Moved to eastern Europe to work...

jobbingmusician

Well, you could start here for a bit of culture shock. http://petapixel.com/2012/12/26/portraits-of-albanian-women-who-have-lived-their-lives-as-men/

columbiana

Hi folks, sorry for the delay... between the time difference and my hours at work its the first chance I have had to log in!

Thanks for your replies, I have been fascinated by the difference between here and the UK, and thought it might be interesting for anyone considering a move.

The short story... I was offered an amazing oppotunity to move out here to Latvia for work, as part of an online business venture, and will be here for the next 2 years. I am on week 6 so far, and I really love the place, and it's people.

The first thing I was struck by is the level of education. Almost everyone here speaks fluent Latvian, Russian and English. Even for a job in a bar or supermarket you must speak all 3 langauges.

For a minimum wage job the girls at my local bar work 6 days per week,12 hours a day for 300 latvian lats a month. This is equivilant to roughly £365. Out of this the need to pay for everything- there is no government help for people on low wages.


Another girl I spoke to has a young daughter, and is claiming unemployment benefit. To recieve this she must drop everything and go straight away when then send her for a course, and if she misses even one they stop her money. She recieves the grand sum of 130 lvl per month for herself, and 8 lats for her child. She recieves no help with living costs, and shares her 2 bed flat with her mother, her daughter and her younger brother. This is quite a normal situation over here.

The most astonishing thing I have noticed is the work ethic. Many of the girls that I work with will work a 12 hour shift, and then head straight for the next job. About half of the 200 people at my place of work have at least 2 jobs, if not 3, and sleep an average of about 4 hours per night.

There is loads more to explain when I am not so tired, but spending just a few weeks here has made me realise just how lucky I am to be born in the UK, and how lucky I was to be in a country that doesnt allow such poverty (on the whole) and with a system that at least tries to protect vulnerable people.

CKhalvashi

How far does that go, though?

In Georgia, a house is around £12000 (and this is in the capital), and food/gas/elec can be £100 a month. On £250 a month salary after renting room (again in capital), this would leave approx. £60 a month spare; not a lot in UK comparisons, but still a nice sum.

Again, in Bulgaria, with around £6-7k in savings, you can buy a decent property (£2k, if you fancy around £2k again of DIY), furnish it for pence, and live well on £50 a week, when this is converted into Lev.

I employ Lithuanians, a few Latvians, and several Estonians, and the work ethic is amazing. This is further highlighting the fact that vocational and work-based courses could be the way to go for the UK.

CK

Any

I agree that education in Eastern europe is amazing.
You have to pay a lot of money for good private school for the children to end up with the knowledge and life attitude as they do over there.

Also yes, to compare how far does equivalent of £365 gets you... In Prague, you can rent a small apartment for roughly £300 a month. In smaller cities obviously for much less. You cannot do that in London.

I can still buy a pint in Prague city centre for roughly a £1. In small villages I would never pay more then a £1. There are places that I can get it for 60p.

Apartment in Prague I can buy for £50k. And I can buy a house in a village under 1hr drive from Prague for that money too.

sabelu

I am in ecommerce and logistics how could I find English speaking work in Budapest?

dawyldthing

my collegue was from Latvia and used to say the same. she had a masters degree and was in a highly qualified job in Latvia but was still on about half the wages she gets over here for doing a less skilled job than she used to do with a lot less responsibility or hassle.

Takeaway_Addict

columbiana wrote: »

Hi folks, sorry for the delay... between the time difference and my hours at work its the first chance I have had to log in!

Thanks for your replies, I have been fascinated by the difference between here and the UK, and thought it might be interesting for anyone considering a move.

The short story... I was offered an amazing oppotunity to move out here to Latvia for work, as part of an online business venture, and will be here for the next 2 years. I am on week 6 so far, and I really love the place, and it's people.

The first thing I was struck by is the level of education. Almost everyone here speaks fluent Latvian, Russian and English. Even for a job in a bar or supermarket you must speak all 3 langauges.

For a minimum wage job the girls at my local bar work 6 days per week,12 hours a day for 300 latvian lats a month. This is equivilant to roughly £365. Out of this the need to pay for everything- there is no government help for people on low wages.


Another girl I spoke to has a young daughter, and is claiming unemployment benefit. To recieve this she must drop everything and go straight away when then send her for a course, and if she misses even one they stop her money. She recieves the grand sum of 130 lvl per month for herself, and 8 lats for her child. She recieves no help with living costs, and shares her 2 bed flat with her mother, her daughter and her younger brother. This is quite a normal situation over here.

The most astonishing thing I have noticed is the work ethic. Many of the girls that I work with will work a 12 hour shift, and then head straight for the next job. About half of the 200 people at my place of work have at least 2 jobs, if not 3, and sleep an average of about 4 hours per night.

There is loads more to explain when I am not so tired, but spending just a few weeks here has made me realise just how lucky I am to be born in the UK, and how lucky I was to be in a country that doesnt allow such poverty (on the whole) and with a system that at least tries to protect vulnerable people.

Very interesting. For my interest.......how do your wages compare to the average?

I just want to know if you are living in luxury over there or are living the average life.

columbiana

Hi all, thanks for your replies and questions- I will try to answer as many as I can before i nod off!

I am on a huge amount of money over here, really good by UK standards, but by Latvian standards its ridiculous. It makes me feel a bit guilty really, as most of the people I work with are far better at the job than me, and I am in this position purely because I have a british accent!

To try to put the living costs into perspective... My apartment is a nice one, but nothing extravagant, paid for by the company. If I were to pay myself, it would be in the region of 1200 euros inc utilities, or roughly 850 lats. As mentioned in my last post, this is about 3 times the average salary. I live in the biggest city, Riga, and most of the people I have met come from elsewhere in latvia, but have to come here to find work. It is by no means a cheap place to live!

I noticed that there are hardly any Latvian men around, and it was explained to me that they have all been foced abroad, away from there families to find decent paid jobs- even a minimum wage UK job is so much better paid than anything over here.

I spoke to a lady who works in security today, who told me that she works 3 shifts per week, for 24 hours at a time and is paid 360 lats. From this, her tax and insurance are 30% leaving her with precious little to live on for the hours she puts in.

My time here has completely changed my stance on immigration into the UK, and I now fully appreciate why people move heaven and earth to get there. I am also reminded on a daily basis just how lucky I am, and how privellged I was to have a free education, access to free health care, and most importantly, such a wonderful country to come home to after a couple of years. The future is so bleak for many people here, and there is no sign of things improving in the coming years, and yet people remain so determined and optimistic.