Week 18th-25th July 2005 - Swiss Cheese

Posted on 2005/07/25 21:20:40 (July 2005).

I had to call it this way.

First of all sorry for not updating the site in the past week, there was a lot to tell but I think that it was better to wait to post about it, mostly for scaramantic reasons.

I have been entalgled in a very complex work related negotiation. Basically a Swiss company offered me a position, more or less lat Monday, they are a producer for a shoe-related technology. Before giving out the details I have to fill you in with some differences between working in Italy and in Switzerland.

1. In Italy as an employee you get what we call TFR, which is 1/12th of your wage put away from the taxes that you pay. This sum mounts up until you leave your employer.
So if you are earning 1200euro per month, the company puts away 100 euro, making your real net wage 1300 Euro, though this TFR is given to you later in time.
In Switzerland you don't have a TFR.

2.As bad as it may sound in Italy an employee is very hard to fire. Of course you CAN be fired, but it has to be for good motives, if they want to send you away they have to pay you quite a lot, as you have to resign willingtly. In Switzerland you can be fired ANY TIME, with a 2 months notice. Also because of that, for the same type of work, wages in Switzerland are at least 1.5 higher than the ones in Italy.

3. This is a small company, very good product (I think), but no chance of career, technological product is interesting but it's quite far from what I do now, though I really fancy a try at selling technology. Still for me is a step in a dark room, as I don't know them and don't know their clients/market.

Given these conditions their first offer was 100 Euro LESS than my actual net wage (if I earn 1000, they offered 900). Of ocurse I rejected this offer and I asked them to give me AT LEAST what I earn in Italy, plus the cost of fuel to get there (I'd have to travel 80km, instead of 2 as I do now), and the cost of exchanging the Swiss Francs into Euro.
All things considered it would not make my wage 1.5 times higher (but roughly 1.15), this already meant selling me under par, and of course I would not see much difference in terms of money at the end of the month. Of course since I want to change I would have sacrified thoose 0.35 happily.

Their counter offer was 200 Euro more than my actual wage, which is not enough to cover for the TFR + fuel expenses. To add a comedy value, the job agency that presented me gave me a wrong quote of the net wage that I was going to earn. So on Friday after the third interview, I was all convinced but then the Chief Administrator told me the what the net wage was going to be (almost 200 Euro difference from what the job center said), and we were back at point one.

Today I have gotten the final offer, which is the same as the one on Friday, with the promise after the trial period to put it up to what I was requesting.

The final decision was refuse the offer and the position.

Needless to say that I have been very much stressed all week, I have been thinking about this move a lot and wasted a lot of time worrying about things.
One good thing is that at least now I KNOW what will be the least acceptable wage for me to go to Switzerland. Of course should a company from Florence wast to employ me, if the company is a good one, I could think of going even with a wage cut, but that's because I wanna go back there. If I have to stay away from Florence I cannot accept to earn less than what I do now.

What to say? I hope that there will be more offers in the future, maybe "real offers" and not dummies like this one. Of course this might require some time, and I am fed up of the place in which I am working/living, but starting something completely new already unhappy would have been wrong.
Oh well, let's see, this is the second job offer that I turn down, I hope the third is the right one!

Lox: Good for you. You've made a decision and have not compromised what you believe. Draw a line under this and look for the next opportunity, which will be just around the corner!

Posted by dsp at 2005/07/25 21:44:03.

Do you think they treated you in this way because you are Italian citizen then Lox, effectively a foreigner in their eyes ? So they offered you less because you were not Swiss ?

Posted by Kev at 2005/07/25 21:47:53.

Ciao tim, I guess you are right. It's going to be hard because I still don't like the presen job, but I can still look around and try other things. Let's hope the next one is the good one to leave this place! :)

Posted by Lox at 2005/07/25 21:47:56.

Way to go Lox! A sensible decision, made fairly and intelligently. Their loss.

Posted by Nigel at 2005/07/25 21:48:50.

Kev: Most definitely. They do things like that, a friend of mine who works there and live in Italy said that they made me an "Italian Offer". To be honest I think that they are loosing out, for 80 pounds a month they could have got me, I know for sure that they have no other suitable candidates and the salesman is leaving in September...

Posted by Lox at 2005/07/25 21:49:24.

Thanks Nigel! tomorrow my boss is back in the company, ler's see how long can I stay without having a fight with him! :) Well he already cancelled my holidays to do a business trip to London... Not a great way to wake up from this dream of changing jobs...

Posted by Lox at 2005/07/25 21:51:11.

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