- Thread starter SiPMerlin150
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I've never come across anyone I had to work with who I couldn't work with.
There were four out of hundreds who I found difficult - I wanted to throttle them and throw their corpses somewhere deep. Two had diagnosed mental health problems, the third was an ex-RAF bull****er who had to big up the fact that he could tie his own shoelaces as a monumental achievement, the fourth was a manager who'd ask me for my opinion on something she was contemplating, dismiss it as impossibly cynical and go on and do it, and then three months later come and express surprise and expect sympathy that the scheme had come to grief.
There were numerous people I found hard work, and who found me hard work, who I found I could work with and ended up as friends with.
I suggest you give the old man another try - if possible. We don't know what's going on with you, the girlfriend and the old man.
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brightspark
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the outlaw may think your a whinging pom 
just keep your head down and grin and bear it and it will come right
just keep your head down and grin and bear it and it will come right
SiPMerlin150
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He's had many people come a go, his own son worked with him for a short time.. then gave up, He uses the van for work at Gladstone with is a solid 6 hour drive away. I worked for him for around 5 or 6 weeks, but to progress further I need to get a restricted electrical license to enable his business insurance to cover anything I may do.
SiPMerlin150
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He's alright, the other day I walked out of my 8 - 4 job, for legitimate reasons, I came home and he was sat in his office chair and said 'you're home early, is everything ok?' and I told him why I quit... He grinned and said he did exactly the same at that same work place many years ago!the outlaw may think your a whinging pom
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I was watching one of those "do we move down under" type programs and the guy was a (UK qualified) sparky, the narrator of the program said he'd have to pay an Aussie sparky 10k AUD for a years training to get qualified, is that correct?.
SiPMerlin150
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Nah, most courses range from $1600 AUD to about $4k, he must be putting the price of a visa and flights into that $10K.
SiPMerlin150
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SiPMerlin150
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Its a good guy, he eat the dangerous ones (redbacks, whitetails etc) and also the mozzies and cockroaches. They don't build webs, as they can outrun their prey.
A bite is no worse than say a bee sting.
MattF
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You can do the training over here to become certified/qualified, before going over there. That's what the sisters boyfriend did before they moved over there.
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Ditto,
I worked in Australia and NZ about 20 years ago, Australia I struggled to start mostly because I found most of My Australian Counterparts to be lazy, however I was working with some Irish lads and we soon found the guys in charge had even less of a sense of humor than there there love of work, baiting soon became a regular pastime and turned work into a great craig. Then got a job making props at Australia film, money was crap and just covered living expenses but work was great and something I will be unlikely to ever be able to do again.
NZ was compleatly different, skilled labour has much more respect than accent.
Stick with it though, If your still hateing after a year think again, but it inst going to be easy, or the golden goose to solving all of life's problems everything comes to those who persevere.
I would not be handling most spiders in Oz, that huntsman spider while mostly fairly safe can bite, and if it does most of the time it will only be sore, that is unless you are allergic to the bite, when I was as school one of the teachers did a similar thing, went to remove one from the classroom and got bit, in the end his arm sort of shriveled and had huge ulcers. There are quite a few spiders here which may give you necrotising arachnidism, mainly wolf and whitetails but any spider can do it, and only way to find out if you are susceptible is the hard way. So my advice is not to handle them! Put a jar or can over them and a bit of thick paper under that and then remove them that way.
Below are a couple of pics of spider bites which I got off the web (pun intented), and in my book not worth the risks in handling them bare handed, I think the one on the thumb is from a mouse spider and not sure of the other one, Docs are not sure about the cause of these ulcers whether they are caused by bacterial/fungal secondary infections or if the poison had some part or a persons succeptability.
Cheers
Ed.
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ronan
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In my experience welders are rarely just pure welders, they have to be able to do a bit of fabrication, structural steel or sheet metal work etc. Maybe its a uk thing, an english lad i worked with told me in england someone is either a welder or a fabricator, over here the apprenticeship is welder/fabricator so you train in both.
As for being a mechanic, i am a fitter by trade but never heard of someone in america called a fitter, over there they are called a mechanic, whereas someone who works on cars is an auto-mechanic. Confusingly a fitter is called a millwright in canada. Its all confusing and could walk you into trouble when applying for jobs. I also think wages or salaries in manual jobs worldwide are now are always compared to chinese labour rates, i think its grossly insulting that after working hard serving an apprenticeship you get offered similar rates to brain-doners who stack shelves in a supermarket.
As for being a mechanic, i am a fitter by trade but never heard of someone in america called a fitter, over there they are called a mechanic, whereas someone who works on cars is an auto-mechanic. Confusingly a fitter is called a millwright in canada. Its all confusing and could walk you into trouble when applying for jobs. I also think wages or salaries in manual jobs worldwide are now are always compared to chinese labour rates, i think its grossly insulting that after working hard serving an apprenticeship you get offered similar rates to brain-doners who stack shelves in a supermarket.
Lawnmowerboy
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Unless you're just a production welder (and paid accordingly) then I don't think it's unreasonable to be asked to do a few other bits. My apprenticeship iz in cnc and manual machining. I get asked to go into welding when they're busy. I also do maintenance jobs when needed. It's good to be multi skilled!!!
Shox Dr
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This really gets my goat.
You cannot make comparisons between like for like roles/jobs in different countries. There are you say different descriptions and different roles within those.
You could move to a 3rd world country and only be paid £2 a day. But if it only costs you £4 per week to live like a king. Whats the problem.
SiPMerlin150
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Either the brown recluse spider, or a whitetail can cause such tissue damage. Whitetails normally turn the blood vessels around the bite area a darker color, this change in color almost always stays, and the wound looks like an acid burn. I guess I've been lucky, as your mozzies (even the notorious asian tiger mozzies don't bite) Midges don't react as I dont feel them, Green ants bite but leave no more than a tiny heat spot that itches for a day or two. I make no habit in looking for spider to pick up. ( Apart from the odd skink that I've saved from the receiving end of the cat!
ronan
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There was a toolmaker i know who was telling me that the moulds they were making in his job for a customer were 6 times as expensive as a similar mould made in china. The customer was constantly complaining about the cost of the moulds and referencing and comparing to the cost of the chinese ones. I have heard of lads going for interviews and being asked what salary or wage they expected, the usual response from the employer is they could employ dozens of people for the cost of one employeee in a european country. The point i was making was , if you do an apprenticeship and expect a reasonable wage at the end of it (or whats the point of doing a four year slog) and employers are making comparisons between the wage you want and a similar role in a different country.
SiPMerlin150
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It does bother me when I find out that people in hungry jacks (burger king to us english viewers) are paid $20 per hour for flipping burgers, whilst I was getting $16.75 in the job I walked from, working out in full sun, practically on a building site as they were cutting brick, making dust, cement everywhere and the cars I detailed were full of brick dust within minutes, effectively undoing hours of scratch removal, buff, cut and polishing etc. (You cannot properly polish a car in full sunlight) It annoys me more when I payed for a private course in England to find that I've in fact wasted my money and anything I may of done in the U.K. as work in the welding industry has been disregarded.. Aren't British Standards the root of the Australian Standards? Considering most products here are backed with a BS number....
Maybe I should turn to air conditioning... You could be on Mars and r134a , R22 , or R401 is exactly what it would be on earth, or the moon, or Australia or England...
Maybe I should turn to air conditioning... You could be on Mars and r134a , R22 , or R401 is exactly what it would be on earth, or the moon, or Australia or England...
