June 11, 2015

1 year, 8 months, 12 days

It kind of hits you straight in the face when you look at it.

I have been living in Ireland for 619 days now and it has also been a very long time since I last posted. Thank you timeanddate.com for making my calculation easier.

Anyway, things have changed. I have changed. The world has changed. Rocky Balboa would be proud.

A long time ago, and don’t ask me to use the calculator again, one of my students gave me an Apple PowerBook G4. This ancient piece of equipment is now an Ubuntu Server that hosts my new WordPress blog.

Or not.

I suppose the server is great for my LAN, but the DSL connection I have is quite limited. That means only one thing, I will stay with this blog, but it is going to change. Big time.

April 4, 2014

Irish Taxes

I would like to sincerely thank the Revenue Service for quickly processing my application for Tax Credits. I sent my form in and received an answer from them within a week. I was actually very positively surprised as I expected to wait at least a couple of weeks.

There’s something called Emergency Tax in Ireland, and although the tax isn’t too bad at the very beginning, by the fourth week it seems like the tax rate is close to 50%. It is all given back to you though, and for me it was automatic. Awesome.

Oh, and the government also has a system in place, called PAYE Anytime which “allows you to manage your own tax affairs”.

Watch out of the Celtic Tiger, it is only a matter of time before it awakens.

 

 

April 2, 2014

Another Milestone

The last milestone I had up was prior to leaving Poland. I can’t believe it’s been almost seven months and I must admit that they have been quite difficult. Luckily, I have met people along the way who have literally been a Godsend.

Anyway, time to move on and tell you about the good news:

  • I will be taking the Java exam on May 30 if all goes according to plan. Money’s being saved, and I’ve been studying.
  • After almost five years, the court case I talked about in My Rant On Why I’m Leaving Poland is over. That doesn’t mean we’re any better off financially, it just means it’s over and perhaps sometime within the next year we will be, though I’ve learned to be very cautious. The judge was nice enough to say that my girlfriend did not have to move out of her home. Why of course she didn’t! She should have just stayed there and continued to take all the abuse. 
  • I managed to get my hands on a PC and can now run all the latest software. Java 8 is now officially out and I highly doubt that they’ll be making a PowerPC port. I still like my G4 PowerBook, but its days are numbered. 

Oh, if anyone out there would be willing to give me some server space for this blog, I’d appreciate it. I bought a domain and although I could just redirect to this page, I’d like a chance to tinker with WP a bit more.

March 7, 2014

How LinkedIn Helped Me Lose My Job

As promised, I am going to tell you about my last job and how I got fired quit. Let’s make it fun.

Those of you who have been following my awesome, daily, weekly, monthly posts will know very well why I left the hotel job. If you haven’t, tough.

The Job

Dublin is a much better place to be for those who are looking for work, any idiot will know that, and that’s why I first went to Galway upon arrival in Ireland.  So while working at the hotel, I replied to a job ad for a Car Valet Manager. I think it was a match made in heaven as I was desperate and they were desperate. Few people in their right mind would want to do what I did. What was it you did? , you ask. Well, I basically stood at a hospital barrier all day trying to sell valet services (car washes). Once someone got caught in the web, I had to upsell.

Now upselling was actually pretty fun, standing at that barrier all day was not. I wouldn’t say anything bad about the company itself as I was paid on time and treated well. I simply could not stand the monotony of the job though. It really felt like I was wasting my time. On top of that, I was supposed to have been paid commission. The only problem was that the break-even point for the site was so high that it just made no logical sense to upsell. I only did it for fun and to challenge myself. 

Getting LinkedOut of My Job

Since my girlfriend was going to come and visit me, I decided that I would leave on the day of her arrival, Feb. 14. The owner of the company beat me to it though. He managed to have a look at my LinkedIn profile, which actually had been up for ages with the same title to the likes of Seeking exciting position in Java Development. Obviously that worried him, rightly so. If the job hadn’t been as bad as it had, I would have stayed for a while and worked hard to get the place off the ground, but there were no incentives for me to do so.

He came in to ask me some questions to make sure my heart was in what I was doing, and at one point I said, “Find someone else.” I was let go right there, three days before I wanted to bail. Funny thing is, I just felt so relieved. The truth is my heart was not in it, but I did try hard to get customers (at the barrier) and to upsell. I always try to do my best at any job, but I seriously hated that one.

Now I work in a bar and restaurant, get paid less, but I am happy because:

  • It’s a great work environment
  • I don’t have to commute to work
  • Extremely low overhead, so I can save most of what I earn
  • I have enough time (and energy) for myself to continue learning/blogging/looking for freelance work

The move to Dublin was a mistake on the one hand, but on the other hand I was afraid I wouldn’t get paid at the hotel and just needed a way out. Had I stayed, I would have probably been much better off financially today.

I have a job that I like now.  My goals have shifted yet again because of finances, but I will stick to them. Inch by inch, I’ll get there, come hell or high water.

 

March 6, 2014

How Optimism Failed Me – A Cautionary Lesson

Perhaps I am just writing this just to remind myself of the fact that my financial optimism brought my family’s personal finances to its knees. On the other hand, I do want to share my experience so that some of you out there don’t end up making the same mistakes.

There’s a great article on Forbes entitled Why Pessimism Is Good for Your Finances and it says:

In a study published by researchers Heather Barry Kappes and Gabriele Oettingen, the researchers found that when people imagine their desired futures, “they [don’t] imagine that the path …. may contain obstacles, setbacks, pain or effort.” In other words, because of their unrealistic expectations, people exert less effort to make their dreams a reality.

In 2009 I had wrongly assumed that a simple court case would take two years at the most. It is now 2014 and the case is not over. Had I been much more cautious with regard to expenses and my expectations of a quick end to a very important case, my family and I would not have to go through what we have been going through. Over and over again I kept believing that things would end much quicker than I had anticipated and I based my decisions on those expectations. How insane is that?

When I arrived in Ireland in October of 2013, my optimism also failed me. Suddenly I realized that a simple thing such as a PPS number (Social Security equivalent in the U.S., and NIP in Poland) is unattainable because someone you thought would help you is not helping. As a result you can’t get a bank account opened and receive payment for freelancing. I did not foresee that I would actually be running away to ANY job because my time as a guest had expired. Perhaps not officially, but I felt it. I had two more job offers after I’d already decided to work at the hotel, but financially I simply wouldn’t have managed to get anywhere else.

Anytime you ever plan to go abroad to get a job and someone agrees to help, treat it as a business transaction. Create rules beforehand regarding payment and responsibilities, and how long you would be staying. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your close friend, family, or someone you barely know. Those rules must be firmly established and agreed to by both sides in written form.

In case you’re wondering where I am now – I left my job in Dublin as I simply couldn’t handle it and dreaded every single day of work, but more on that in my next post.

February 3, 2014

Broken Promises

This is rather recent as it isn’t something I was taught as I was growing up, but it is just so important to keep your word. It seems like such an obvious thing, but if promises had been broken in your house then you just start to think it’s normal. Sure, there are priorities, but that was my New Year’s Resolution this year – to always keep my word no matter what. I broke my word once so far, and I still feel bad about it. Come hell or high water, you simply cannot go back on your word.

Anyway, some of you may know that I have a new job. It is by far not what I had expected, but now it’s getting to a point where there are broken promises. I was told I would get commission on sales, but that seems to have disappeared now. I am getting more and more responsibilities, but I don’t get paid more. Now, not that it matters because people will continue to do so anyway, but I just don’t see how you can build any long-term relationships or a long-standing business by breaking your promises.

You know how I feel now? I feel that a contract has been broken and everyone is acting like things are okay. They’re not. If I deliver what I had promised, I also expect my employer to do the same. If you don’t, you will lose your employee. Sure, there are plenty of them out there, but I would certainly not want to lose a trustworthy, hard-working, and reliable employee.

Like I said, don’t break contracts. Whether it’s with your kid, your spouse, or your employer. Stick to your word. Make sure your yes means yes and your no means no. Avoid ambivalence and you will build trust. I often put quotes up here and I will end my post with one:

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” – Albert Einstain

 

January 30, 2014

Irish vs. Polish: Cultural Differences

The one major thing that strikes me here in Ireland, and perhaps it is just an Anglo-Saxon thing, is that there’s a very thick line between personal and professional or non-personal life. I work right next to a hospital, and you and I both know that a hospital is the last place anyone would want to be. I would say that 95% of the people don’t project an image of misery or unhappiness. A 70+ year old woman with full makeup wheezes by in a Subaru Impreza, smiles at you, and wishes you a good day saying she hopes to get out of the place alive. It is all quite sad, but also a very real part of life and something that none of us can do anything about. Perhaps the best thing is just to laugh.

I found that Polish people, myself included, tend to tell everyone around them how miserable they are. Old ladies at clinics compete with each other over who takes more medicine and what ailments they have. I have always been very open about how much of a victim I am, but I feel that I am slowly, but surely regaining my balance here in Ireland and there’s no limit to how far you can go.  Whatever your state, all you have to do is try, and the government in this country will support you.

Now we could say this is circumstantial. We’re obviously all powerless when it comes to the state of our health sometimes. What is it that makes the elderly in Ireland happier than their counterparts in Poland? Could it be that in Poland people have just been so powerless over their destiny for so long because of the (old) political system that they gave up and turned themselves into powerless victims. You know, like Pavlov’s dog.

Remnants of the old system are still in place in Poland. Unfortunately, a further, consistent, and continuous rise in employment in the public sector is making government entities a force to be reckoned with. It is a kind of force which destroys entrepreneurship, as demonstrated in the recent Polish film Uklad Zamkniety (The Closed Circuit).

I still don’t have an answer to the earlier question, but I would like to have at least some of the spirit of the elderly here when I am their age.

January 30, 2014

Irish English 101

The great thing for someone like me is that people in Ireland speak English. There are some whose first language is probably Gaelic and I found them to be the most difficult to understand. Nevertheless, there are quite a few interesting differences I came across as a person who was raised in the U.S. and Canada.

Phrases

  • Cheers! – This basically means thank you or thanks. I’ve also found that people tend to actually say thank you instead of thanks most of the time. To me, Cheers is a TV show, though I admit I caught myself saying “cheers!” once. 
  • Good man! – This one is used as another informal way to say thank you to someone. I find this a bit odd and in my head it goes to the tune of “Good boy!”, which you would obviously use when addressing your four-legged friend.
  • I’m grand. – Easy one, just means “I’m fine.” I’m getting used to it, but I’m much more used to hearing that the car cost me 20 grand.
  • Ta! – I heard this a couple of times and it just means bye, but I almost burst out laughing when I hear this. Sorry, just being honest.

Gestures

Irish men kind of move and tilt their head to the side as if nodding sideways to say hello. I’ve also seen them wink while doing that, but I just don’t feel like winking back. I’m sure you understand. It’s all in a very friendly tone, just very new to me.

Whole Sentences

This is from the back of a bus:

Need to hire a coach?

And no, they don’t mean Phil Jackson. What they really mean is:

Need to rent a bus?

Pronounciation

Irish people often have Gaelic names, and they’re just totally out of this world. They’re better at pronouncing my name in Polish than I am at pronouncing their Irish name.

Overall Impression

The more Irish people I come across, the more I’m convinced that they’re very friendly, open, polite, and fun to be around and I think their language is probably just a reflection of their state of mind. Cheers is funny to me, but it’s better to be cheerful than miserable.

January 28, 2014

Fawlty Towers

I went for the hotel job because I was low on cash and wanted to get as far away from the place where I was staying as I could. I certainly did not want to return to Poland although I still get inquiries from some of my old customers.

First off, I will just tell it like it is. I will do my best to refrain from judging and leave it up to you, the reader, to make your own conclusions.

The Lie

I don’t like lying, but I had no luck landing a job in the service sector, and so I lied through my teeth about having worked in a hotel before. It was either that or I run out of money and go back to Poland. Should you lie? Yes, lie. How much experience do you need to make a bed? It’s not rocket science. Just be responsible, be on time, and pull your shit together and you’ll be fine. First and foremost, you need to be trustworthy and I just wanted to build a reputation.

Lost Opportunity

Right after I arrived at the hotel, I had two people contact me for interviews. One was for a programming position in Dublin, and the other at a retail store in Galway. Unfortunately, I just did not have the resources, and so I said no.

The Job

I was told that all I had to do was make sure that the rooms were ready everyday and I’d be free. Sure, it would be seven days a week, but winter is quite slow anyway.

The Catch

There wasn’t a lot of money in it, but I got to stay in one of the rooms for free. It actually didn’t sound too bad, but it was probably all too good to be true.

So I lied to my prospective employer, he lied to me, are we even? There was three or four months of laundry in the laundry room that hadn’t been done. The washing machine was not running. I not only had to clean the rooms up and bring them up to speed quickly, but also take care of all the check-ins and check-outs.  There were no standards, no training, just a sort of use your head, pull your sleeves up and get to work scenario – and that is exactly what I did.

I got the rooms up and running, I went through all the laundry, including quite a bit of ironing, and things were running smoothly.

Now, this is where it all gets very interesting. In order to fully understand what exactly happened and why I left a perfectly steady job, have a look at this diagram I made.

 

Image

The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the not-so-innocent. Marty is the owner of the hotel, he bought it at a bargain price when the crisis peaked. He managed to get Curly to lease the hotel and Pete to lease the bar.

Marty puts in a minimum amount of effort and even less money. He neglected his share of the responsibilities and so Curly stopped paying his lease. Since Marty was not getting any money, he decided to hire me to get things sorted. Marty sends in a carpenter, plumber, and brings in two washing machines. That’s enough for me to make all the rooms good to go and ready to roll.

One month after my arrival the boilers are turned off by Pete because there’s supposedly a leak somewhere. Pete was actually paying for the gas that was used to heat the water, and as the leak got worse, things got really expensive and he decided to just turn the boiler off until the leak was fixed.

So now you have a hotel with no hot water and I had the honor of informing all the guests about this wonderful fact.

Money Money Money

 

Marty didn’t put in a whole lot of effort, but he did put in some effort, and with my help the hotel was doing quite okay, but for Curly it wasn’t enough. Curly was still reaping in profits from the hotel, but refused to pay for his lease. So Marty just stops talking to Curly.

Well, okay, but what about the money from the guests? Marty says it’s our money, Curly says it’s his money and I’m the one that’s supposed to collect it. Well, not only. Pete collects it as well and sometimes sends it to Curly. Confused enough?

Detergent

One day I ran out of detergent and said to Marty, “Listen, Marty, I’m out of detergent, I need money for detergent.” Then he proceeds to ask me whether I’d received my salary and upon confirmation answers, “Take from that.” I obviously asked him to confirm that he would reimburse me, and then he changed his mind and asked me to take the amount needed from the hotel money.

How confused are you now?

The upside of all this is that I got my PPS number, which in turn helped me to get my bank account set up. I got paid pretty much on time, every week, except for the last week just before I’d left. I was asked to use the hotel money for my salary.

Hard feelings? No. I think I did what I was asked to do and Marty, as my employer, paid my salary and at least I had a roof over my head. Broken promises? Yes, but all that doesn’t really matter anymore.

I really have a hard time understanding people who are all about money and see the world as a world of not enough money. I seriously cannot understand the money-centered mentality. Yes, money is important. Yes, money gives you power, but I also like what Henry Ford said one day:

“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”

I still feel that I hastened through this post, but with the full time job I have and the morning and afternoon commute I’m away ten hours a day and I still need to do as much as possible with Java programming.