Is it but a dream?

It's time I devoted a few words to my newfound employment here in Sydney.

About two weeks ago I got a call from an agency that specializes in the hospitality industry. I'd submitted a resume to them via internet, not quite knowing what the agency was or what exactly I'd be doing. Within about three days I was interviewed, had my uniform and went through the "induction" process where they show you a workplace safety video and have you fill in all sorts of mumbo-jumbo legally required forms.

And then I was off to work a few days later.

There are some wonderful things about working for an agency, as I have discovered. First of all, you are completely entitled to set your own hours and days of work. I just have to tell them which days I'm available and between which hours. If, for example, I decide to take off to north eastern Australia for several weeks or months (something I fully intend on doing), I just have to tell the agency and they'll mark me as away for that time. If I decide I just need a few days of R&R and really can't be bothered to go to work, again, I just have to let them know. And if I should end up back in Sydney at some point down the road, another phone call to the agency will put me back on the roster. Now how great is that?

There are also some risks involved in agency work. For one, you really don't know where you're working until you get there most of the time. It could be a business function. It could be a hotel. It could be a wedding. It could be a regular old restaurant. So far, in just 12 days, these have been my gigs: the in-house restaurant for a local theatre company on opening night; a wedding reception held at a small restaurant on the harbour; a goodbye dinner and recital for Japanese homestay students; a private luncheon and several cocktail parties on the 25th floor of an office building downtown; a VIP luncheon at the National Art School (which, by the way, is in an amazing old building that started its life as a jail); and last, but certainly not least, a Jewish bar mitzvah. That last one pretty much takes the cake as far as surprises go. As I said, you really never quite know what you're getting into until you report for work.

Not all of the jobs have been a blast. The wedding and the bar mitzvah both involved a lot of running around, sit-down meal service for nearly 100 people, and plenty of cleaning up afterward late at night. There is nothing quite so unpleasant as polishing silverware at 1 a.m. on a Saturday night. On the other hand, the office building functions and the luncheon at the art school were incredibly easy. So easy that you can't really believe you're being paid quite well to do it.

That brings me to another great thing about Australia: really, truly fair wages for all. Minimum wage here starts somewhere around $12/hour. This is what you'd be paid at a fast food outlet or if you were doing general labour-type work. A French guy I met at the hostel is working in a downtown department store as a clerk, and he is being paid $14 or $15 per hour.

Now, let's talk about those hard-working waiters and waitresses for a minute. First of all, it must be said that people do not generally tip in Australia, unless perhaps they're in a fancy restaurant and the service is quite good.

In Canada, the lack of tips would be a terrifying prospect for any server as tips are the only way you can survive. I've worked for at least five restaurants in Canada, sometimes for as long as two years in one place, and never once was I paid more than minimum wage by an employer. Never once did I get a raise for being a good employee. It just isn't done.

By contrast, servers in Australia make about $18/hour. And their wage can often be as high as $20/hour, from what I can gather. All employees are automatically paid more for working on Saturdays or Sundays, meaning a Sunday wage can be as high as $26/hour (Saturdays is more like $22). I just have to say that this totally blows my mind. Can it be real??

Even after I went to university for six years (!) and earned two degrees, and moved to one of the most expensive cities in Canada (actually in the world, for that matter), and got a "real" job at a newspaper, I made slightly less than your average waiter in Sydney, Australia. Put that in your pipe and smoke it for a good long while.

I don't want you to think I'm bashing Canada. I'm just awfully fond of Australia at the moment.