Denied be back by lunch
Was working at a shitty fast food restaurant, and accidentally doused my entire forearm arm in boiling cheese sauce. While I was rinsing it off and wrapping it in gauze “can you hurry up? We’re opening in five minutes!”
Second degree burns, small patch was third degree and did tissue damage. I worked the rest of that shift.
The perfect country to make a bunch of money if you’re young, healthy, highly skilled, and have no kids. If you check all these prerequisites then you are making money like crazy. Just no time off, no flexibility, just working for the man. Everyone else though it’s very hard.
dont forget the rich family!
Where do I move to once I’m ready to settle down, I don’t see a future in which I raise kids in this country
Anywhere in the EU where it’s safe, sane and there’s a real social safety net. Just be prepared to learn a new language and culture, be humble and grateful.
Don’t worry, our rich and powerful are trying their hardest so they can make the Europeans enjoy the American experience too
Some people actively vote for it too
Internationalism has new champions.
My boss just lies. My predecessor DID have open heart surgery, and retired so he could have a heart replacement, so he missed a lot of time. They used to have a “sick time bank” but turned it off and enabled rollover instead. So my boss apparently just told everyone he was in his office for 6 weeks while he was hospitalized. Nice, but shouldn’t have to risk your own career and retirement to be human.
Unionize
Home of the brave, land of the free.
Leader of the free world.
Greatest country on earth.
Don’t forget the strongest economy EVER!
Or the endless amounts of OPPORTUNITY!
I had a coworker that went MIA for like a month. We were waiting on him to send us some things for a project, but nobody knew where he went or could get in touch with him. One day out of the blue he messaged us to apologize, and let us know he’d experienced a mental breakdown, become suicidal, and had been hospitalized the whole time.
I was off that day (but of course still connected to work 🙄) and in the middle of replying to his message when a friend of mine came over to go get some lunch. She asked why I seemed kinda of shaken up, and I just gave her a quick rundown and said I needed to finish replying to him before we left.
Her response kinda threw me into this whole other state of shock, bc she literally just scoffed and said “Ugh I hate when people do that! You still have responsibilities, how hard is it to just send an email saying you’ll be out?”
This is somebody I generally consider a good person, but this really made me look at her in a different way. She legit thought that somehow this guy, who literally had a break from reality and had nearly been driven to the point of suicide bc of how stressed and overwhelmed he was, was somehow in the wrong for not putting all that aside and thinking about his responsibilities to work.
How selfish of him… /s
As if, despite the words “break from reality” and “suicide,” she still somehow believed that he could have realistically been expected to just snap back into work mode momentarily
Like as he’s in the middle of fashioning a noose or loading a gun to stick in his own mouth, he was supposed to stop and go “Wait, before I do this, I really should reply to all those emails.”
Some people have “,work responsibilities” brain and can’t turn it off. When I go home at night, work gets left behind. They can’t pay me enough to take it home with me. My boss, burns the candle at both ends to make sure everything is perfect, and we still deal with chaos, because that’s life. Leave work at work.
Honest question what do businesses do when someone does the former? Hire for the summer only and when the person comes back they lay the other person off?
Well depending on the size of the organisation and the nature of the work. You either hire a temp or balance the team/workload for the vacation time. As an example; in Sweden, it is mandated by law that workers have the right to take 4 consecutive weeks between June 1 and august 31. So as long as the team is no smaller than 3 you should only have to balance or extend time frames for work during this period. Even if the work is qualified.
There is something referred to as a industry vacation here as well. Its when a factory just shuts all production for 4 weeks and everybody goes on vacation at the same time.
Do note, that you don’t have to take 4 of your 5-6 weeks of payed vacation during this time. But you have the right to.
Every year the employer has until first of April to schedule, plan and approve all vacation for the summer.
Hope that helps. If you have more questions I’ll gladly answer them. I’m a union man and have negotiated quite a few vacation plans.
This answered everything thank you! Temps are extremely rare in the US so it makes sense that’s the solution for businesses that can’t afford to close. I think because long term it is more expensive to have temps than just maintain a consistent workforce.
Hope that helps. If you have more questions I’ll gladly answer them. I’m a union man and have negotiated quite a few vacation plans.
Any chance the Engineers of Sweden (Sverigas ingenjörer?) or other, similar union have resources for foreign engineers looking to join/work? I researched and started the work visa and job hunt processes earlier this year but didn’t make it too far without knowledge and guidance.
I’m not in or associated with that Union but, what I could find is that they have some prerequisites that need to be met in order to be eligible to join.
According to their statutes :
"211 Rätt till medlemskap i förbundet har den som har avlagt ingenjörsexamen omfattande minst 180 högskolepoäng vid svensk högskola eller den som har likvärdig utländsk examen och har svensk anknytning. Förbundsstyrelsen får efter särskild prövning bevilja annan person "
English translation: “211 The right to membership of the association is granted to those who have completed an engineering degree of at least 180 credits at a Swedish university or to those who hold an equivalent foreign degree and are Swedish-affiliated. The Federal Administration may, after special examination, grant other person”
My interpretation of that clause; is that if you reside in Sweden and work here, you should be eligible to be a member. But that’s not for me to decide.
They refer all questions to their contact form and welcome all questions regarding becoming a member, but ask that its done through the contact form. Could only find the contact form page in swedish.
Hope this helps.
https://www.sverigesingenjorer.se/hjalp-kontakt/kontakta-oss/
Edit: you of course also have to have an engineering degree minimum 180 swedish university points or equivalent.
Thank you for the assistance! From my earlier research I do hold a qualifying engineering degree. I’m also interested in studying for a Masters or potentially PhD at Göthenburg, but frankly will accept any path to legally move and work somewhere that isn’t the US. The EU in general and Sweden or Germany in particular have been my focus thus far and I sincerely appreciate a new route to investigate.
After some really quick checking i would say fastest safest way (to get permanent recedency) is probably study permit, look for work during studying with an employer open to up your hours once your studies are over. So you can get a work permit. And before you known it 4 years have passed you can apply for permanent residence. One more year then apply for citizenship.
Edit: since you said you were open to studying
Edit 2: you probably already knew all this. If so read this as someone trying support your decision rather than some rando on the interwebs over splaining.
Edit 2
I found the individual pieces through my research earlier this year. Laying it out for me plainly really helps and has me revisiting the idea. I think I stumbled after learning about the need for enough funding to self-support? I’ll look into it more.
Thank you, I really appreciate your help and encouragement.
Do you mean the 80% of mean salary thing, for permanent recedency? Self-support is probably a weird traslation. Self sufficient is probably the meaning. That you don’t need monetary support.
Either that, or more realistically, the output of the company tanks during the summer. It’s ok because everyone expects most people to be on vacation during the summer time and everyone will just work around it.
Most companies know not to take projects on over that period. Since every company works like that it’s not a problem. You could higher temporary contractors but realistically those contractors are going to charge a lot of money, because they also don’t want to be working over the summer. Best to just plan around it.
Not in Europe but similar situation. You either have enough staff in the team, or staff that with similar skills in other teams, that someone can cover them for that period, or you hire a contractor. Also depends how long they’re gone and how urgent things are.
But usually you hire slightly more staff than you need. I mean what if someone gets really sick? What if you suddenly get multiple urgent things? In the down time there’s extra things you can do that aren’t “make new shit” so it’s not like you’re paying people to do nothing.
In the US we hire significantly less workers than needed and threaten them with homelessness if they don’t make it work.
Lol no you can’t do that. Many students work during the summer and get a one month contract, or pace is just slower during the summer.
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There’s nothing like a ridiculous generalization to highlight how stupid Europeans are.
/s
It’s also not technically wrong, its my understanding as someone in the US, a lot of places if you take medical leave, you’re required to use up all your vacation and sick leave doing so, before the company let’s you start eating into unpaid days or medical leave. So if you have a large medical issue, have a kid, etc, this post is true, you’re being forced to use up all your vacation days to have surgery, or birth, and recover.
Most decent jobs will give you SOME maternity or paternity leave.
My wife gets 5 weeks and I get 6, but I was allowed to stretch it to 7 weeks with pre-approval.
You may be given it, but the problem I was trying to point out is that I think places force you to use all the paid time you have left before you start eating into the maternity/paternity leave, thus rendering OP’s post true: you’re forced to use your vacation time on medical issues in the US.
Yes. I agree that it’s a problem.
No, we don’t have to use vacation and/or sick pay to utilize LOA. Source: I went on paternity leave which was theough LOA benefits (not unpaid, though pay was like 70% or something based on some range of time leading up to the LOA start date) and came back to work with all of my vacation and sick pay available to me.
Then again, I don’t think it works the same at every job.
A statement which, in itself, is a generalization.
- Vacation (Annual Leave) for the EU is minimum 4 weeks (20 paid days) per year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absence_management
- The US has no federal mandate for paid vacation, where the private sector average is about 10 vacation days after one year, plus about 6 paid holidays, totaling around 16 days annually: https://time.com/4227072/job-benefits-united-states/
In addition, some European countries have more, like Sweden’s legal minimum is 25 paid days per year, with a special rule for new employees hired after August 31 granting only 5 days until the next April. Sick days 1–14: Paid by employer at a minimum of 80% of salary, subject to a deduction, and from Day 15 onward: Compensation provided by the state, typically 80% for 364 days, then 75% up to 550 days, with medical certification and administrative reporting required. https://www.e-days.com/holiday-compliance-guide/emea/sweden
Even if what you said were true, the “stupid” Europeans have it better than the US.
Cool. Thanks for getting the joke
Who would read this as some sort of prejudice or attack against Europeans?
If you think this post is a comment about how bad Europeans and the European system is, you may have some mental problems around this issue.
Not sure if this is a serious dumb comment or I’m being wooshed because saying “how stupid Europeans are” is exactly a ridiculous generalization.
Hmm
Yeah, only a fool would take the whole summer off. Everything’s so expensive when the kids are off school. Couple of weeks in early spring then another couple in autumn, then a week off at Christmas and week somewhere in the winter. Gotta spread the little holiday we get out.
What they don’t tell you is that the real American way for high skilled workers is to work a couple years, then get laid off or quit to take 6-8 months off doing woodworking or van life or some shit. Maybe found a company if you are too bored with what you are doing or start a YouTube channel. Americans take the time it’s just that they do it between jobs not during
I’ve never read more bullshit concentrated on a single post.
Is that what you do between jobs? Woodworking and starting a successful YouTube career?
Most people burn through savings and turn to credit cards to survive between jobs, but I’m glad it’s working out for you buddy.
- Not a high skilled worker
- Don’t live in America any longer
No, if I’m between real jobs, I do whatever other sorts of work needed to pay my bills. I have worked with plenty of high skilled people who did just as I described though, immigrants, Americans, etc. they earn twice a European salary for two years, then get laid off in a downturn or quit and spend a year doing dumb shit and net out ahead anyway.
What are you talking about.
they earn twice a European salary for two years
What industry are you in that an American salary is competitive with a European equivalent? Not only is the cost of living in Europe lower than it is in the United States the renumerations are also consistently higher.
Tech workers in the US can actually come out ahead. It’s very far from being the case in most fields though.
The average mid level salary is roughly twice that of the EU, with the discrepancy getting more extreme with experience. The system is grossly unfair, so the best compensated jobs also tend to have the lowest health care costs and best vacation packages.
The only American salaries consistently lower than European salaries are service worker salaries, who are not high skilled workers.
And what does that extra money get you in the long run?
Obesity, a global logistics machine which spreads instability and advances America’s interest throughout the world, sometimes blowback from #2, and finally the ability to take a long time off between high paying jobs since you won’t get vacation time and you will probably get laid off or burnt out in a couple of years.
Probably healthcare, doctors, nurses, PA’s, techs etc. make a lot less in Europe than in the US. But they also don’t have nearly the associated debt.
“highly skilled workers” because saying enjoying life is a privilege felt too convoluted?
Didn’t say it was fair, but that is what high earners are doing.
The heart problems have been a production of the American Association of Processed Food Advertising.
No fresh vegetables were harmed in the making this text message.
“If you need to contact me during the operation, message my heart surgeon”
My boss is like “You’re looking stressed. Take some holiday before you burn out.”
