He and I are both from Latvia. They used to work together for the same newspaper and then maintained friendly relations. But an economic crisis broke out, which hit little Latvia harder than the war. Latvians, Poles, Jews, Russians, Ukrainians — we all suffered equally from it. Unemployment in the eastern regions of Latvia has reached 22%! In Riga, unemployment reached 11% when we both found ourselves out of work, each for a different reason, but, of course, the economic crisis was to blame. It fell on us after “fat years” like a meteorite into the Baltic Sea, and brought to the surface as much mud and mud as no strong autumn storm can bring ashore. The “human factor”, which aviation safety experts who analyze “black box” records insistently talk about, was almost the main reason why people, having lost their jobs, were forced to leave their homeland, going nowhere at any age and with any qualifications. According to official information, the number of people who have left Latvia since 2008 has reached 300,000, and according to unofficial information, 600,000 people. For a country with a population of 2 million people, any of these figures do not indicate, but simply yell at the scale of the tragedy. The fact is that along with the reduction in wages and jobs in society, aggression and intolerance have increased. Those who kept their jobs were ready to do anything not to lose them, and employers, taking advantage of the hopeless situation of their subordinates, began not only shamelessly manipulating them, but also bullying them, and mobbing bloomed in the teams themselves. Fortunately, no one bothered them — Latvia has no laws against mobbing and bullying at the workplace. I've heard stories about how the owners in firms were fierce: they yelled, insulted, pitted employees off, forced them to testify perjury against their own colleagues in order to fire them under a non-severance pay clause. When this bullying ended, the unemployed person went to the stock exchange and had to report there every month. And then the inspectors were already beginning to revel in their power over fellow citizens, confused and tired of unsuccessful job searches. I must say that the crisis is a favorable breeding ground for mobbers and bullers of various calibers who, under the guise of “crisis managers”, settle scores with the objectionable, cut salaries, increase their workload, increase their pressure on addicted and victimized people or solve their psychological problems. The crisis is very convenient for those for whom divide and rule are the main management strategies. My friend and I went through all this and left Latvia — me earlier, he a little later. There is no doubt that this was a “voluntary exile”. We were scattered around the world. It's been a while since we've written to each other. And recently we have established a connection again via Skype. His stingy account of living and working in Northern Ireland led me to believe that the Great Migration did not end in either the 7th century or the 17th century. Labor migration is the prolonged Great Migration, when people flee from where they are being squeezed out, where they are bullied and start living in a new place—a place where you can find shelter under the shadow of working laws, where you don't have to fight for survival, where you can go to work with pleasure. And what else does a person need to be happy? A friend of mine has finally found a place like this. I think it's important to note that we are the same age as him, and that changing our country, profession, learning a language and starting from scratch is not easy these days.
Me: Hi! Where are you?
Him: I'm in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I paid for college courses a year in advance, why should I go anywhere:)?
Me: What do you study in college?
Him: I go to English with Cambrige Certificate.
Me: Well, you've been sitting there for a long time. Don't you have to talk well already?
Him: Actually, it's a fun system — it's just courses, but it's believed that this is a part-time student with all the benefits — discounts are everywhere and you can even apply for hausing benefit, if I understand correctly. A certificate is required if they ask in any reputable place. And of course I go to the movies: I proudly show my student card and get a discount.
Me: Do you already speak fluently?
Him: For the first two weeks, when I was training at my new job, I didn't understand why I was hired here. In the third week, my new English colleagues put me on the phone, encouraging me in every possible way and giving me advice if anything. So now I'm freaking everyone out...
Me: Where do you work?
Him: I can't write about this anywhere — not on Facebook, anywhere. These are the terms of the contract. But it's a solid place; I've never worked in this specialty before.
Me: What are the working conditions?
Him: Working conditions — I haven't seen such conditions since Soviet times. The shifts were made for me in a way that was convenient for me so that I could freely attend courses.
Me: What are you doing now?
Him: We share the house with a colleague. I went to see apartments, it's hard to choose. It's already unusual, you get used to wandering around the house on two floors back and forth. The apartments feel cramped.
(Note: At his former place of work, in another part of Northern Ireland, where he moved from Latvia, he and a colleague rented a house while working in an online store).
Me: In Belfast itself?
Him: Yes.
Me: What is the salary?
Him: The salary is not super high right now, but I would pay for such a school myself:). Now they are sending me offers from financial institutions, because they must have a person pass a security check.
Me: Did you go through this?
Him: Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have been hired, and I didn't have a criminal record, no debts either.
Me: So did you study for a while to get this job?
Him: No, it usually takes 2 to 4 weeks to teach at work.
Me: So they hire a person without special education?
Him: Yes, the attitude here is different. No one requires a lot of diplomas, etc., and if you already have work experience, they turn a blind eye to all the pieces of paper. On the other hand, if you're studying somewhere, there are special job offers for prospective graduates. You're interviewing now and they hire you in a year, for example, or they hire you now and pay for your studies if they like you.
Me: Are they mostly Irish or are there immigrants too?
Him: The floor is mostly local, but there are also migrants. There was only one Greek on my team, but now it's me, a Ukrainian and a black guy from Ghana.
Me: Is everyone on an equal footing?
Him: Yes. The exact opposite of what I saw in Latvia.
Me: Such tolerance would be in Latvia and Russia... By the way, visit my website mobbingu.net and you can leave comments:). This is the first specialized site in Russian about mobbing/cybermobbing/school mobbing/bullying.
Him: Ooh... bullying — we went through this. You should read the rules everywhere and sign it. They won't do anything for absenteeism — they'll postpone your shift, and they'll immediately fire you for bullying. Usually together in the same bulling and harassment rules. Bullying does not have to be physical violence or the threat of physical violence; it can be any psychological intimidation, for example, a threat like “I'm short-legged with my superiors, I'll tell you this right away...”. Here's a look at a government website on your topic: https://www.gov.uk/workplace-bullying-and-harassment. Where I used to work, we had an employment relationship manager, I also complained to him about our Busness manager — I refused to give an advance payment:). The next day she called to her place and said what she had inherited from her superiors and she would give me an advance payment, as I had asked. I had a lot of overtime, and the question was simply getting some of the money before the vacation. I said that the refusal was unreasonable and pointless, and the management agreed with that. At the same time, I complained that they messed up with the holidays and gave me a last-minute vacation.
Me: You tell me amazing things...
Him: Nobody can force you to go into overtime here. If the manager forces you, you can complain; this could be his last working day at the company. I went into overtime voluntarily to earn money. Here's a look at Yukei sites on mobbing/bulling/harassment:
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1864
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=797
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/equalities/faq/harassmentandbullying
http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/harass.htm
Here's another government site:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/furtheradvice/bullyingindividuals.htm
At the same time, here, at every corner, at work, at universities and colleges, you have to fill out a questionnaire about race, religion and political beliefs (the last one in college), and sexual orientation, too.
Me: Thanks, it's interesting. I'm going to read it. Maybe I'll translate something for the site. By the way, aren't the media arguing about whether to quit your job or school if you're being bullied? I know that in the fall, after a schoolboy's suicide, in Norway, they started talking about the fact that mobbers and bullers should leave not the victim of bullying.
Him: I haven't met, but I'm sure there's something like that. Here, such issues are usually worked out quickly, and parents are met. A colleague said that when her daughter was late for the exam, the teachers had to extend her exam time so that she was on an equal footing with everyone else.
Me: It's almost heaven, but kids die there too because of mobbing and cybermobbing...
Him: Everything happens here too.
Me: And what is the fundamental difference between “them” and “us”?
Him: I'll tell you what the difference is. I experience culture shock at Dublin Airport when I board a plane. First of all, when boarding starts, ours, who weren't standing by, show up from somewhere and shove you off very aggressively. If you were first, you'll be tenth at best. Everyone's ticket says which door to enter to get to the right place. Ours are all sticking to the front door, but the back door is empty...
Me: But rudeness and mobbing is also there.
Him: It's everywhere, but if you've seen Posner's film about England (I can't praise the film itself/), then it's absolutely true that everyone is apologizing here. If we accidentally clash, they try to show power, “why are you here”! They'll say exuse me — like, if anyone's the rednecks here, it's not me — I apologized. And at the labor office, they don't screw chairs to the floor, and comments that they don't fiddle on the chair:). I can't forget these chairs screwed to the floor in Riga at the labor exchange. How we argued with these inspectors. I just got some kind of trauma after that.
Me: Yeah... I remember how much I hated going there and how happy I was when my inspector was laid off. That's what I got to: I was happy about someone else's misfortune!
Him: As far as I understand you:). My landlady from her last job in Riga would probably be sued here. She yelled at everyone every day. This is where bullying and harassment were. It's very hard to imagine anyone complaining. Almost all employees were hired by the owners themselves and through friends. The younger ones called the hostess “Aunt Tonya”. Aunt Tonya went from being a saleswoman to being a shopkeeper. That probably explains it all.
Me: Almost all of them are out of there.
Him: Although it's not a fact that everyone is like that. I think it's more due to an inferiority complex.
Me: Right. They themselves have gone through humiliation and bullying — in the family, at work, and in the state. “You're the boss — I'm stupid, I'm the boss — you're stupid!” and “I've suffered and now you'll suffer too!” Pure military bullying.
Him: I was on vacation when the hosts decided to remove me and hire an outside company where people would come every two weeks.
Me: I was also on a sabbatical when my university workload was distributed among my colleagues so that they could offer me half a job when I returned. Apparently, each of us has had such an “Aunt Tonya” in our lives:). How are you doing with your superiors here?
Him: Yes, it's all right. Most of our favorite managers were local, and we also had a French manager on our Russian team for some time. We fell in love with her very much. She didn't understand us—except “how are you”, “bye” and “hello”. She spoke and wrote English in such a way that an interpreter was needed, but she is a very good person.
Me: How did she hold a management position without knowing English for the appropriate “category”?
Him: But she did her job. And this is the main thing here. If we stopped our situation here and replaced English with Latvian, inspectors would fine us here every day, and maybe we would never find a job at all. It's just that here at work you can also prove yourself with language. If you really try, everything will be fine as a result. For example, if you fail an assignment or test when applying for a job, you have the right to apply for the same job again, if available, after a certain period (60 days, 6 months) and take the test again. Usually this period is immediately negotiated, that is, a person can count on a second chance.
The conversation ended and I was genuinely happy for my friend. It's good to have a second chance. Of course, it's not all rosy. Living in emigration requires a lot of mental and intellectual effort from a person. But all everyday and mental experiences are nothing compared to a feeling of saved self-esteem and security.
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