Hey allemaal,

Ik ben 22 en ben net begonnen met werken. Ik wil eens horen hoe jullie naar de toekomst van België kijken.

Tot nu toe vond ik België een heel goed land om te leven. We betalen veel belastingen, maar het meeste werkt wel: de gezondheidszorg is sterk, politie en diensten functioneren, enzovoort. Het zegt ook iets dat er mensen uit Nederland naar hier verhuizen, terwijl Nederland op papier rijker is, en dat mensen die naar het VK zijn gegaan vaak terugkomen.

Maar ik heb het gevoel dat het begint te kantelen. Belastingen stijgen, voordelen verdwijnen, de economie draait niet goed. Europa als geheel innoveert weinig en zit met torenhoge schulden. Het lijkt me een trage neerwaartse trend op lange termijn. Ik ken weinig mensen onder de 30 die geloven dat ze na 40 jaar bijna de helft van hun loon af te geven, nog een degelijk pensioen gaan krijgen.

Mijn vragen:

1. Hoe zien jullie het? Is dit overdreven pessimisme, of zien jullie het ook?
2. Als je denkt dat het slechter wordt: wat zou het kunnen keren?
3. Zijn er mensen die plannen hebben om te emigreren, of die het al gedaan hebben? Ik denk zelf aan Zwitserland, Noorwegen of Australië, omdat daar de overheid goed werkt en het land van nature rijk is.
4. Wat doen jullie zelf om je financieel te wapenen of maken jullie er geen zorgen om?

Hi all

38M here. I’ve been working at my job for a few years now and in retail for 13. The old N+1 manager left a few months ago and progressively much of his work has fallen on me. They gave me a pay raise 1,5 months before he announced his resignation. They said they gave me the pay raise because of my good work, I find the timing suspicious and I believe they did it to keep me on board.

They offered me his position when he left but I turned it down. I told them it wasn’t my ambition to become the manager and they would have to hire one. They decided not to.
Even though management says and try to distribute the work amongst my other 2 colleagues and myself I’m still senior and most of the questions, uncertainties and extra workload lands on my plate anyways. This is damaging my sleep cause I carry the stress with me subconsciously.

I’ve been preparing to find a new job cause I want to have a new one starting between January - March so that I still get the end of the year bonus before I leave my current job. I even did a job interview to prepare. The challenge though is that I intend to leave retail so finding a job which still has human face to face contact and isn’t open on weekends isn’t easy.

Another problem though is that at my work they are still giving me more work load. I’m tempted to have a meeting and tell them that it is not needed cause it is my intention to leave after the high season is over which ends end of December. They highly need me for the high season but once that is over then they should survive without me.

So my predicament is tell them or not to tell them? And if I do, how to tell them?

Hey iedereen, I’m 22, just graduated and recently started in audit (big4). I’m not looking for “audit is terrible, run” replies, I’ve heard it. I’d like concrete, practical advice from people who’ve been through it.

A few things I’m wondering about:

1. Planning: How do you plan your weeks when there’s always more to do than hours available? Any system that worked for you?
2. Limits: When do you say “this isn’t feasible” to your senior/manager, and when do you just take on the extra work anyway? How do you phrase it without looking like you can’t cope?
3. Overtime: Do you register all your overtime, or does that look bad? Does it differ by firm or team?
4. After-work events: How important are they really? If I do my job well, is that enough, or does skipping them hurt you in the long run (I want to get at least senior level)? Is there a minimum I should attend? (I hate after work events)
5. Efficiency: Any tips and tricks for working faster
6. Anything you wish you’d known in your first 6 months.

Thanks in advance, really looking for practical stuff!

I am being offered a new job, this time with a company car. I haven’t had one before, only public transportation reimbursement, that’s why asking the question. If you have a company car, what is the allowed annual mileage? Is it possible to negotiate?

Edit: I am interested in the typical mileage offered in Belgium. I have read the car policy and know what is offered for this job.

**1. PERSONALIA**

* Age*:* 28
* Education: Master Business Economics
* Work experience : 6

**2. EMPLOYER PROFILE**

* Sector/Industry: Pharma
* Amount of employees: 2500
* Multinational? YES

**3. CONTRACT & CONDITIONS**

* Current job title: Chief of Staff
* Official hours/week : 38
* Average real hours/week incl. overtime: 50
* Vacation days/year:* *40

**4. SALARY**

* Gross salary/month: 7250
* Net salary/month: 4100 incl net allowances
* Car/bike/... or mobility budget: company car (type Ix3, q6, model Y, EQC SUV, …
* 13th month (full? partial?): full
* Meal vouchers: 10 EURO/DAY
* Ecocheques: 250 EURO/YEAR
* Group insurance: yes
* Bonus: 10-15k / year

**5. MOBILITY**

* City/region of work: Antwerp
* Distance home-work: 25 minutes
* Telework days/week: 2

Hello,

For a serie of reasons I am left with 15 unpaid previous year legal holidays. They have been paid out when I changed employer last year.

However, I don’t feel the need to take them, I’d rather work and get paid.

Is it legally possible? I’m sure my HR won’t notice it, its only one person part time for too many people, but maybe the deduction will happen automatically and I’ll see in December salary that I have not been paid after having worked?

Does anybody have any experience?

I am in charge of the operations of a Brussels-based NGO with 60 staff. Currently there are 3 or 4 people who have company cars. As part of the upcoming mobility budget requirement we have been looking into the possibility of making company cars or the mobility budget accessible to a wider group of employees. Our thinking is that probably most employees would take the mobility budget rather than the car, and the mobility budget is a really nice tax-efficient benefit. However, rolling it out to all employees would cost so much that the organisation would not really be able to afford it. It would require 2 or 3 times more money than what we would otherwise dedicate to bonuses and salary increases. We also looked at the possibility of introducing it only for a group of 15 senior employees and managers, which could potentially work from a budget point of view. I understand that it is common in Belgium to have company cars as a benefit accessible to senior employees and managers only. But in our leadership there is a feeling that this approach is unfair, i.e. giving even more, tax-efficient benefits to employees who are already better paid. So I was wondering how other companies are approaching this conundrum. Grateful for any advice and experience.

Please let me know what you think about this consulting package offer (I have doubts about the intellectual property rights and how it works):

1. PERSONALIA

• Age: 45
• Education: Master
• Work experience: 20+ years
• Civil status: married
• Dependent people/children: 1 child

2. EMPLOYER PROFILE

• Sector/Industry: Consulting (new for me)
• Amount of employees: 200
• Multinational? yes

3. CONTRACT & CONDITIONS

• Current job title: unemployed
• Job description: data consultant
• Seniority: 0 at the job
• Official hours/week: 40
• Average real hours/week incl. overtime: unknown
• Shiftwork or 9 to 5 (flexible?): unknown
• On-call duty: unknown
• Vacation days/year: 32 (20 legal + 12 extra RTT days)

4. SALARY

• Gross salary/month: 4,800 base (+ 950 Intelectual property fees)
• Net salary/month: ~3,900 (salary + copyright, net); ~4,900 all extras (mobility etc)
• Netto compensation: 250/month
• Car/bike/... or mobility budget: 9,000/year mobility budget (750/month), pillar 2 in the simulation
• 13th month (full? partial?): YES
• Meal vouchers: 8/DAY
• Ecocheques: YES
• Group insurance: YES
• Other insurances: hospitalization
• Other benefits (bonuses, stocks options, ... ): bonus up to 4,000 gross/year

5. MOBILITY

• City/region of work: Brussels
• Distance home-work: < 10 km
• How do you commute? car
• How is the travel home-work compensated: via mobility budget
• Telework days/week: unknown

6. OTHER

• How easily can you plan a day off: unknown
• Is your job stressful? unknown
• Responsible for personnel (reports): unknown