ali Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Glad to hear the builders work hard and I think their attitude of no overtime is spot on. I did use the word "generally" because we have not met all the Australians I am a nurse and they have endless breaks, go home an hour early and insist on sleeping 3 hours on a night shift instead of 30 mins. Whats more if any of these things are denied they kick off big time like it is their right. They are always late and their sickness is unreal. They have no shame, call in sick constantly. Whilst at work they do nothing. Can only speak from my experience (MH), on the wards the staff have a morning tea break, and structured lunch breaks (to ensure clinical capacity on the floor), the late shift have afternoon tea/dinner break ... again structured. As the hospital is no smoking and staff have to leave the hospital grounds, smoke breaks are a minimum and usually at their tea/meal break. As a manager, I would say the issues of lateness, doing nothing etc., are performance management issues and the manager of the area/ward should be doing something (or their manager doing something). Certainly in the areas i've worked those issues wouldn't be left unaddressed if they were persistent. The attitude to sickness here is I agree totally different, in that because of the poor annual leave, people do regard this as 'additional leave' and throwing a sickie is not uncommon - they're allocated the days so want to use them. I know we get 12 days per year, 10 can be carried over, so you know that staff will take at least 2 days (which wouldn't be carried over). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maruska Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Glad to hear the builders work hard and I think their attitude of no overtime is spot on. I did use the word "generally" because we have not met all the Australians I am a nurse and they have endless breaks, go home an hour early and insist on sleeping 3 hours on a night shift instead of 30 mins. Whats more if any of these things are denied they kick off big time like it is their right. They are always late and their sickness is unreal. They have no shame, call in sick constantly. Whilst at work they do nothing. May I ask where do you work? I`ve worked as a nurse in 3 countries so far and I`ve never seen anything like it:eek:. True, some are more accepting of sick calls ( my experience in Saudi Arabia) but try it here in the USA couple of times and you are fired:confused:. I recently got a warning for calling in 2 times in 2 months ( my baby had serious ear infection). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Mental health nursing must be different. The experience of my family and friends in medical, surgical, maternity and geriatric nursing is that they are worked off their feet...and doing a double shift is not that unusual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tea4two Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 I've only been here 5 weeks but i've travelled the country in 2008 and there is a difference. When you are here on a holiday of course you will love it, just like you love your holidays when you are in Europe. When you are here, in one place and doing the day to day things, it's normal life. It can be mundane and there will be ups and downs but for us we wanted an adventure and we have one. Everything is different here so it makes every outing exciting. Life will always be what you make it and there are opportunities here to have a good life. Here are my pros and cons: Pros Weather - it's been hot, overcast, rainy, windy, hot again lol .... we are in Melbourne but I like the changes and the fact that there is always hope of a sunny day...not so in the UK. Melbourne as a city - whilst we don't want to live right in the city centre, I love having everything close by...whatever I want I can get my hands on and it's so multicultural here, there's always something going on. As far as cities go it's lovely...gardens in the centre, beach just at St Kilda...and then come out of the city 1 hour and you have beautiful beaches. Community - Since being here and through facebook forums for PIO members, I have been invited on all sorts of nights out etc...if you live somewhere remote you might not have that, but if you pick a popular area you will It will take time to get a good circle of friends again but if you put yourself out there, it IS possible for sure. Pay - If I can't get back into my line of work, admin work is paid well here...so either way we can live comfortably with more disposable money than we could in the UK. Cons Scruffy - There is TONS of grafitti in Melbourne, tons of it! Some of the suburbs look scruffy because of this and because of the houses but it doesn't actually mean they are rough areas, it's just the way things are. Expensive - We are still using the pound here till work starts next week and it has crippled us. We will be paying back what the move has cost us so far for the next 12 months at least. We shop at the markets for meat, fruit and veg to keep costs down but it's still expensive and when it's hot out like 38 degrees we were forever getting drinks at $4 to keep us cool and before we knew it with drinks and lunch we would spend $60-80 in a day not having really done much. Cars are ridiculously expensive IF you have to buy one using the pound and not money you have earned here. Job market - We were under the illusion work here would be easy to come by as the Aussies are lazy lol. I wouldn't say they are lazy but I would say in some areas they are not as efficient or they take longer getting back to you...just their way, doesn't mean they are lazy. For example, I walked into a few agencies here and they won't just see you or book an appointment like back home, you have to send your cv and it's only now after 5 weeks being here that they are starting to get back to me. I have also been told that they thought I was a backpacker - they just presumed this even though my cv and covering letter highlights i'm a PR. So i'm hoping that now they know i'm PR I will get some work as I have a good CV and work experience. There are the obvious things like you miss home and family but we came here because we thought we could have a better life. It's not paradise but I still think it offers a better lifestyle and it's an adventure if nothing else..and isn't that what life's all about? Experiencing new things? We can go home in 5 years and it will still be the same except we will have had an adventure If you haven't been on a holiday you should come over to at least get a feel for it...then you will see what the housing and the streets are like etc and areas...it's such a big country that going to a different state can be like a different country lol xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josetann Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 May I ask where do you work? I`ve worked as a nurse in 3 countries so far and I`ve never seen anything like it:eek:. True, some are more accepting of sick calls ( my experience in Saudi Arabia) but try it here in the USA couple of times and you are fired:confused:. I recently got a warning for calling in 2 times in 2 months ( my baby had serious ear infection). Ooh, you must tell me about your time in Saudi Arabia. Another place I'm interested in going to, but my wife has made it clear she couldn't deal with some of the cultural requirements (due to her being of the female persuasion). And yes, in the US...you better be dying if you want to call in sick. Think my wife called in sick once, but everyone knew she really was sick. But if you show up sick a patient might catch what you have, get sick, and well, bad things could happen. So it's either risk losing your job or your license. Luckily, my wife is rarely sick, so it's been a non-issue. She DID get some kind of warning once, when she called out due to all the snow we got. Caught us by surprise, and we couldn't get off the hill safely (it was obvious to anyone that we lived on a hill...the street had "Hill" in the name). Edit: I just remembered overhearing a conversation once. Person was applying for a job (one they'd had prior). She wasn't eligible to be rehired because she had been a no-show. She had proof that she'd been in the hospital for something pretty bad, but it didn't matter. She was told that she should have called in to work and if she was physically unable to, then someone should have called on her behalf. Unreal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maruska Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Ooh, you must tell me about your time in Saudi Arabia. Another place I'm interested in going to, but my wife has made it clear she couldn't deal with some of the cultural requirements (due to her being of the female persuasion). And yes, in the US...you better be dying if you want to call in sick. Think my wife called in sick once, but everyone knew she really was sick. But if you show up sick a patient might catch what you have, get sick, and well, bad things could happen. So it's either risk losing your job or your license. Luckily, my wife is rarely sick, so it's been a non-issue. She DID get some kind of warning once, when she called out due to all the snow we got. Caught us by surprise, and we couldn't get off the hill safely (it was obvious to anyone that we lived on a hill...the street had "Hill" in the name). Edit: I just remembered overhearing a conversation once. Person was applying for a job (one they'd had prior). She wasn't eligible to be rehired because she had been a no-show. She had proof that she'd been in the hospital for something pretty bad, but it didn't matter. She was told that she should have called in to work and if she was physically unable to, then someone should have called on her behalf. Unreal. I must say it doesn`t surprise me at all... no show = ineligible for rehire, who cares you were unconscious:mad: I work at the ER in major oncologic hospital and we have TONS of people coming in for whom catching a serious infection is a death sentence. Still, we are required to show up, get some Tylenol, put a mask on and hope nobody catches it As far as Saudi Arabia goes the work was good, nurse:patient ration 1:4 on a pediatric oncology unit. Government hospitals are much better than private especially VIP-vise :wink:, I don`t enjoy working with "VIP`s". Their people get LOTS of support from the royal family, they just have to apply for financial assistance and it`s granted. Everything paid for including tickets for air travel to get treatment - every month! The life is pretty good if you are single or a couple, wouldn`t recommend it if you have kids, not a lot of things for them to do. That was the reason we left, starting a family. Annual leave is unbelievable, benefits too. Foreigners live in separate complexes with all facilities, parties are allowed inside and I`ve been to many . I met some Australians and New Zealanders there, really nice people all of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bensdad Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Love living in Fremantle amazing place. Work hard five days per week weekends off, earn much more than the uk we can even afford to save each month over here. In my opinion if carlsberg did Emigration I'm living it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest haunted1234 Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 we have lived in Cairns for 12 weeks! i have made 3 lovely friends whom i go out to lunch with, have weekend drinks with every week, i have not struggled to make friends....i have met lots of locals and found them all to be super friendly and will go out of their way to help (lending us furniture etc until our container arrived) yes we work, yes we have bills to pay...but in my opinion i'd much rather run the rat race (more of a leisurely stroll than a run!) here than in the UK where we had no jobs (redundant between the 2 of us 3 times in a year!) I love it here and can't see me ever having a good enough reason to return to the UK. my kids love it! aged 10 and 11 (boys) they're either in the pool or out playing cricket...they've also made some 'awesome' friends in school and are 'living the dream'! bite the bullet....if you dont like it you can always go home....i never wanted the "i wonder what would've happened if we'd moved to Australia?" i'd rather say i'd tried than live a life of 'what if's' ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blobby1000 Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Yeah general nurses work much harder than us mental health nurses, my wife is a general nurse. But my experience is that the MH nurse over here are massive slackers!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KIRK AND CO Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 You only live once just take care to get your planning right all the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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