Last week I had my first day of work, in Bucharest, after a 1 year break. I work for a great international federation (no ass kissing, they really are http://www.iesf.com/index.php?p=home) and I have two lovely colleagues, which happen to also be my friends. We have a great office, close to my high school, so I am surrounded by wonderful feelings every morning. I am a marketing officer now (English job title, because the Romanian job code makes me something like "relation organizer" which to me sounds a bit like a PIMP, not marketing stuff). A few things seem to have changed since the crises. I have to mention that when I left the Romanian work force, it was the beginning of the crises in Romania and everything was still all rainbows and butterflies. I knew salaries drooped like crazy while life was more and more expensive, but my bubble of joy from across the border kept me away from this. Now - I'm back.
In order to get the salary I wanted (a pretty good amount for the Romanian market considering myself, but way lower than I made in Denmark while cleaning 3 hours/ day) I accepted to work with a civil convention, not a work contract. A civil convention involves only the payment of mandatory state taxes, taking out unemployment, health and retirement. My employer is not cheap, but in a crises situation most companies work like this, because taxes are pretty high (in case anyone is curious, this is how much a company pays for every employee in tax: http://www.calculatorsalariu.ro/). Since I'm young and I never know where my life goes, I took the agreement.
Today I went to register my work convention...of course not at the right place (maybe I should learn how to read Romanian state web sites, because it's the second time, or start using the phone). When I got to the right place I found out that the form I had was wrong, because in was on intellectual property...so I had to fill out another one. I applied everything without any problems...at least for 30 minutes. A nice lady tells me that she can't register my convention, because I don't actually own an authorization to offer my services...This is a special authorization given by the National Commerce Register to freelancers. So...now I am some sort of freelancer as a "relation organizer" which makes me officially a P.I.M.P. :P. To get this, you need of course tons of paper work, time and money (http://www.onrc.ro/documente/ghid/1_pfa.pdf).
My colleagues told me that since the crises most people work like this. Taxes go super low and it's a nice way to trick a bit the state, because you make your own accounting and you can deduct some amounts out of the final tax with regular bills. Sounds good, I guess...but I don't like running around the city and dealing with sour administration employees. I guess I need a secretary (if anyone is interested by this job, note that I am moneyless).
Still looking for solutions to fix this...I wish it would be easier...every time I hit state owned services my head starts hurting. I am not spoiled in anyway, but common...shouldn't these things be easier and shouldn't the state make our life wonderful, so we can work longer and with energy to feed it with taxes?!
P.S.
1.it's been 1 month since I applied my request letter to the Ministry of Education about my rights as an EU student...and still no answer
2. today I had taste for something with vitamin C, a fruit to be exact, and though I walked around the whole city center, I couldn't find one fruit/vegetable shop...until I got close to my office, where everything is super expensive...I could find clothes, pastry, tabbaco, cofee, junk food...eating healthy food could do good to our lives and the West loves healthy stuff...I guess we don't, though we still produce some and it could be cheaper.
Ok...I stop complaining here...maybe I should start asking myself the question everybody has on their lips "why the hell didn't I stay there, if it was so great?!"...I guess I did it for some people I missed.