Hi,

I'm stuggling to understand over 70 pages of attachments in German of my employment contract. When i was in the interview, they said it's not a problem that i cannot speak German and the contract will be sent in English. Well, yes, the actual contact of 2 pages is in English, but it says by signing it i will also accept all the attached regulations and guidelines. So i have been trying to translate them by using google's translator.

I found out a sentence "Sie dürfen das Internet nicht für private Zwecke benutzen", which i suppose means i cannot use Internet for personal things. Is this common in Switzerland and are they usually strict about this kind of rules? In Finland everybody i know are surfing in Internet during working hours...

Then i have a concern about mobile and laptop. They haven't mentioned anything about those in the attachments (or at least i haven't found), but when i asked about them, HR mgr said I get them from the company. Is it common in CH that the company pays also the phone bills or how do they separate private calls out of work related calls? (So far I have never paid anything related to a mobile phone, as i have worked in a telecommunication company).

I was so tempted to ask also if someone here works for the company where i got the contract, but perhaps it's not wise in this open forum...

Thanks for help,
Mari

This is something you should definitely discuss with someone at your company, and preferably with your manager.

There are widely varying practices concerning what's allowed and what's paid by the company regarding Internet usage & phone bills. Even within a company things can be very different depending for which department you work or what kind of position you have.

Hei Mari,

Tervetuola! I'm also working for a telecom company that has a presence in Finland. My company also made us sign a paper that sounds similar to yours (altho mine was only 5-6 pages, I think. So maybe not the same company ). Anyway, regarding internet at work, it's pretty relaxed (I'm typing this at my work ). I also see others using internet for private reasons. The phone bill is given to us at the end of the month, and we should seperate private calls from business ones, and pay for the private ourselves. But this is also relaxed, unless you have some really expensive private calls.

Any other questions, feel free to PM me.

In my case I also had such a dillema once I joined the new company and had better asked my colleagues at work or project manager. Normally it is allowed to use the internet in a reasonable way (one must be reasonable here you know what I mean), as long as it doesn't become addiction and distraction from your daily routine during your woking hours.... and as I am writing it I already commit a small crime!

Kiitos tosi kiva kuulla muista suomalaisista!

Now i work in a telecom company in Finland, but the company in CH is on totally different industry and a lot smaller.

Ok, good to know that. Then that means i can at least use Internet after working hours and no need to buy an own laptop. Well, depends if they allow me to install Skype etc. in the work laptop, that remains to be seen.