u/sunnysideupslide

Just trying to wrap my head around how things work here.

I’ve been working here for three years now, for different employers, and have had multiple run ins with management where they tried to, illegally, stiff me on things.

My start date fell on a public holiday so my (indian) manager took it upon himself to push it back one day so he wouldn’t have to pay that day - had to argue, involve HR and show my contract with the written date while he continuously lied and argued. They ended up paying for that one day.

Had another (indian) manager agree to pay me my normal hourly rate for the hours I went to tafe to finish up a course I started before getting hired by them - when time to came for him to pay he fought me tooth and nail on this, claimed he never agreed to anything and only begrudgingly paid up once others got involved and told him off.

Another company I worked at I was warned to always take screenshots of submitted timesheets because the (chinese) manager likes to take out a few hours here or there. I actually ended up catching him doing that and, once again, had to argue and fight him. He also agreed on a certain amount of stand-by paydays when a job got canceled and then only paid half of that.

It’s really annoying, not so much because of the money involved, but because you want to be able to trust the people you work with. I’m sort of in fight-or-flight mode now anytime something money related comes up because I’m basically expecting people to try and cheat me any chance they get. Have to insist everything is given in writing etc etc.

Is this normal here in Australia? A lot of my australian mates tell me these same stories, always having to fight their bosses…

I’m mentioning ethnicities because I’ve never had this with any Anglo-Celtic managers and being an immigrant myself you do pick up on these things.

How have Australians just collectively decided to live in houses built to absolute dogshit standards, and that it’s just fine?

Australia is a first world nation, but the build quality of houses here is shocking.

You can hear anything that happens in the house because walls aren’t made from solid stone or concrete, they’re literal sheets of glorified cardboard stapled to wodden beams.

Windows are single glazed and not airtight at all, neither are doors, and nothing is insulated. A good house keeps its internal temperature, meaning if you cool it down or heat it up once it will maintain that temperature for a very long time without the heater/ac running, a concept virtually unheard of in Australia, you need to blast the aircon all day.

Everyone insists on living in a free standing house, but noone has a second floor, or a basement, or a usable attic. Meaning you effectively get the same living space as in an apartment, because apparently it is too hard (lol) to build a second floor while you’re at it.

It absolutely blows my mind that houses here have roofs that are literal sheet metal bolted down with screws. I never even heard of leaking roofs before I moved here. My mate is a chippy and explained with a straight face it is normal for cracks to form because a house moves after it’s been built. What the hell.

I grew up in a 200 year old german house that was solid as fuck and will easily last another 200 years. It was perfectly airtight, the walls were solid and soundproof, it had great insulation and if you closed the windows your room was effectively sealed. We had a basement with 3 rooms, a first floor with 3 rooms, a second floor with 3 rooms, and an attic with 3 rooms(with slated walls) for storage. Effectively giving us 9 rooms to live in and 3 to store stuff. This is considered standard in Germany and my parents were definitely not rich or anything, that’s just a normal house there.

Houses here are built to such bad standards it just blows my mind. And don’t even get me started on these cookie cutter new builds in these dystopian suburbs where noone has a backyard and houses literally sit right next to each other.

Why are you guys okay with this? How the hell have Australians just agreed that this is fine? Australia is way richer than Europe so why are you guys okay with living in these houses?

Most Australians take pride in being really good at what they do, but the money they make doing it usually isn’t managed well due to financial literacy.

I have this theory - which makes me sound like a conspiracy theorist - that the public school system doesn’t teach financial literacy on purpose because society needs workers. The easiest most reliable way to ensure people go to work everyday is to make it so they have just enough money to pay their bills, and then they need to go work again.

It truly wouldn’t take much to teach basics like budgeting properly, compound interest, retirement, passive income, mortgages vs renting, interest rates, optimising super, how to avoid predatory financial products etc. High schoolers could get a solid financial education in an hour or two of finance lessons per week for a few years.