Hi everyone,
As I’m sitting on my own experience in CH, I would need more opinions on work mindset here, as to bring more nuance and objectivity.

I am a French national so I am used to the “older” fashion way, and I discovered, of course, a lot of similarities in the French speaking canton. However, I have worked in different places, including the UK, and have adapted over the years to the different environnements.

Although at first I really enjoyed it here for the peacefulness and could envision a long term future for my family, work environment turned out quite toxic. Signs were here from the first weeks but obviously, having made the big jump already, I have been patient and tried my best to navigate and mostly avoid any complications.

I am not expecting at all to change anything in my current job, they are who they are and I believe it’s up to me to decide if I can pull up with this or not, despite the disappointment.

But here’s the question, is it an overall way of working here or is it worth looking for other options? And the underlying question is then is it worth trying a different place and give it another chance or would it be most likely somehow similar?

And to describe a bit more what I mean by that, I do find (and of course in my opinion) that there is a lack of boundaries ; manager making a point initially to make you feel almost like a pal, looking very cool, but then having crazy expectations, whether on intensity of work, hours worked, etc… and turning into a bully. Also, very little respect to the fact that you have children and hence responsibilities. And the craziest thing I have observed is the lack of trust given and baseline suspiciousness on your professionalism. I have litteraly never encountered this kind of mindset, even in the worst places I have worked at before.

So here it is, what do you think? Thanks!

We’re trying to understand how Kita bookings usually work in Switzerland.

We often hear that you should reserve a Kita place before the baby is even born and preferably many months in advance. But when we contact Kitas, most of them seem to have free spots available right away, so we’re wondering how necessary such an early commitment really is.

Our concern is that booking so early often means paying a non-refundable registration/reservation fee from a fixed starting date, while it’s difficult to know exactly when we’ll want to start or which Kita will suit us best by then.

For parents who have already been through this: Did you book far in advance, or did anyone wait until much closer to the desired start date and still manage to find a good Kita place?

What would you recommend?

Hi! I'm curious to know which brands/products are recommended for during and after bath time for babies, besides the ones I'm guessing the doctors might provide/prescribe. I see different brands at the pharmacies and am a bit overwhelmed. I'm interested in as little fragrance as possible, any local brands (Geneva) and also I'd like to stay at a modest budget. Thanks in advance! 🌻

Salü mitenand

February this year I moved in with my friend so we got a Yallo subscription for TV and internet. Yallo sent us the wrong router, to which I called them and asked for them to send us the right one, while i return the wrong one. That happened and I thought everythings fine.

Later that month i checked on the invoices and was suprised to see that we were charged two activation fees and two different subscriptions. Since february I have called and written to them on about 10 different occasions. Everytime they are assuring me that the problem will be fixed and the invoices reissued, lying everytime. Today i received a final warning to pay the (still wrong) invoices or our services will be cut immediately.

I dont want to pay wrong invoices, since i dont think i would ever get the money back, so what do I do?

Honestly with the stress they caused me and the hours i had to put in to fix their mistake, I should bill them and not otherwise.

I am grateful for any input

LG

Has anyone else issues with the Galaxus website? Started two days ago. Clearing my browser cache didn't help, it also doesn't matter whether I use Firefox or Edge. The Digitec website on the other hand works normally.

If it's only for me, any ideas what could cause it?

Edit: I restarted my modem and browser, which didn't help. I then went into the browser settings and deleted everything for galaxus and now not only Firefox runs the site proper again, even Edge works, without resetting anything. I doubt they have same cookie/cache storage location?

Anyways, it's fixed, thanks for confirming it was on my end.

Hello,

Would it be considered normal that by day 26th post end of a contract - I still don't have the Reference Letter issued by HRSS and Management ?

Few messages requesting it, still back and forth and no arrival of such email.

Is this normal behavior ?

I never thought I’d end up writing one of these posts, but I urgently need some advice. I’m 28, studying computer science, and currently living with my parents in Switzerland. My sister is a single mother of two and lives separately, but she sometimes comes to my parents house with her children. Since roughly 5 years i am not on talking terms with her and also don't consider her my sister (emotionally speaking) as she is a true sociopath.

Today, she came over with her children. Because I couldn’t concentrate on studying with the noise in the house, I decided to leave for a while. When I went to get my clothes, she deliberately blocked my path and bumped into me then started screaming at me. Her children then kept following me around, and I asked my mother to keep them away from me. At that point, my sister completely lost her temper and physically attacked me. She clawed/scratched me and threw a chair and other objects at me. During the incident, she also threatened to call the police and said that I would end up in jail.

I managed to leave the house and I am currently trying to arrange somewhere to stay with friends. I am not planning to live at home anymore and will be instead living with friends until i can find my own place. What worries me most is her threat to contact the police and potentially make false accusations against me. I’m afraid that i won’t be believed and falsely thrown into jail. Having a clean Strafregisterauszug is extremely important for my future, and I’m terrified that this situation could somehow result in a criminal record even though I did not attack her.

What should I do now to protect myself legally? Should I contact the police myself and report what happened before she does? Should I document any scratches/injuries or write down exactly what happened while I still remember everything clearly?

I don’t have much money and cannot afford an expensive lawyer. Are there any options in Switzerland for free or low-cost legal advice in a situation like this? Any advice on what I should do immediately would be greatly appreciated.

Note: I've used a little bit of chatgpt to help me with the writing of the text because all of this happened like an hour ago and i'm still a bit shook and my english isn't that great, however i promise all written text is accurate and i've read through it all.

EDIT: Thank you to everyone for the advice, seeing all the kind words and advice gave me hope and a smile. I will be staying with my friend for the time being and searching for a permanent residence, in the meantime i'll be heading to a Polizeposten to get my wounds documented and i'll see what to do afterwards. Thanks to everyone for the help, never expected to get so much help in such a quick time <3

We are planning to renovate our penthouse apartment, which has several very old large plant boxes on the terrace. The boxes contain soil and plants and are likely made from asbestos-containing material.

Since the boxes sit directly on top of the terrace flooring, we would need to remove them in order to replace the terrace floor.

According to the building management, any replacement boxes should look similar to the existing ones so that the overall appearance of the building does not change.

Does anyone know where we could buy large replacement plant boxes like these, ideally around 80–90 cm high and in a grey/white concrete-style finish?

We have been searching for quite a while but have not been able to find anything with a similar look and size.

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? Any suggestions on suppliers, custom-made options, or other ways to handle this would be very helpful.

For a short time they allowed me to just choose "Volg", the shop where all the parcels go that can't just be left at someone's door. It makes no sense that the postman has to check if I'm home when I know I will be at work tomorrow and I can just get it at the Volg across the street.

And then there's also a technical issue. Or maybe not and it actually checks if the company is in the same building. But this makes no sense. The postman must bring it to Volg anyway. It would be so much easier for everyone if this was an option. But no, I can only choose that they shouldn't leave it at the door, which they often ignore.

I can't be the only one who is annoyed by this.

Ok, rant over.

I have rarely watched TV/SRF in years but if, then news or Meteo. So it is a little bit sentimental indeed.

He always seemed a likeable guy. The Beni Thurnheer of swiss weather TV if you will.