August 14 Toby

One of the 1st people in our apartment block that we were introduced to is Toby and Lara,and their little 2 year old Isabella.Theyre an English family that initially moved here on account of Lara relocating here through her job with Trip advisor. Toby started off as the stay at home dad for their newborn Isabella while Lara went back to work .I like these guys , it’s expats that have an obvious common ground . There are a lot in our block ( more about them later ). Toby worked in the bank for 20 years and then left to work in sales. He met Lara after his 1st marriage ended and followed her to the other side of the world . Now I’m recounting this story after a couple of beers around the pool a few weeks ago . It’s a cautionary tale about how it’s not easy to get a foothold over here . After 9 months ( I think , I was a bit loose)Toby decided he’d try and get a job . He tells me it wasn’t an easy process as salespeople over here are treated mean and lean . After many knock backs he’d targeted his dream job . Selling BMW s and working in the BMW sales department. He eventually landed the role . It turned out that BMW in LA was to be the worse job of his career so far. He was to sell cars with no retainer and only earned a commission on each car he sold . He was pressured to work long hours 7 days aweek and the sales team were regularly critiqued on meeting their quotas.The Germans were ruthless because they know the states is a competitive place with many candidates ready to take on the job regardless of the poor working conditions. Toby ended up walking away and was eventually ready to take a job for meserati when the very person who previously rented our apartment offered him a job selling aluminium panels (Aluca bond)used for fascias on buildings . After 2 years he now is finally starting to feel settled and admitted it had been a tough initiation.He has to travel and stay in San Fransisco a couple of days a fortnight but after flying by the seat of his pants he’s happy . The conditions and the rights of workers as well as the pay are generally well below Britain and Australia . Over time I’m sure we’l  get to know these guys better as the Poms and Aussies have a lot in common and these guys are in the same boat we are .