings are dark when I get home.
Also the middle management are absolutely appalling. They talk themselves up, attend meetings without understanding the grass root issues, provide no direction or structure and talk down to you like you're an infant.
This is mostly a company issue here though and I digress. However I do find the work culture in Australia less agreeable than the UK which had healthier work/life balance and my industry was held in higher regard.
I cannot comment on the US as have never worked there but many of the above comments around presentation etc being important are consistent with what I have heard.
How does the work culture and work/life balance in the UK differ to those in Australia? (How much more lax in the UK?) And what's your industry/field?
They got even smarter (how else would they be able to afford those ludicrous CEO severance packages?),
they hire you as an hourly, "exempt" employee, which typically means: - No overtime pay - Expect OT or even weekend work - Minimum benefits package - Don't expect to get paid for the 2 weeks after you give your notice and they tell you not to come in any more yet they still expect you to give notice (go figure)!
I agree, work long (hours) but not necessarily hard and you are more likely to get noticed, rewarded, etc. compared to someone who works designated 8-5/40 hours per week but works much harder and does more. Every corporate job I had, I had the distinct pleasure of working with many underqualified mid level managers who could not do my job yet were making much more by managing me and others which is nothing more than snoozing at the meetings and conference calls, reading/replying to e-mails they want to, forcing employees to their work by having them self-evaluate themselves once or twice a year, get credit for any and all the good achievements for the people under but hardly ever relay any of their issues/concerns to upper management. It is a joke and only they are laughing.
The most over/misused, frivolous mid management title of the last decade in the US:
Project Manager
WOW...are you serious this IS the reality of the workplace in most of/all of America??!!
The part that I underlined seems extremely unproductive and inefficient
From my experience working on 4 continents, I'll say that Americans believe in quantity not quality time in the office. I worked a 36 hour day once, which (and I made this known to my manager) was ridiculous. But you were certainly considered a fantastic worker. It seems a pointless exercise, and it certainly encourages the promotion of not the best candidate but the most seen candidate. It's a strange mentality that some people wear overtime as some sort of badge of honour.
Australia tends to be somewhere between Europe and the US. The most lax attitude to work would have to have been in the UK. If I arrived at the office at 8:30am, there was no one even in yet, whereas normal ops in Sydney or New York was if you arrived at 7am the office was already half full.
How is that even possible? A day is just 24 hours! Did you work extra 12 hours without any sleep???!!
How is that even possible? A day is just 24 hours! Did you work extra 12 hours without any sleep???!!
I came in at 7:30am on Wednesday, I went home at 9pm on Thursday. I got a bit of sleep in there but not much. I was back in the office at 8am on Friday.
It's really not uncommon in investment banking or banking/finance more generally. If there's a deal that needs to be done then you're expected to stay until it's done.
I work for the state of California in the US as a government employee.
I am expected to be at work at 8am and leave work at 4:30pm
I have a 1-hour lunch beak I can take pretty much whenever I want. If I have an errand to run or something I can take an extra 15 to 20 mins on my lunch break. I dont make it an everyday thing, but I do it when needed. No problems.
I have 12 paid public holidays off
I have 3-weeks paid vacation time per year
I have paid sick leave. It's on an accrual basis-- So every pay period I get "x" amount hours of sick pay. It ends up averaging about 2 sick days per month.
I get 2 "personal days" per year.
I have medical and dental insurance through my work. I also have a 401K retirement plan (i'll admit I dont know much about, being that im in my upper 20s and retirement just isn't on my mind, but i do have one!)
In the US we tend to have meetings about everything. Most are quite unproductive. Appearance is relatively important as well. People are expected to look professional and neat.
Thats about it.
I dunno what it's like to work in Australia, but I bet it would be pretty cool
I have 12 paid public holidays off
I have 3-weeks paid vacation time per year
I have paid sick leave. It's on an accrual basis-- So every pay period I get "x" amount hours of sick pay. It ends up averaging about 2 sick days per month.
I get 2 "personal days" per year.
I'm always confused when people insist that Americans only get 2 weeks vacation. In all of my salaried jobs, public or private sector, I've had a similar set up with 20-30 days PTO depending on how long I had been at the job. In some private sector gigs I've negotiated more days off instead of a raise. If you're 23 and just starting out you might only get 2 weeks "vacation" but then you'll also get ~5 sick days and 2-3 personal days.
Quote:
I have medical and dental insurance through my work. I also have a 401K retirement plan (i'll admit I dont know much about, being that im in my upper 20s and retirement just isn't on my mind, but i do have one!)
a 401k is pretty much the same thing as "superannuation" in Australia . . . when you hear US politicians talk about how they want to "privatize Social Security" they're basically talking about the model that Australia is using. Everyone here has their own 401k (mandatory).
How does the work culture and work/life balance in the UK differ to those in Australia? (How much more lax in the UK?) And what's your industry/field?
I worked in Northern Ireland for a summer but I should really say I hung out there.
Stroll in at 9 or 9:30, have tea, check email. Work for an hour, have tea, chat for an hour.
Break for a 60-90 minute lunch.
Come back, make a few phone calls, check emails, BS for a bit, have tea.
Work for 45 minutes to an hour.
Have tea and biscuits. BS until it's time to leave.
I had friends working in London who were told by their peers on multiple occasions:
"stop working so hard, you're not impressing anyone." or "you're making us look bad."
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