Warning to Potential Workers in Mosfellsbær
Last activity 01 August 2011 by moidixmois08
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I just want to put my experience out there for anyone who is considering coming to Iceland to work for a man named Siggi at a guesthouse in Mosfellsbær. He is now calling it Three Peaks Inn.
I came to work for him and was so displeased that I ended up leaving after only a couple of weeks. I know several girls who have had the exact experience, and he doesn't normally keep employees for very long.
Perhaps things have changed, but this was my experience:
In email conversations he constantly evaded my request to draw up a contract or even provide a detailed list of what my duties would be. He also would not pin down a price for payment, and rather asked me what I thought I should be paid. He ended up paying about 350ISK per hour, which is well below the minimum wage. Not only was the pay terrible, but he also made me write up a very detailed time sheet, and if I took a break for more than 5 minutes, he told me I had to write it down because he wasn't going to pay for that.
He also stated that he would provide food, which he did, but he made it very difficult. He insisted on keeping most everything in his home, so if I wanted to eat something, I would have to go over to his house, knock on his door, and then go into his kitchen and rummage around. It was not a comfortable situation, and if I asked for something like bread, he would tell me to just take 3 or 4 slices and leave the rest with him.
He's just extremely cheap and makes you feel guilty for doing anything that might cost money. He will not provide bus fare or anything like that, which is crazy because a one-way bus ticket into town costs one hour of work.
The work itself isn't too bad, but be prepared to never get any positive feedback at all. I worked very hard and he would always criticize me, but never offered me any help as to what I could do to make my work better. It felt completely fruitless.
And for some reason, he would always have tons of dirty underwear for me to clean. He would insist that I fluff out every single pair before hanging it up, and it made me feel really uncomfortable to air out his underwear in front of him every single day. I'm not sure why there was so much dirty underwear all the time. He must change it 5 times a day. Even when I told him that I felt uncomfortable doing these types of chores, he would make me do them anyway.
His house is filthy all the time, so he makes you clean it, but never makes any effort to stop being a slob. He left his dirty dishes everywhere and then called me over to come clean them. I felt that the least he could do was put them in the sink. The garage was also completely full of garbage that had piled up in at least the last year. His laundry room was similar. Tons of pizza boxes and recycling that never got taken out. Before I quit, he made me go through the garage and count all of the recycling so he could haul it away, so maybe it's still clean after that. However, he has this strange hoarder tendency to keep every piece of trash until the very last minute, so I wouldn't be surprised if the pile has returned.
The other part of the job deals with taking care of his two children and his elderly mother. His mother is a sweetheart. She doesn't really speak English, but is willing to try. She is senile, though, and will repeat the same questions over and over. I liked her a lot, and it was very painful for me to see Siggi treat her so horribly. When she called out to him for help, or said that she was scared (of slipping on the ice or something) he would completely ignore her cries, or yell at her that he wasn't going to help her. I enjoyed helping her (she had trouble walking, etc) so it broke my heart to see him yell at her even when she was in tears.
He also yells at his kids and seems to find no joy in them whatsoever. They run completely wild and cannot be controlled. At times they can be sweet, but they also do not speak English, so looking after them can be a challenge. But I'm not very good with children.
This was the part of the job that made me feel the worst. I could not handle being around someone who would treat his own family so horribly.
This might not seem so bad to some people, and maybe it isn't. It's hard to explain exactly why so many people find living and working with him to be so unbearably comfortable. If you have thick skin and like tons of structure and already have a lot of your own money saved up, then maybe this job is for you.
However, I think it's important to warn potential employees (especially young women) about what to expect when you come to this place. I am not writing this out of bitterness. I tried to make the best of my situation there, but it just didn't work out. Because so many other people have had the exact scenario play out, I think it's a trend that people need to be aware of, because he makes it very difficult to get information about the position.
Good luck!
Holy.....awkward!
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