Have a good one! And take some pics. Look out for stray hurricanes (I guess it's not the season though)!

It was great. I'll see about posting pics. Me being on vacation didn't stop my boss from texting me, on my birthday, to tell me I needed to work that weekend. Refer to title of thread. Too bad the internet connection at my beach house was too slow to let me work.

Haha always a good cop-out. Could also have said that lightning struck your house, wouldn't even be a lie (as long as you don't mention any dates).

Did your boss even know it was your birthday btw, or did he know and care anyway? Just gauging how much of an asshole he is. One option is obviously worse than the other, even if neither is great.

If he didn't know, he wasn't paying attention. I'm sure it was on purpose. I'll definitely remember that situation going forward.

So, my professional life right now...

In case you didn't know, I've been working on a freelance basis for the past 2 years even though I am in practice employed by the same company. The reason for this is that I am in a different country than my employer and don't want to move to where their head office is based, and they (according to them) couldn't pay me as a normal employee. Because I was living in a different country I mean, not because I didn't want to move there. So we worked out this deal which I was fine with, as it allowed me to work from home and not have to move. Even though I had to file tax reports as a self-employed person and didn't have some of the benefits of being an employee, but I was ok with that (as I could work from home and save quite a bit of cash). This was done through an intermediary company (at my employer's insistence).

The intermediary company informed us at the end of last year that they would not keep working with me/them on the current basis after this year, so we knew we had to find another solution. One solution was that I would set up my own firm, but that would involve even more overhead and paperwork so I'm not going to do that for a simple job. So I have been putting feelers out to check what my options would be (ideally with an actual employment contract this time) and I got some vague pointers and suggestions from the HR department, but never anything concrete. So in the last 6 months, with the end of the year approaching, I have been pressuring them even more. Making my own legal inquiries, proposing things to them, asking again about the options, stuff like that. A lot of silence and cancelled meetings later I finally got into a real meeting with them and...they basically didn't have anything for my apart from what we already knew. Which was vague to begin with.

Now we're about half December and they got back to me with again the same stuff they told me 6 months ago: some sort of employment construction where I would de facto be employed by a third party company who then are paid by my actual employer (but with no details, on how, when, who, and why this would work but them paying me directly wouldn't), and that I could move to one of the countries they have a physical office in (and work from home if I wanted to). These are pretty decent places in Europe and obviously, working from home, I could live in a cheap place. But even then they couldn't tell me if this were just the countries they have an actual OFFICE in or just a legal entity (because there are many more countries they are active in that they don't have an actual office in). Stuff I asked them 6 freaking months ago. "We need to check". What about you checked 6 months ago, during one of the 10 times I asked you? Jesus Christ.

So now we're here and I have no idea how my employment will continue after 31-12-2018. The weird thing is that the company doesn't want to lose me, at all, everyone but HR seems to be super keen on me staying and reassures me that I'll be able to continue working with them. And I believe them. But good lord, the incompetence and passiveness of the HR department is mind-boggling. Do they really think I'm gonna move countries over Christmas in 2 weeks? Fuck no. And how are they planning to get me into that new construction they're suggesting before January if they've never even given me a sliver of information on how this is supposed to work? Knowing them, they'll be on holiday for 2 weeks over Christmas anyway. So what the fuck?

Incompetence man, it's a curse upon this earth. I'm in a comfortable situation as far as my housing is concerned and don't have any dependents, but imagine if I had a family of 2 or something. This shit would be apocalyptic. I'm pretty sanguine about it now but I've blown up to them earlier this week already. I might well stop working on January 1st until they figure their shit out and I see a contract. I think I can do without them more easily than they can do without me, in the short term. Maybe that will put the fear in them a bit. Like I said, it's not even that I think they won't - they're just too fucking lazy. Meh.

Funny. That sounds like the UK division of our company. Super lazy and incompetent until their asses are on the line. They'll demand that we figure out something within a day or two because there's some emergency, then sit on it for two months without any action. Also, they're constantly on holiday.

Haha I think the last one is just related to them being in the EU, not so much to them being British.

But yes when it's meaningless - like some down the ladder chump like me asking for a contract - they drag their feet and take forever. But when one of the bosses puts pressure on them or there is some other emergency they can get it done in one day. And then they say "we just did it today", as if it was planned all along and we just caught them at a bad time. Yeah, that might work once, but not if it's almost every time...then you realize that the only reason for all the delays is laziness. If you can do something that's been dragging on for weeks or months in one day when push comes to shove, I mean. Bleh.

One of my pet hates in these large bureaucratic corporations is people telling me that something "isn't possible" or "can't be done", when what they actually mean is "I don't know and it would be difficult for me to find out" or "it's a pain in my ass". Basically, they can't be bothered. Now, in some cases I don't know enough about their specific field (like law) to be able to contradict them, but I will have my suspicions regardless. Software developers and product managers and HR (labor law) workers alike have all put these lines on me when I know for an absolute fact that something is possible, just not convenient. Then don't fucking tel me it's "impossible", you maggots. Tell me you don't want to do it. At least you'd be freaking honest.

Anyway, turns out that I can continue to work on the existing basis for 2019 anyway. Even though they told me a year ago that it wasn't possible anymore (unrelated to my rant above) they changed their mind 2 weeks before the end of our current cooperation. Erh...ok then, I guess. Still better than not having any sort of guarantee of employment beyond 2018 I guess.

Handed in my notice for resignation a couple weeks back. I'm an implementation consultant for a startup product that is fundamentally unstable, developed by a poorly motivated team, and managed by a couple of guys that are way too naive. I stopped believing in this company a long while back, so now i'm starting a new job in March. Much bigger company, more money (not that i was wanting more), but more importantly ... a very good pension! So i'm on the wind-down until March.

Gah. I've been at the same company for 14 years now. Seems insane if I think about it. I've also been expecting to be fired at any time for like 8 of those years. Meh, whatever. Grats on the new job, Derf. Burn it up. And congrats on still being mostly employed, Ox.

Teaching in the same school for 13 years now, probably still 30 years or so to go. Not sure i'll last that long. And by the time i can get my pension, it's probably a lot less than it was supposed to be.
Also, major changes are supposed to happen the next couple of years in our education system, so who knows what will happen. At least i have a pretty good profile (science master, can give several subjects: physics, chemistry, biology, maybe some math), so don't think i'll end up in a bad position (like having to teach in 3 different schools).

Ah, are pensions like they are in the US? They used to be everywhere, but that pretty much went away. On top of that, many pensions that were awarded are evaporating... people that worked for 30 years as a fire fighter (for instance) are suddenly losing their pensions because the funds are drying up. What a horrible thing that would be. At any rate, finding a place that offers a retirement pension is pretty difficult now. For the most part it's investing in 401Ks with your company or handling your own retirement plans using things like IRAs or other investments.

I expect in 20-30 years, there are going to be a lot of very poor. old people in the US. Or a lot more than there are now, I suppose.

I think it's still pretty ok for now compared to the US (like for most social security stuff) but I think most people in Belgium share J's opinion and they're probably not wrong. Given that the large baby boomer generation is retiring on fairly generous pensions the past few governments have all been talking about plans to save pensions as they exist now but have largely just kept kicking the can down the road. Surprising, I know.

I also imagine this financial burden will be worse for a welfare state like Belgium than the US, because less people get government pensions there. Of course, I don't know how that weighs up against those who ended up poor and old anyway (either through bad luck or bad management) and are on food stamps and other welfare programs.

But take heart J, maybe in 30 years that entire generation will be gone and there will be money for social security again, to take care of us.

And thanks, always better to be employed for now. But maybe I should be looking into other opportunities soon. Join Derf on the professional migration train. Good luck with the new job Derf!

So, I may have foreshadowed this in the past but it's looking like I will be moving away from Malta in the near future.

It has to do with my job and it's a long story, but bottom line I will normally be moving to the North of France soon, and the city of Lille in particular. Why there, you ask? Because a) I will still be working remotely so I can choose where I am based, b) it's affordable (compared to Paris etc) and c) it's got a great connection to Paris, London and Brussels. It's also very close to the Belgian border which isn't a reason to go there in itself but it means that the culture is very familiar, which always helps.

I wasn't necessarily keen on moving away from Malta but as with a lot of things in life it may be good to let my circumstances 'force' me to do so. After 7 years I know the island inside out and it may be time for something new. My employer will be taking on the moving costs anyway and will provide assistance with the relocation so that will greatly simplify things compared to if I had to pay/arrange for everything myself at a later point.

I'll keep you guys updated if it all gets cancelled or when I am installed there. Who knows what happens still, I still have a few applications running and it's still at least a month before my move. Life has taken stranger turns before.

Hey, grats man, I hope everything goes well. Moving to a new place can be disjointing, but I think it ultimately makes you stronger. I wish you the best of luck.

Personally, I'm hating my job more than normal. It may be time for me to seriously start looking for something new. If you know anyone looking for a full stack developer, let me know.

Thanks! Shipped most of my stuff out yesterday, getting on the plane tomorrow with some clothes, all of my personal administration and my work laptop. Pretty interesting feeling to be sitting in an empty house with nothing but a large bottle of quality beer to wrap up 7.5 years. Time flies....let's see what life will bring in another country and city. If you count those 3 months I worked in Mauritius to set up a project I have now lived in 5 different countries. If you would have told 18-year old me this I would have told you that there was no way - I was very determined to have a quiet life and a quiet job, nothing fancy. I guess I have become quite a different person compared to those days (in some ways, anyway).

I find that looking for other jobs is a pretty relaxing experience when I'm hating my current one. Even cathartic. I can only recommend it. Best case scenario you find a better job with better conditions, worst case scenario you feel a bit better about trying to get out of the rut you're in. Good luck, in any case!

And cheers to all of you for being my virtual buds over the last 10-20 (jesus) years! I drink to your health.