13 thoughts on ““Perhaps some young kiwis are just bloody lazy and immigrants work harder – whaddya reckon?””

1. Actually I have had time to reflect on whether or not Kiwis are lazy or just lack incentive to work.In light of my weeks interactions with Kiwis I have come to the conclusion that they are very mentally lazy and uncooperative.I have found in general after clearly requesting a service from a Kiwi I often need to rephrase what I would like two or three times and suggest ways they could access the service or information I have politely requested,this is often met with stern looks and heavy breaths and unconcealed sighs and eye rolling .Doing their job is soooo much of an effort and the fulfilment of any request is seen as a personal favour.As Kiwis tend to bring their bigotry ,personal prejudice and toxic home life to the work place it’s often more productive to terminate a conversation with an uncooperative employee and look for another idiot who might not be in quite as foul a mood.
   I really do hope this country is the subject of a massive nuclear strike as soon as I have moved on then the remaining mutants can brag about their desert landscape and how they are best in the world at annoying people into obliterating them.

   • Unfortunately, I tend to agree. Being mentally lazy is the reason most service type workers here in NZ tend to drag you round in a circle before running out of ideas (or interest) and then just sitting there staring at you, like it’s up to you to sort out your own service. They have better tings to do after all! That’s not at all progressive is it. Don’t forget though, kiwis are entitled to everything, can’t fail and don’t have to do what you ask them.

   • I work in a customer service role for an NZ company.
     I spend my day with a headset on my head answering phones and trying to assist both farmers and rural retail stores with information on products and use.

     There are many days I go home vowing never ever again, sometimes the outright level of stupidity and ignorance astounds me. I get sworn at, abused and harassed by what is often just total fruit loops.
     Simple things turn into utter nightmares simply because of the inability of many on the other end of the phones being unable to communicate clearly or listen to simple questions and provide simple answers.
     I loose count of how many times of the week I get asked “how long is the piece of string in my pocket” type questions.
     I had one numskull this week who rattled on for 10 minutes describing a black plastic thing he wanted, could tell me what it did, what it was off, how it function, all he could tell me was it’s back, its plastic and its on the bottom, Bottom of what he had no idea.
     I asked him for a photo, just whip out the camera phone, snap a picture and send it to me. can’t do that he tells me, doesn’t know how,he’s old and has no idea how to do it (FYI Im 55, was a cook for most of my life and only now work with a computer and I have no problem doing this and haven’t for a decade +) so I suggested he see if someone else there in the store could for him, you know like one of the younger generation.
     he went off his nut, slammed down the phone and then yesterday had the store manager on the phone making threats for being ‘ageist’. FFS I’m 20 years older than her and 8 years older than the person in store!

     And thats pretty much why when I pick up that phone I’m deadpan. I’m to the point, handle the call and don’t put any personality into the job. It’s just not worth making any effort beyond the minimum. Add to that its a family business, as in the GM employed most of his family from wife to most all the kids to work here so nepotism is the order of the day.

     I’m only biding my time here until something more interesting comes along or I can finally escape the country and head back to Europe.

2. I am not surprised at record high suicides rates, people are driving each other mad here in traffic and their egocentric behavior.. just have a look at these rates..New Zealand right in the middle of third world countries. I am not surprised ! Right under Canada but hey the world !

   Mongolia 9.8 62 16.3 100 3.7
   Canada (more info) 9.8 70 14.9 73 4.8
   72 Congo 9.6 71 14.7 77 4.6
   New Zealand 9.6 73 14.4 69 5.0
   74 Central African Republic 9.5 75 14.1 55 5.3
   75 Cambodia 9.4 86 12.6 43 6.5
   76 Pakistan

   source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate
   http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/69920289/suicide-toll-reaches-highest-rate-since-records-kept

   • Not to defend New Zealand, but in this list they are in 72nd place. Australia is in 63rd place, the UK is 105th, Canada is 70th and the USA is 50th. Surprisingly, the countries with the least level of suicide are Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

3. hmmm this is very sad ! not a very stimulating environment for your child to grow up in ..not to mention the meth ! this is what i found on mental illness in new Zealand. Why IS THIS when you live in paradise ?! Somebody please explain.. please know what kinda country you are immigrating too !

   The closure of the Ngawhatu Psychiatric Hospital, amid claims of patient abuse, came as little surprise in the year 2000. New Zealand had MORE people per head of population in INSTITUTIONS than ANYWHERE else, which was rather DISTURBING. Mark Nalder, a registered psychiatric nurse who worked in all areas of Ngawhatu hospital, said “Ngawhatu was GROWING at an ALARMING rate.” 2

   source :

   http://www.theprow.org.nz/yourstory/ngawhatu-hospital/#.V75Xdc994eg

4. I think the only way NZ will progress is if they admit their faults and weakness and make a genuine attempt to solve them and embrace new ideas from overseas and get rid of the tall poppy syndrome. As far as lying and deception about the problems , NZ may be among the worst in the world.

5. Well the Kiwis certainly had an eye for a bargain at the Rio Olympics ,McDonald’s offered free food to all the competing athletes,one N.Z woman Rugby sevens player claims to have eaten $900 worth of the free McDonald’s and gained 4 kilos of weight during her visit ,the good news is that her body will likely never decompose ,just as well they weren’t giving away free cigarettes as well.

6. Tony Foote,

   The situation that you have described is definitely not confined to NZ. I’m retired now, however I’ve had similar experiences here in Australia, particularly the prejudice against employees who are in late middle age. Part of the problem is the ascendancy of neoliberalism, which promotes high immigration rates to depress wages, the destruction of trade unions and the phoney ‘free trade’ agreements which are essentially designed to make business easier for multinationals, not to benefit consumers. The Brexit vote was partly a protest against this situation by the English working class.

   When I was at business school in the 1960s, the forecast was that the standard working week would be 24 hours by 2010, LOL.

   • So what happens when the immigrants become middle aged on the tail of a huge number of non working baby boomers ? .Unfortunately this has also happened in the U.S ,55 year old workers being let go in favour of young people willing to work for less of everything,then we see immigrant blaming and the rise of potentially dangerous alternate leaders like “The Donald”.

     • All societies work on reciprocation, but here is another thing all societies also have in common:
       The young are encouraged to contribute, but along the way on their journey to death they are also forced into situations of war, poor medical treatment or “avoidable accidents”(oxymoron) … so that they never really get the chance to “cash out their investment in society” when their time comes.
       This trend, is of course, accelerating – and there has never been a single year in the 20th century where there was peace on Earth – or at least freedom from war involving state actors.

       Societies are also made highly unstable, because people in their increasing hubris now, say “I did it solely due to my hard work” (no mention of luck, connections or family background). This kind of nonsense makes people extremely cruel and uncharitable when they have made it in the world.

       Increasingly it is becoming apparent that becoming an employee means you are at the whims of uncaring and capricious management, unless you have either very rare “doing work” skills, or “holding on to your job” skills (those two do not overlap).

       Also, racism plays a factor into how well the older people are treated. Fellows with the “white supremacy” mindset can hardly expect people of colour to play nice with them if those older people have repeatedly shut out the newcomers despite having ticked all the boxes for earning a wage.

       Leaders like “The Donald” are supported because regular people have lost hope in established parties doing anything to improve rates of social mobility due to honest hard work and properly gained qualifications. So, some people would rather burn the system down than keep working with those who have kept getting away with cheating them.

       Lastly, it makes sense to read some Piketty, and not believe the stupid legends of company founders nowadays.
       2 references for that:
       cracked.com/article_16989_6-inspiring-rags-to-riches-stories-that-are-bullshit.html
       and
       cracked.com/blog/4-rags-to-riches-success-stories-that-are-full-crap/

7. Almost every current member of parliament in N.Z obtained their degree free of charge under our previously state subsidised education programmes ,now a university education is so expensive it’s out of reach for most working class Kiwi youth.The government relies on overseas educated people to provide skilled workers,in the last 12 month period 209,000 work visas were issued to non N.Z born people,many of these people can not find work in their specialty field and fill low skilled positions out of necessity .If a Kiwi citizen takes a job which doesn’t work out for whatever reason they face a minimum 6 week stand down period before they can receive a benefit.Minimum wage (this is what most low skilled jobs pay) will give a worker take home pay of under $450 per week ,that’s if they are fortunate enough to get a 40 hour work week .Its all been said on this site before however worth pointing out that the lowest rent a person could expect to pay in a flop house with shared bathrooms and cooking facilities would be $150pw a more realistic rent for a single person in a very basic one bedroom apt would be $350 pw ,$50pw electricity,minimum $100pw vehicle expenses,minimum $150 pw food and of course these are just bare necessities which already vastly exceed what minimum wage pays for.Immigrants often survive by sharing their basic resources such as sleeping multiple people in a bedroom ,sharing cars and cooking together which etc.This is fine when you’re young and if you can see it as a temporary solution,if it is not a temporary solution then it could be described as a third world lifestyle .
   I don’t think Kiwis are lazy,I think that N.Z wages are so low as to be pathetic and un realistic,the cost of living here is not high it would better be described as exorbitant ,individual items costing 5 to 10 times what a person would pay for the same item in the U.K or U.S,electric and phone bills which will make you shake your head in disbelief as even if a person attempts to economise the bill will be ridiculous based on service provider charges not consumption amounts.
   Most Kiwis aren’t lazy ,there is very little incentive for a person to go to work,more money to be made on a black market economy of criminal enterprise subsidised partly with welfare payments which is of course why we are in the middle of a crime wave which the police have no control over and the government sweeps under the carpet.

8. There’s another side to this in NZ. Here’s an example. I have two sisters, both in their 50s. Both work in top end professions within the government machine. Both of them are currently under job restructuring and both have been told they would probably be displaced at Christmas. I myself, an engineer have been redundant 5 times throughout my career. This is a constant reality for people in New Zealand who work their asses off, spends tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on constant retraining only to end up unemployed at an age where jobs are near impossible to find. One of my sisters has 5 degrees, all paid for by herself as compulsory retraining. She has been a registered nurse, psychiatric nurse, clinical facilitator and now, librarian – after retraining at great expense, yet again. The other, a high school teacher has paid her own way though her diploma, then degree. She has worked as an English as a Second Language tutor and high school teacher nigh on 20 years. She has been redeployed to her school library as a librarian because to government has decided to shut down the entire school in December and staff have been told not to reapply for their jobs. Redeploying her is a way to get out of redundancy. Myself, I qualified as an engineer at a time when engineers were in hot demand, but the engineering industry collapsed and led to my being laid off redundant 4 times in a year. I finally took to information technology before losing my job due to age – they didn’t want an “old guy” showing up to fix computers because “people expect young computer nerds”. I have not worked since and am now on medical disability due to a work related accident earlier on. So, when people suggest New Zealanders are lazy and don’t want to work, maybe they have just seen the other side of life in NZ – it’s not respecting of peoples rights and needs cheap, desperate workers to survive, hence the imports. I write this purely as a point of balance to any belief that all Kiwis are lazy and just lie on the couch all day.

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