With Terry working long hours, our days (Daniel and me) are getting longer as well... we are now one of those typical British family in which Daddy works long hours to provide and when he comes home kids all gone to beds (when mummy go back to work it will be more typical)... we all know British work the longest hours among Europeans, British children self-reported the least happy one among Europeans (on survey done by UNICEF recently). In contrary, Dutch children are on top of that chart. It might be British nature of playing down things, however, there must be some correlations between British children's unhappiness and the long hours culture here. It is said Dutch are more or less judged by how their family being run. British are judged more on their career, income and spending. So you can see British parents work longer and longer hours to provide their offsprings a big house, private education, more holidays, more computer games, toys to make them happy, They are still not happy... would they be happier say let them do without, it might be just as misable as they have. Life just like going on in circle or like a gold fish in pond ( go round and round)! That's why they call rat race... and since I moved here, got job, got house, got mortgage and pang!I am one of these rats! Sometimes I think my life in China was (would be) more relaxed as it's mortgage-free, low-cost living, no long hours but long lunch...I come a long way in the hope finding a quality life here but just to find out the 'quality' is actually on the other side of the world... (Don't get me wrong, Britain is a great country to live if you are fortunate to be on the 'HAVE' side.)
Luckily holiday soon! one more week to go... can't wait! Hope all these long hours worthwhile...we will spend quality time together as a family on our holiday to Hongkong and Kunming.
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6 comments:
Somehow I don't have any desire to visit UK after reading Liina's and your blogs.
I'm glad that 8 years ago I got the opportunity to come to Australia, not UK!
Again, would you consider moving down under? :) Well, just asking.
It's not my intention to put you off visiting UK...Hehe.
Moaning is just English way of life. They moan about everything, from weather, public service to the property price... People moans, media moans...you will soon pick up this happbit once you arrived! i picked up long time ago and now I moan in my blog! English wouldn't say (directly) they are happy if they happened to be happy...
There must be something nice about England otherwise you wouldn't see those large influx of people every year...
Moving down under? We would love to but I doubt we will. Quote Terry's words ' by the time we moved to Australia we probably moan about being too sunny, too hot and too many poisonous spiders' Haha... In australia, we probably need work even longer hours, guess what, spending habits are probaly the same in these English-speaking countries...
Actually, I did know that: the poms are renowed for loving to whinge. :) However I don't think the Aussies are very far behind in this aspect.
Aussies normally work 35h per week. It's pretty good. Many places have flexi hours too, Mark and I both have it. If we start early, we finish early and vice versa. We also got one extra day off every 4 weeks.
Well, if we have chance (money + time), we will visit UK, just visiting.
British work 37h/week normally, this is contractual hours, However most people would like work overtime (it's culture). EU has the Working Hour Directive but a lot people just choose to opt out My contractual hour is 37h/w, Terry is 35h/w. Terry would like to do overtime as he's contracting (his overtime rate is higher than the contractual hour rate).
We have flexi hours as well. I do 8.30am to 4pm with half hour lunch or 9 to 5 if I am up late.
How long is Terry's commute if you say he works long hours? 35 h/w isn't normally considered long hours...
Terry's commute is 40 minutes to an hour depending on traffic. 35h/w is contractual hour, he does lots of overtime. So do lots of my english colleagues.
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