More family time?

[sally04]

So, have been overloading on Phil Spencers secret agent down under...! having returned to the UK last summer after 6 yrs living in Aus, I find it really fascinating that people are still banking on this more family time, more work life balance argument as to why the want to move to Aus.

If you're the average person who has to work and pay the bills then you'll probably end up working longer hours, and have a longer commute if you live some distance from the city to get your dream house.

We spent loads more time together in Aus, but that was mainly because we had no one else around! we did so many new and interesting things together, but i think that was as much due to the fact we had this different attitude/mind set we went out with. We both still worked and often longer hours.

 

What are others views on making the move to Aus for more time together?

[Parley]

I don't think anyone would emigrate to another country for that reason. Sounds unlikely.

[ali]

I think we've spent more quality time together as a family despite working the same sort of hours - that's been our gain, but not why we moved.

[sally04]

it may not be the actual reason they emigrate i agree, but many people do say these things when they state their reasons for emigrating to Aus! Maybe its that saying ... a change is as good as a rest!"

[Guest]

I have heard it said on here many times and it is another myth about Australia - typically in Australia working hours are longer, annual leave is less and unless you work in London the commute is longer if you live in Perth, Melbourne or Sydney than in most UK cities (unless you are loaded!)

 

We didn't find the quality of time together better either but one thing I did notice was a lot of socialising was done as a family children and adults together, personally I didn't like that but maybe it suits some people.

[Parley]

How much annual leave do you get in England ?

[dmjg]

As a teacher, within a few days of what I get here! :laugh:

[Parley]

Australia has long service leave after 15 years (3 months leave with pay), many people get a free rostered day off per month, 10 to 12 sick/personal days per year.

So pretty well looked after leave wise in my opinion.

Also leave loading on top of holiday pay.

 

All thanks to the unions.

[dmjg]

Australia has long service leave after 15 years (3 months leave with pay), many people get a free rostered day off per month, 10 to 12 sick/personal days per year.

So pretty well looked after leave wise in my opinion.

Also leave loading on top of holiday pay.

 

All thanks to the unions.

 

As an Abbott man, I would have thought you would be against the unions as they hinder (ie look after the employees) the potential profits of big business.

[Parley]

Yes, I do think the unions have often been too powerful in the past. But I don't think it is such a problem nowadays.

I remember in the 80s though that often the trains would go on strike leaving people stranded and there would be lots of strike action causing a lot of disruption.

 

However I do think they have done some good over the years to keep big business in check.

There needs to be some balance doesn't there between rights of business and rights of workers.

 

Whether some of these things like leave loading and rdos are really justifiable is a bit dubious but we are all glad to get them of course.

[fifi69]

You have to work...wherever you are:mad: So for a lot of folks that's weekday daytime sorted..

 

it's ****, I hate it, but needs must.

 

but wow, come evening time or weekends...life's a beach, or a bowl of. Cherries..

 

being back in the uk....has just empathised, how **** it is...and it's friggin freezing

[surfndirt]

It's like someone saying they are going to move to Chicago, IL for more family time and a less stressful life.......

 

UK -> Australia propaganda is terrible. Remember, young Philly Spencer is making a program to MAKE MONEY. It is not a charity he is running, people watch that shite in the UK because of the image / re-enforced propaganda perception. He is hardly likely to host a show where people are moving to an overpriced, road rage stricken megatropolis rat race is he..... :-)

[northshorepom]

Depends on the choices you personally make, doesn't it?

 

We have more family time, but that's only because I made a conscious decision that a big part of the move for us was to reduce commute time as I was losing 15-20 hours a week to commuting, leaving home at 5.45 and back at 19.30. So I negotiated with the job I was offered to make sure we could comfortably live in an area of Sydney <30 mins from work. Now I leave home at 6.45, home at 18.00 which is much better and has made a world of difference to us

 

If I couldn't have negotiated the pay packet required to do that though, and been offered something that would have meant 1hr+ commutes each way still, we wouldn't have come, simple as that. I suppose we could have moved closer to London to sort out the commuting back home but that would have involved other compromises. Here we live in the Sydney equivalent of, say, Richmond and I work in the equiv. of Hammersmith. Couldn't really have afforded that in London as whilst Sydney is expensive for housing, it's not quite as extreme as West London, yet.

 

*In general* I don't see people as having more or less family time here. But I can only comment on those close to me in terms of demographics/employment

[paul1977]

Australia has long service leave after 15 years (3 months leave with pay), many people get a free rostered day off per month, 10 to 12 sick/personal days per year.

So pretty well looked after leave wise in my opinion.

Also leave loading on top of holiday pay.

 

All thanks to the unions.

An RDO isn't free... Hours get stopped from your pay packet every week, then when you take your RDO the hours banked get used

[akiralx]

How much annual leave do you get in England ?

 

In the UK I got 33, here I get 20...

[paul1977]

You have to work...wherever you are:mad: So for a lot of folks that's weekday daytime sorted..

 

it's ****, I hate it, but needs must.

 

but wow, come evening time or weekends...life's a beach, or a bowl of. Cherries..

 

being back in the uk....has just empathised, how **** it is...and it's friggin freezing[/quote

 

still grim ' up north' ..??

[MARYROSE02]

I am spending more,time commuting now than at any time in my,life, going from Surry Hills to,Penrith, 55 kilometres & 90 mins,each way, for 3 hours work. On train now, just left Toongabbie, next stop Seven Hills (nearly as romantic as Seven Sisters!)

 

I guess plenty of people would scoff at that, whether they commute from The New Forest to London, or The Blue Mountains to Sydney. It is just the,way it goes. You live where you can afford to live and work where you can get,a job. I wd be happy to move to Penrith if I had,a full time, permanent job, although i'm settled in Surry Hills.

 

Just left Blacktown so heading into "injun territory!"

[Penelope Pitstop]

As I said on another thread, one of the people on one of the Phil Spencer Down Under programs used to work where I work. The house that he bought during the show, by the beach, was well over an hour's drive away from his work!! Not much family time there. Needless to say he didn't last long and now has a job nearer home, but still probably 45 mins commute. The pretty beachside suburbs aren't always near work!

[Paul1Perth]

Australia has long service leave after 15 years (3 months leave with pay), many people get a free rostered day off per month, 10 to 12 sick/personal days per year.

So pretty well looked after leave wise in my opinion.

Also leave loading on top of holiday pay.

 

All thanks to the unions.

 

I thought most places had long service after 10 years, our place is. My son used to get a rostered day off every fortnight when he was a sparky working in construction in Perth. Now he's FIFO he does 7 on 7 off, so works less than half a year, with holidays taken into account, he's on more money than me too. I've heard people talk about sick leave as though it's part of their entitlement. I must be old fashioned and still look at it as leave to take if you are sick. A lot of the time I've come to work when I have been sick and thought I'll take a day off when I feel better. Then never get round to it as I feel guilty. I have months of sick leave accrued.

 

As far as our family is concerned we spend heaps more time together and a lot more "quality" time I guess you would say. A couple of things that promote that are we don't have any other relations here so had to rely on each other and spend more time in each others and the kids company.

 

We like the same things, beach, sport mostly and the beach is 2 mins from the house. Both the kids were members of the local surf club from 7 years old and we still enjoy going to the beach as much, if not more, than we did when we first came.

 

Reason I said more is that we have loads of friends with the same interests (again beach, sport) with kids that seem to mingle well. We can almost guarantee going to the beach, even on a week morning or night and seeing someone we know. Loads of free sporting activities go on there every day and me, the wife and kids take full advantage of what's on offer. The weather is obviously better for these type of activities than the UK, even if you are lucky enough to live near the Ocean in the UK.

 

If you're the type that is going to enjoy the kind of lifestyle that's been so good to us and I don't think you have to be loaded to do it, we certainly aren't then I think you will have lots of good times together. Sure you still have to work but I've not found the hours for me or the wife any longer here than in the UK. Commuting here is a breeze. Sure I still travel 30Km one way to work but it doesn't compare to the trip I used to have half way round Manchester, on packed motorways, in rain, fog, stacks of traffic. I drive down West Coast Highway for 20Km of the trip every day and even the trip to work and back is pleasant. Not one foggy, icy or snowy day in 22 years.:cool:

 

If you're the type that gets home from work and sits in the house watching TV, playing on the playstation, skyping friends back in the UK all the time, living your life through your smartphone and facebook and generally think you're missing out 'cos one of your mates in the UK is going to the cost del sol every few weeks then you are probably going to think that Aus isn't much different from the UK.:yes:

[Paul1Perth]

An RDO isn't free... Hours get stopped from your pay packet every week, then when you take your RDO the hours banked get used

 

It's still a day off, no matter how you word it.

[Parley]

In the UK I got 33, here I get 20...

 

Goodness, no wonder the UK has been struggling with their economy.

[Que Sera Sera]

UK used to be 28 including all public holidays. Not sure if that's changed now, some companies may give more but then I'm sure some do here too.

[Parley]

Well Australia is usually 20 days annual leave plus 9 or 10 public holidays.

[Keith and Linda]

Yes its a day off but not with pay, you pay for it by having 2hrs pay deducted from your pay each week thus giving you back your 8hrs of pay every 4 weeks, these RDO's are very cleverly worked out to coincide with other public holidays to give long weekends, another advantage is if you can bank them and then take them at a later date to suit yourself.

[MARYROSE02]

I liked my long service leave after ten years, not fifteen, and my leave loading. Of course, those lovely benefits might deter employers from taking more people on, just as some small businesses close at weekends rather than pay penalty rates to casual staff, so who wins?