Leka Rabota; Leka Sichko

Hot, sticky but better than being cold, that’s how it is in Bulgaria right now in August. Everything slows down to a standstill in this weather and why not? What’s the rush?

That’s the attitude of every Bulgarian I know right now. They’ll go to work, slowly, and once there the pace remains slow, like I said it’s hot sticky and there is no sense in busting a gut under these conditions. The Bulgarian bosses and managers who employ all these slow paced workers are of the same opinion. “Leka rabota!” (easy work) they would say when the work force comes into work in the morning. Of course they have no other option other obey that greeting from their peers and do just that, work slowly.

I remember a quote from a worker when he asked me what I like about the Bulgarian weather. I gave him his answer saying that the long hot summers are great and the winters are sharp and short. His version of Bulgarian weather was “It’s too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter!” Well he had a point but I mentioned the fact that where would the rakia come from without this Bulgarian climate. He didn’t have an answer to that one and just grinned and shrugged his shoulders; he knew this was an important point.

So too hot in the summer it may be but that all depends where you are and what you are doing. In Yambol the temperature is raised by the fact it is a town and has a town climate. It is much closer and hotter in the town, there is never any breeze on really hot days and if it is going to thunderstorm or floods it will be in and around the town area.

In the villages that are more than 5-10 kilometres away from the town the weather during the summer is magical, the breeze that runs over the Thracian plain and the lack of pollution just make it so much fresher, less clammy and a joy to be in. The village folk still work very slowly all year round but that’s how it has always been. It’s not because of the weather but due to their culture and tradition. No rush whatever the job, even if you were bleeding to death, there would be no rush on!

So in Bulgarian, the Leka Rabota phrase is currently very popular; Leka Sichko (Everything easy) is even more popular, but not quite as popular as the all year round phrase “What are you doing?” (See Bulgarian Small Talk)




http://365bulgarianadventures.com
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Working Bulgarians?

Working Bulgarians in Bulgaria are subjected to very long hours indeed, not only long hours, many months without holiday entitlement and ridiculous rate of pay but all is not what it seems.

It has got to the point where because of the stress living and working in England we can back sooner much sooner without much finance and working here again is something we now have to do.

Having worked in Bulgaria before, and put the hours in basically for the most at a Bulgarian rate of pay the problem was that I worked like an Englishman and the pace of work was completely different from Bulgarians.

What I am getting at is the long hours up to 12 hours a day is quite normal for Bulgarian workers, the pace at which they works means that they tackle the problem of extended hours with slow, methodical work with many breaks. Working sometimes is just a case of them being there for most of the time.

I have lost count of the times I see workers in shops and markets just sitting there smoking, talking or sometimes not there at all. This is normal. The customers and shoppers are far outweighed by the sellers and shopkeepers therefore the demand for stressful busy time is nonexistent.

The minimum rate of pay per month in Bulgaria is 220 BGL every month. Just based on working a 8 hour/five day a week equates to 1.38 BGL (55p) an hour. Most however work in excess of 10 hours therefore over 6 days this brings the true hourly rate to 92 stotinki (37p) an hour. Bare in mind that also the majority of workers are paid the minimum wages and a black market where less than this is paid to casual workers.

Just a thought, a packet of cigarettes now cost on average around 2.40 lev and would take over 2 half hours working to earn. In the UK it would take just one hour based on their National minimum wage! So who says that cigarettes are cheap in Bulgaria? They are nearly three times the equivalent here for the working Bulgarians. I won’t go into how smoking pensioners get by…

The point I am trying to get over is that long working hours is something that is normal here and is only looked at with shock from foreigners comparing western Europe hours and pay. Because they are in the workplace for 10 hours or so the term work may not apply for that amount of time.

So, because of our poor disposition, Galia is now having and indeed wanting to work. Relatively speaking though she is better off than most other Bulgarian workers as I would not allow here to work through the 60 a week hour barrier with a minimum wage. Bearing in mind she done this before working in a shop and would have done it again without me there.

Myself, I was offered work driving long distances but Galia insisted that I don’t take it up as I was English and the hours and pay would not do me justice. She knows full well that my work-rate would 110% and not like a Bulgarian and I would totally exhausted myself doing it.

She is right of course!