What do you do for a living?

[RaSmuShaDoW]

If going into details..

I must add that right now the prices of apartament in Lithuania (it's capital Vilnius) reached crazy values - it's like big economic price bubble that was made by resellers.

I bought my apratament a year ago and now it's price would be like 400 000 Litas. But if I would have bought it year earlier I would have saved myself 180 000 Litas. Crazy, a?

[DaemianLucifer]

that's what i thought .... which seems roughly equivalent to what rasmushadow was saying .... cool

But you have to count the average income here as well.Its currently around 150 euros here.Not really that much.

[asandir]

150 euros for what? a day? a week? an hour?

[DaemianLucifer]

Well I did say it is too low,so it certanly is not for an hour,and not for a day.It also isnt for a week,but for a month.That amounts to some 1200 euros a year,which is way bellow minimum in some countries.And the prices just keep rising.

[asandir]

a MONTH!!???! 150 euros a month? that sucks with rising prices, obviously things must cost less, so it can't be as bad as it looks to me here

I'm not certain about the average wage here in Oz, but it is about 32,750 euro's a year, 2729 euros a month, but the comparison is a bit difficult cause from what i read, the cost of living in some of the EU countries is quite a bit higher then it is here (maybe with the exception of buying a house ), for example, I'm told that McDonalds in England would set you back maybe 7 pounds or so - 10 euros and 17 Aus $ (for a Big Mac meal) whereas here it costs about $AUS6 which is about 2.40 pounds and 3.60 euros ....

[Mytical]

Couple of things before I begin the true post here. First I know my job is easy, and I feel blessed that I make a good living. Second there are a lot of jobs that are much much worse, but this is the life of a administrative assistant .

You wake up about 3 hrs before you need to go to work. You check email so that you know everything you need to do, because no matter how much you did last night, your boss adds 10 things before the next day. You finish all the extra work, that should have been done by said boss, but hey they're the boss. You arrive to work 1 hr early, just to check to make sure a memo isn't waiting on you to add to what you already did..which there is 95% of the time. You finish up, and wait 2-3 hrs for the boss to come in...late as usual. He complains that he has a hectic day ahead of him, and demands you show him all the work you did. So you do. They then reprimand you for even a single comma or period out of place.
Since you are an 'assistant' and not a 'secretary' you job discription does include such things as errands. Like getting coffee, running umptee times accross the building to deliver stuff that could easily be emailed, but is 'sensitive' (and usualy is about where they are going to eat at lunch, but I didn't say that). Also, you get the joy of telling people the boss is busy (ie at lunch, brunch, or some board meeting about lunch/brunch).
The boss leaves early, then you stay 1-2 hrs late to catch up on everything he/she has assigned you.
Sick days? You better have your own death certificate when you come back in, signed in triplicate with at least 3 witness's signature. Oh you 'have' 10 each year...good luck getting them.
Vacation days. Better have your laptop, cellphone, pda, and anything else you can take with you. You will be paged every 20 min..and you had better respond cause you are 'disposable'. (if we are so disposable, why would you need us to respond to a page every 20 min?)
Now, before anybody asks. Yes I know what it is to be a 'boss', I even asked to be 'downgraded'. Not because of the stress, but because I could not 'delagate' my responsibilities right. I had to do most of the work, as I could not see pawning it off on somebody else. Even if they would do 1/10 of what they pass off things would be much easier. And the 'working' person does not make 1/10 as much.
Still as I said, there is much worse out there, and this job isn't so bad. I know about 90% of what goes on in the company (it's the 10% that scares me ) Also, I do get a lot of respect from everybody but my boss. After all, he works soooo hard.

[asandir]

ahhhh, the grim reality of life near the bottom of the tree, yep, been there, done that (though not as an admin assistant) .... I am still near the bottom but in a very different job that actually allows quite a bit of autonomy, and you don't need to look after anybody but yourself

quite enjoyable really

[RaSmuShaDoW]

that's what i thought .... which seems roughly equivalent to what rasmushadow was saying .... cool

But you have to count the average income here as well.Its currently around 150 euros here.Not really that much.

Income and wages are 2 different things. For example ~monthly wage in my country is 400 Eur. But the incomes are realy smaller don't know the exact stats.. Lucifer I guess you had in mind income (meaning it counts hundreds of not working old people and children into stats) couse 150 Eur a month is too small for an awerage salary in any country in Europe.

Anyway then you think of 2$ a month in some African or Asian country...

[asandir]

indeed, that is rather sad .... and the real shame is those countries seem to keep getting worse, well that a bit broad, maybe I should say, some of those countries are getting worse .... think Zimbabwe for one ....

[DaemianLucifer]

a MONTH!!???! 150 euros a month? that sucks with rising prices, obviously things must cost less, so it can't be as bad as it looks to me here

I'm not certain about the average wage here in Oz, but it is about 32,750 euro's a year, 2729 euros a month, but the comparison is a bit difficult cause from what i read, the cost of living in some of the EU countries is quite a bit higher then it is here (maybe with the exception of buying a house ), for example, I'm told that McDonalds in England would set you back maybe 7 pounds or so - 10 euros and 17 Aus $ (for a Big Mac meal) whereas here it costs about $AUS6 which is about 2.40 pounds and 3.60 euros ....

Well,it balances out a bit,but not too much.Food is cheaper then in the rest european countries,but other things cost almost the same.Computers,for example,have the same prices here as everywhere else.But its not that bad compared to some other neighbour countries.Bulgaria has even less.And lets not talk about africa and asia.....

Income and wages are 2 different things. For example ~monthly wage in my country is 400 Eur. But the incomes are realy smaller don't know the exact stats.. Lucifer I guess you had in mind income (meaning it counts hundreds of not working old people and children into stats) couse 150 Eur a month is too small for an awerage salary in any country in Europe.

Anyway then you think of 2$ a month in some African or Asian country...

Nope,thats the wage most people get.My mother is better though,cause shes a pstcho...err,I mean a psychiatrist Also,lots of people do thiongs on the side.Well,they have to.

[asandir]

yeah, things do tend to average out a bit

psychiatrist eh?? and you are going down an economics path??

[DaemianLucifer]

You might even say Im going down the easy path while she took the hard one

[asandir]

i thought that's what i was implying .... maybe i shoulda added a to the end of that post

[ThunderTitan]

Pls, over here prices for land and housing are going through the bloody roof. They're higher then those in alot of place from way more richer countries. I belive we're at least in the top 50 in the world pricewise.

[asandir]

as i said, that's good - while you are in the market, bad if not, but is only really good for you if you own more than one property

[DaemianLucifer]

as i said, that's good - while you are in the market, bad if not, but is only really good for you if you own more than one property

Remember that thats a post comunist country he is talking about,so the land is owned by the state

[asandir]

even the bits that people live on??

[DaemianLucifer]

EVERYTHING was owned by the state in comunism/socialism.Some of it was returned to a few people,but not all.

[asandir]

well that sucks, if you buy a house you get the land with it, it's yours not the governments, that just seems wrong on so many levels - but i guess it has a grounding in true communist idealism ....

[DaemianLucifer]

well that sucks, if you buy a house you get the land with it, it's yours not the governments, that just seems wrong on so many levels - but i guess it has a grounding in true communist idealism ....

And you just hit the spot.Communism didnt work exactly because of that.In true communism there is no need to buy a house,youll be given one that suits your needs.But of course,what man would give you something for free?