My first job in Australia

[Toitjie]

lol...hairy partner! Reynier will love that!

Anyways...wrt washing. I have a very good sytem that I implemented since we landed. I dont even own an iron or an ironing board. I bought one of those red little kettle like thingys from Verimark that steams your clothes. Its way better than the Tobi and costs about R 150. I use that only for hubby's shirts. Everything else, I time in the tumble dryer. I make sure that Im there when it comes out, when the cycle is done I fold the clothes immediately and pack it away. That way I dont have the HEAP of clothes I always had and everything is "ironed" by the dryer!

I have a slow cooker, I will unpack it. Good idea, I forgot about it. Im curious to know how you make stock Surferman? I hate the MSG in soup and tend to not want to know what else is in there. Is it easy to make? give us a few hints!

As to purple - it has become somewhat of a joke in the office, and they all tease me about it now. Some said they have never heard of it and some say they have. Interesting

Crossingover - I have realised that it's those silly mistakes that makes you more acceptable. The more fun I make of myself the more they laugh, the more they like me, the better work becomes. Something like that. They love making fun of people, in a good way, and if you can take it and make fun back you are an instant hit. Now they all ask me to say things like certain words or their names because they like how it sounds with my accent

today I made a fool of myself just because my colleague was talking so fast I couldnt keep up. We have a new client and want to visit them next week. The idea is to give everyone a couple of shirts, and she was talking about these shirts, when suddenly she said something about ham and egg rolls, and then back to shirts. I asked her, what do you mean? do you actually call your shirts ham and cheese? of course not! how stupid can i be but she said it so fast I couldnt believe it was 2 different topics. So now, whenever they talk about shirts, they look at me, over dramatize and say not ham and cheese "Joulandi" but real shirts! They love that I thought that...and I dont feel that they are making fun of me in a bad way at all! You need to be serious when its needed, and to be able to banter when needed. Really hard for me as Im a very serious type of person...so acting comes in handy but i must say, its becoming easier and easier. You will also see, if this is the type of people you work with, fitting in becomes easier just because everyone is more relaxed and less uptight about everything. Despite this, I still work my butt off!

[RYLC]

So you may as well embrace the purple teasing then and turn up with a purple mug and purple cookies for everyone

[Toitjie]

That's an excellent idea!! Im going to do just that. Have you seen Kelly Osbourne's purple hair? I love it..

[rozellem]

You could buy stock powder in a health shop or make your own, reduce down and freeze in portions. I watched Heston B. make some. He took cheap as chips chicken necks (woolies/coles), put in in a roasting tray, sprinkled it with a bit of milk powder, added onions, garlic, herbs and roasted it in the oven. Afterwards it plopped everything in a big pot (I use my pressure cooker) and added more slices of onion, celery, carrot, water, some herbs. Cook this, then press with masher to release flavour, remove lid and boil down to consentrate broth. Cool, strain, decant, freeze.

[Toitjie]

Just have to mention that I got the best advice ever from Rozelle. I visited Just Jeans in Belconnen and finally I found a shop with clothing that is more trendy and more my own personal style.

I went to Queenspark first and nearly ran out of there. Honestly, the colour and shapes are awful, I didnt like one bit of clothing in there. I was on the verge of thinking there is something wrong with me for disliking everything I saw! But in Just Jeans there are really some nice tops, mostly cotton which I love, with trendy styles and my favourite colour - blue!

Thanx Rozelle, at least now I have enough work clothes to see me through for a while. I will definitely visit them again

[Bob]

38 Hours a week for the working week has been around since the 1980s.

That means that you can work a variety of hours, as long as it all adds up to 38 for each week.

Some companies may get you to work for 7 hours 36 minutes a day (x 5 days = 38 hours) or they may get you to work the old 8 hour day, 40 hours for each week, but the fourth week of the "month" you take a day off . . . . . a "19 day month". That works out the same number of hours over a four week period.

There are four weeks paid holidays each year, as well as getting paid for all the public (Bank) holidays throughout the year, e.g. New Year's Day, Good Friday, Labour Day, and so on. There are about 10 public holidays on full pay throughout the calendar year.

Have fun.

[rozellem]

Any time, Toitjie. Just Jeans and Esprit is to me like a lighthouse in the fog. Made for women with curves, who dont dry-clean. Last year, when 95% of women's shorts were hot pants with frayed edges, I discovered that they sold normal shorts. What a discovery! Yip, cotton is not something Chinese sweat shops like to work with. Read your labels carefully. They also dont like to stipulate the percentages of cotton/polyester/rayon/etc on their labels, like I am used to. Rant over.

[shannonc4]

I'm finding the clothing shops here so terrible; I would not wear any of there clothes. I miss Wollies

[McCabes]

Toitjie, I ditto the slow cooker thing, but a couple of years ago I worked at a place SO far from home and was also getting home at "happy hour" (hahaha!) then having to race to feed everyone before we all passed out!

So what I ended up doing was batches - would do a basic savoury mince, then separate out and add extra tomato/onion and Italian herbs for bolognaise. Leave it plain and add diced veg to use in cottage pie. Spice it up for curry, etc, etc. I'd then freeze in big enough portions to do a meal, so at most I'd need to do pasta or couscous (instant - or almost, much faster than rice and bland enough -unlike quinoa - that the kids eat it.) Soup is also an awesome one to batch up and use as a fill-in dinner. Otherwise grilled fish (some nights we all had fish finger and mayo sandwiches), or even breakfast for supper (egg on toast etc) which the kids usually love.

I think there was a site for cooking once a month and having enough meals to last you for dinners throughout.

If you can get a bread machine, it is awesome to set a delay function on Pizza dough, get home with toppings and roll it out and throw it in the oven for 10-12 mins

Think you are doing fantastically You are very good to have a laugh at yourself - my dad was forever telling me to find my sense of humour, it does seem to help in new situations

[SurferMan]

Hi Toitjie,

For veg:

Celery, onions roughly chopped, carrots, fresh peas, lots of garlic (we go OTT and use 10 20 cloves, it all cooks out!), tomatoes (if you want no tomato based stock, skip this) small piece of ginger, finely chopped. Add fresh thyme, a splash of rosemary and sage. 2-3 fresh bay leaves (not that dreadful dried stuff that looks like they picked it from a tomb 2000 years ago)

1-2 parsnips, some spinach, 1/2 - 1 cup of beans (cooked so you can mash em for thickness, or raw and then use blender to thicken up) some ground peppercorns, mustard seeds, cumin, coriander)

We dump the lot into the slow cooker and leave 2-4 days.

For chicken stock we use carcasses, skin etc. (we follow Tim Noakes way of eating, its awesome)

We use similar base to the above.

For beef, the missus throws in bones/offcuts, and cooks it until you can crush the bones between your fingers. Amazing beef/bone broth. (3-4 days) We also use lamb offcuts to provide a spin on beef flavour.

For seafood, I use lighter veggies and don't use tomato. You can buy fresh fish carcasses at the monger for $2/kg, cheap as chips option. Go for robust fish like coral trout (rockcod for Saffers) and other firm fish. Don't mix stuff like tuna and trout with the firm fishes. As a tip, dont use shellfish meat in your broth, eg mussell meat. use prawn and crayfish shells though, great addition.

[Toitjie]

6 June

Thanx Surferman, will do that. I love cooking from fresh and I know about Tim Noakes, I love Atkins which is more or less the same. Love carbs too, but dont tell anyone!

Just a couple of observations during my first 3 weeks in recruitment in Canberra:

I am surprised at the level of unemployment and I dont think it matches the actual figures. Added to that...Im more so surprised at how many people i encounter that left school after completing year 10 (our standard 8). Admittedly, Im on the industrial desk so working mainly with blue collar workers, but I see guys every day applying for various positions, and most have all the licenses and tickets and construction experience, but havent finished school. To me, this is interesting. I have always maintained that you should do everything in your power to get a tertiary education, it gives you just so many more options. In a country where you have HECS (is that the word?) where you study for free and then start to pay it back only once you have a job, is like heaven compared to RSA. I dont get why people would choose to leave school although I do understand if there are family factors etc, but I see a lot of this.

And all these guys are in-between jobs, meaning, when they see me, most of them are unemployed. And I am a softie in this regard, I honestly feel so incredibly sorry for anyone who is unemployed, having a family to feed, and I know the prospects arent that great because this is all he can apply for, and he is competing with 20 others.

I preach to my kids so often that they should use all the opportunities given to them and over my dead body will they leave school before they have finished year 12.

Another incident happened today. One of the other consultants had a call with a lady from South Africa, who told this consultant something bad about SA - being the reason she wants a job, and this consultant was a little disturbed and disgusted (not at her but with the content of the story) by what was said. she came to me to ask me whether it was true and I had to be careful in my response. Whoever this person is, I was diplomatic about what I said.

The story is, according to this lady, you can get someone to kill a person of your choice for as little as R 500. My response was yes, it is certainly possible but rare, but due to high unemployment figures there are a lot of desperate people out there. I most of these cases however, if someone does something like that, they will probably be caught. Its not as if every second person on the street is a hitman and you literally have to fend of gunmen as you wander the streets.

My advice is - please be careful how you word things. the ozzies do not understand our way of life and it disturbs them greatly. That doesnt mean they want you to elaborate or give more details. Quite the opposite. They dont like it and it really does no-one any good if you apply for a job and use high levels of crime and corruption as the reason (or that hitmen charge only R500!). It is far safer to talk about expanding your horizon, giving your kids a better opportunity at a first world education or maybe just because you and your partner wanted to see more of the world. Safe and honest without any brutality.

I know that it is a temptation to give gory details, especially if something bad happened to you and you need to share it with someone. That wont necessarily make a recruiter like you more, I think it might make them hesitant. dont ask me why, its not rational, its just how a human mind works.

Im slowly starting to get back into the recruitment groove, doing interviews and all that. I still struggle some days with ozzies' accent. I have no idea how to place people. With South africans I can more or less judge by your voice how old you are, but not with ozzie men some would phone me and have an incredibly deep voice and sound really old, then the guy is 21. Another had a softer voice but was much older. There is no gauge for me...but I guess that will come with time.

The people in my office is so diverse, which is really nice. There is me, then a guy from Dubai, a girl from Malaysia, a guy from Vietnam, another girl from Indonesia and a bunch of true blue ozzies I think Im going to make a suggestion that once a month, someone makes something true to their origin for everyone to eat. We have a nice kitchen so you can make it and all can have a snack with lunchtime. Any ideas? I thought if accepted, I would make bobotie and melktert as a start.

Talking about melktert, I made 3 batches this weekend. I thought its easy (having never made it before) but boy was i wrong. First one complete flop, 2nd one baked and came out nice although a little too brown on top and 3rd one in the fridge came out nice. I liked the baked one the best, next time I will put tinfoil over to keep it from burning on top. sorry that was a little off-topic

[Bronwyn&Co]

It makes me cross that a South African is happy to exaggerate to that extent in the hopes of getting a job. She makes the whole country look even worse than it really is, and makes herself sound a bit unstable. I have never heard about paying someone R500 for a 'hit'. Sheesh!!

[HansaPlease]

It makes me cross that a South African is happy to exaggerate to that extent in the hopes of getting a job. She makes the whole country look even worse than it really is, and makes herself sound a bit unstable. I have never heard about paying someone R500 for a 'hit'. Sheesh!!

Sloppy amateur. I charge at least R50k!

[Toitjie]

The funny thing was, they all gathered around me as if I would intimately know the workings of hitmen and their charges...I said, well I didnt move in those circles but...

[rozellem]

Toitjie, if you make bobotie for the office, try making mini ones in muffin tins. That way everybody gets their own one (or two, three) and holds it in the hand. I had it at a friends birthday and it was such a brilliant idea.

[Toitjie]

cool idea thanx R!

[Tazzn]

It happens Bronwyn.. my father in law was the unfortunate victim of a hit. The actual hitmen were paid not a hell of alot more than the amount that this person mentioned. I would never use this story to get my self a job but some people in SA are so desperate for any money that they would do anything.

[MannyT]

Well done Toitjie. You will be fine at work. Recruitment is not that hard :), once you get your head around the local IR legislation, the award system, Superannuation etc . The transition is always a little daunting, but if the people around you are nice, that will certainly help.

You will probably find in time that you are the most qualified person in the office.

Best of luck.

Manny

[SurferMan]

I don't bring up my reasons unless expressly asked, and then I don't give details unless asked. I give a generic "Oh, for pretty much all the reasons you no doubt have heard other say before me" That is usually enough for them. Most the time though I just say that lifestyle and employment is better here.

[Toitjie]

You are right Manny, recruitment isnt that hard, and it hit me like a ton of bricks a while ago.

Im working Industrial which is blue-collar and I pretty much experience the same issues I have seen back in South Africa. The guys I interview are mostly thankful for me interviewing them, even though its pretty crappy working through an agency, so I try to make the experience as nice as possible.

They live hard lives, they are mostly unemployed or working for a minimum wage, have a bunch of kids to feed and generally I feel miserable every day I leave work. I honestly think it's because Im getting older but I am not as hard as I should be against suffering of people (I know that sounds funny but you cant help everybody)...yet I feel sad for every face I see that has been bruised and battered by life.

The transition has been hard on me. This is a great country in certain respects, but by no means is this the land of Canaan. One thing I have come to realise is that to all extents you have to take care of yourself and not be injured. ever.

Radically opposed to RSA where you almost cannot fire someone, here firing people is as easy as eating cake and happening every single day. The man I interviewed sustained a serious injury and obviously there is a long story but in the end he was without a job. had to do odd jobs. And of the men I see most have had some sort of injury along the way. they live a hard life and work even harder and get rewarded by a system that fails them.

In my industry with the people I work there isnt much of job security and its heartbreaking. On the one side I understand the reasoning, it gets rid of the deadwood and under performers but it also leaves it open to abuse...just my personal opinion.

My job itself is getting easier every day. The IT system we use is pretty spectacular. Im really impressed with how it operates and how everything talks to each other (the HRIS system, the payroll system, the training and outlook - all connected and really very well managed)

I have to do most of my training on online courses and as I progress through the training (done at my desk) I am given further acces to the HRIS system.

The people I work with are still amazing. I have had a rough week with 7am starts and sitting until after 6pm in the office and today every now and then someone came and asked if I had lunch yet and if Im ok...honestly no-one ever bothered before and I was deeply touched.

One of the guys that I have placed with a client sent me an email to thank me for helping him and a day later I received a reward certificate from the company...something to the tune of service excellence or something. And the GM sent me a personal congratulatory letter. I know its part of motivation but never having been recognised before, this is refreshing and much appreciated.

The still laugh at some of my words and correct me with others, and even cheered today when I said "Cairns" and apparently I said it with the correct amount of twang!

I think...thinking back through my journey...that I knew what I was in for. Theoretically. I remember reading that it takes 2 years (ignored it), I remember it being said it will be a huge culture shock (didnt really believe it) and I remember reading that it's going to be the hardest thing you will ever do (tried my best to ignore it). The application process is nothing compared to the journey in your first 2 years. Only now, after6 months and finding a job, am I starting to experience the things I thought I would be spared - in the beginning I thought this is really easy, and apart from not having a job, I was having a good time with being home and doing stuff. But now..I realise Im in that 2 year period and just have to suck it up and get it over with. It's not easy...but Im not one to ever give up a good fight and will get through this...eventually.

But believe it...or not at your own peril ... but it really takes a long time to adjust....especially in the workplace...and you have to be kind to yourself. Accept that it will be hard and take it from there. The hours will be long and hard...but will be recognised.

For the first 2 weeks in my job, I had the urge, every single bloody day, to just drive past my place of work and keep going. Just on and on and never come back. But at the robot, every morning, I turned in and did my job. And Im glad I did. I proved to myself that I can get past anything that comes my way...and even though Im still new, it's already better than a month ago and I dont feel the urge to drive past anymore

[McCabes]

Thanks for your honest sharing Toitjie! You are such an inspiration!

Yeah I would feel awful for all those guys as well... I'm extremely sensitive so that kind of thing affects me as well. Huge hugs!!! I think you make a difference by caring (even if you can't wave a wand for everyone).

Congrats on the recognition, that is awesome!

[chzaau]

The sad stories of people. But look it happens all over the world and also in South Africa, when people get hurt they just get disposed of, get rid of the problem. A major place this is happening is with the Labour Broker setup here in South Africa and the general move to causalize the work force.

[Fish]

Hi Toitjie, If us Aussies can't understand you just squeeze your nose before repeating the word...try it...it works for my English wife and Canadian sister in law

Edited June 28, 2014 by Fish

[Toitjie]

1 August

Thank goodness it's weekend. I have never so lived for weekends as the past couple of months. On a Friday I feel more together, just because I know I have a weekend to look forward to and not be at work!

Eyebrow spoke of a loss of identity in her thread and that struck a cord with me. I have lost my identity in a way and I know it will take a long time to regain that.

In my new job I have a resource (person who does the admin and is supposed to source candidates for me). She is in every way a very nice person but I get a vibe from her that Im continually asking myself, is this real or am I imagining it? She is younger than me, acts sweet and innocent yet at the same time make little snide comments such as "why dont you phone your predecessor and ask HER what you are doing wrong". This was when there was an issue with a client. Turns out, my predecessor had exactly the same problem.

Then there was an issue with revenue being paid from one office to another. Me being new I didnt know the history of why this is happening and queried it. The query escalated and the other office also wanted to know. While I was investigating, out of nowhere, she jumps up and says I probably shouldnt be handling this, it should rather be dealt with by a more senior person because "someone is going to get pissed off". just like that. I was quite angry, but sucked it up. I sorted it, got an explanation, spoke to the boss and all was good. Absolutely no reason for "senior person" to become involved in something I could solve. But she clearly thinks I am incompetent and tries at every opportunity to make me look foolish. Same in meetings.

It's really hard. The situation is foreign to me. With all that happened back in SA I would never have tolerated such behaviour. I was comfortable in my role, I knew my boundaries and was not afraid to speak my mind. Here, all those are wiped off the board. Maybe it's just me..maybe others could continue their same office personalities but Im struggling. Maybe I should be more forceful. but reading this forum for so many years, where the common thread was that some South Africans are considered rude and arrogant in the workplace, I will think twice before I act more assertive

I dont want to rock the boat, and be known as the difficult South African that picked a fight with the cute little ozzie who has been there for much longer. It feels as if my identity has been stolen. By me! It's only I who can change this! And that's the difficult part.

anyway..just a little rant for the week. Other than the mixed vibe I get from my colleague, the rest are all still great, my boss is fantastic and in the end, it's only my boss's opinion of me that counts. And I do think that what Im doing is being noticed. I have seen how clients respond to me now that they know me better. In a way, I think, my accent is a big plus. Im a little exotic to them (oh my...NEVER thought I would put myself and the word exotic in one sentence). But you catch my drift, Im different and for some reason, we bonded.

I have really found 99% of ozzies to be so welcoming and so extremely nice. I love working here. That is one big difference from SA. In SA I loved the work but not so much the people. Here, love both work and the people! Bonus!

[Bronwyn&Co]

Toitjie I also experienced that kind of false bitchiness and backstabbing which I now recognise was a form of bullying by undermining me. It was the first time in my working experience, I didn't know how to handle it. I think I responded by being even nicer but it made it worse. It was actually terrible and I went down to part time then resigned. My brother is also currently on stress leave after extreme backstabbing at work. I wish I had advice for you. I can tell you that being nice didn't work for me (((hugs)))