Slave-waged Woman Living in Austria
Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 8:49 pm
Hi, everyone,
I am a 35 years old woman and I live in Austria/Europe.
I theoretically work as an accountant. Practically I am the accountant, controller, treasurer, manager of subsidiaries and occasionally Putzfrau (i.e. cleaning lady) all-in-one. That’s because my boss is perpetually in the cost-saving mode and does not want to spend the company’s valuable resources by hiring more personnel.
Now it’s audit season and I spend 10-11-12 hours per day in the office. I receive unreasonable workload and deadlines and I am expected to be at work whenever my boss feels like it: late in the evening, on weekends, holidays and - crème-de-la crème – also when sick. Whenever I refuse he reminds me of the lazy people he fired and also that I am pretty incompetent and I should be grateful that he is so full of sh!t....aaahm patience with regard to my deficiencies . My boss also mentions from time to time that it is hard to have children and he strongly advises me against it. So I am also not allowed to become – God forbid! - pregnant.
These are the reasons why I passionately hate my job. Of course I will take measures soon, i.e. change my employer. Again. I change my jobs about every 2 years, sometimes because I look for a higher salary, sometimes because I grow bored with the job, sometimes because of unacceptable bosses like this one.
Until now I have worked with 7-8 companies and noticed many cases of employee mistreatment, particularly when the employee is in an unfavorable position such as: young and inexperienced, lacking whatever studies/certification, woman just returning from maternity leave …or OLD as in “over 50 years old!”.
I am still young and can still afford changing jobs, but what would happen when I am old and vulnerable? I don’t want to be forced to put up with this shit when I’m 60!
The ERE way is my hope.
I plan my exit in about 10-max 15 years, where “exit” does not mean turning inactive, instead it means escaping from the employees’ class to enter the capitalists’ class. Yes, I dream of having my small business, where no one tells me what to do, none holds me accountable, none challenges my decisions. In short: I dream of gaining control over my life. There’s nothing on Earth I treasure more than Freedom.
The glorious day when I leave the labor market for good will be my Independence Day and I will celebrate it religiously every year until the day I die.
In anticipation of the Independence Day, I accumulate start-up capital.
And now some figures – all in EUR
My monthly salary net of taxes: 1,975
Rent: 650
Utilities: 40
Internet: 24
Transportation: 31
Food (in the office): 75
Food (at home): 75
Medical expenses: 15
Lottery tickets: 20
Clothing: 20
Going out: 100
Cosmetics/personal care: 40
Cleaning products: 15
Presents: 50
Mobile phone: 35
Miscellaneous: 50
That leaves monthly savings of 735, i.e. 37% (shamefully low).
However, in Austria one receives 14 salaries per year. I spend one extra salary on holidays (love traveling) whereas the other salary goes directly to savings.
I plan to put aside at least 10.000 EUR per year.
Savings now: 32,000 EUR in my bank deposit and 2,000 EUR in a pension fund.
I have discovered the ERE website in August last year and started to keep track of my expenses for the first time in my life. The actual saving fluctuates around 700-800 per month, except the months when I need to give away more presents or participate to costly events like weddings. However, this is only the beginning; I will push the costs lower and also find a better paid job soon.
I have also bought the ERE book - great lecture, in the evenings it was like medicine for my poor soul crushed after a dreadful workday.
Like advised in ERE book, I do my shopping depending on what is for sale in supermarkets. Now I browse carefully the flyers that supermarkets send into my mail box instead to throwing them away as I did before.
I cook more often at home and convinced my boyfriend that this is the correct way to eat. I usually cook smth, put it in his plate and after he tries it and says “it tastes good” I let him know the cost of the dish, e.g.Aloo Gobi: 1,19 EUR the cauliflower, 0.06 the onion, 0.20 the potatoes, 0.4 lemon, 0.7 ghee, 0.3 fresh ginger, 0.7 rough estimation for spices = 3.55 EUR, that is 1.78 p.p. (actually lower because we could not eat it all and about 1 extra portion remained for the next day). At the Indian restaurant we would have paid 7.9 EUR p.p. He is always nicely surprised by the comparison.
I am so thrilled of this new found way that I could write on and on…unfortunately it already 2.44 AM!! and I need to go to bed. Tomorrow is a new day to slave away, right?
Thanks Jacob!
I wish I could have found this blog earlier.
I am a 35 years old woman and I live in Austria/Europe.
I theoretically work as an accountant. Practically I am the accountant, controller, treasurer, manager of subsidiaries and occasionally Putzfrau (i.e. cleaning lady) all-in-one. That’s because my boss is perpetually in the cost-saving mode and does not want to spend the company’s valuable resources by hiring more personnel.
Now it’s audit season and I spend 10-11-12 hours per day in the office. I receive unreasonable workload and deadlines and I am expected to be at work whenever my boss feels like it: late in the evening, on weekends, holidays and - crème-de-la crème – also when sick. Whenever I refuse he reminds me of the lazy people he fired and also that I am pretty incompetent and I should be grateful that he is so full of sh!t....aaahm patience with regard to my deficiencies . My boss also mentions from time to time that it is hard to have children and he strongly advises me against it. So I am also not allowed to become – God forbid! - pregnant.
These are the reasons why I passionately hate my job. Of course I will take measures soon, i.e. change my employer. Again. I change my jobs about every 2 years, sometimes because I look for a higher salary, sometimes because I grow bored with the job, sometimes because of unacceptable bosses like this one.
Until now I have worked with 7-8 companies and noticed many cases of employee mistreatment, particularly when the employee is in an unfavorable position such as: young and inexperienced, lacking whatever studies/certification, woman just returning from maternity leave …or OLD as in “over 50 years old!”.
I am still young and can still afford changing jobs, but what would happen when I am old and vulnerable? I don’t want to be forced to put up with this shit when I’m 60!
The ERE way is my hope.
I plan my exit in about 10-max 15 years, where “exit” does not mean turning inactive, instead it means escaping from the employees’ class to enter the capitalists’ class. Yes, I dream of having my small business, where no one tells me what to do, none holds me accountable, none challenges my decisions. In short: I dream of gaining control over my life. There’s nothing on Earth I treasure more than Freedom.
The glorious day when I leave the labor market for good will be my Independence Day and I will celebrate it religiously every year until the day I die.
In anticipation of the Independence Day, I accumulate start-up capital.
And now some figures – all in EUR
My monthly salary net of taxes: 1,975
Rent: 650
Utilities: 40
Internet: 24
Transportation: 31
Food (in the office): 75
Food (at home): 75
Medical expenses: 15
Lottery tickets: 20
Clothing: 20
Going out: 100
Cosmetics/personal care: 40
Cleaning products: 15
Presents: 50
Mobile phone: 35
Miscellaneous: 50
That leaves monthly savings of 735, i.e. 37% (shamefully low).
However, in Austria one receives 14 salaries per year. I spend one extra salary on holidays (love traveling) whereas the other salary goes directly to savings.
I plan to put aside at least 10.000 EUR per year.
Savings now: 32,000 EUR in my bank deposit and 2,000 EUR in a pension fund.
I have discovered the ERE website in August last year and started to keep track of my expenses for the first time in my life. The actual saving fluctuates around 700-800 per month, except the months when I need to give away more presents or participate to costly events like weddings. However, this is only the beginning; I will push the costs lower and also find a better paid job soon.
I have also bought the ERE book - great lecture, in the evenings it was like medicine for my poor soul crushed after a dreadful workday.
Like advised in ERE book, I do my shopping depending on what is for sale in supermarkets. Now I browse carefully the flyers that supermarkets send into my mail box instead to throwing them away as I did before.
I cook more often at home and convinced my boyfriend that this is the correct way to eat. I usually cook smth, put it in his plate and after he tries it and says “it tastes good” I let him know the cost of the dish, e.g.Aloo Gobi: 1,19 EUR the cauliflower, 0.06 the onion, 0.20 the potatoes, 0.4 lemon, 0.7 ghee, 0.3 fresh ginger, 0.7 rough estimation for spices = 3.55 EUR, that is 1.78 p.p. (actually lower because we could not eat it all and about 1 extra portion remained for the next day). At the Indian restaurant we would have paid 7.9 EUR p.p. He is always nicely surprised by the comparison.
I am so thrilled of this new found way that I could write on and on…unfortunately it already 2.44 AM!! and I need to go to bed. Tomorrow is a new day to slave away, right?
Thanks Jacob!
I wish I could have found this blog earlier.