Memories....
I have a friend called Hugh.
Hugh and I first met 26 years ago when Hugh had just arrived in Australia from Scotland and I was a manager in a large Australian company. At the time Hugh was one of the applicants for a number of jobs I have available and, being impressed with his skill set and his keen attitude, I gave him a job as a security alarm technician in that company. The company was a major Australian company and had an electronic Security Division as well as a Guards Division.
Hugh proved to be a friendly and humourous guy, a hard-working man and soon was being promoted through the ranks of his colleagues into positions of responsibility. A couple of years later I left that company and continued my career elsewhere. Hugh stayed with that company and started to achieve positions in management. As time went by he switched to the guards division and became extremely successful.
Of course, with success comes hardships. For Hugh it was in his marriage. As the years went by Hugh was getting a seriously big salary. When his marriage broke up his wife applied to the Australian legal system and did everything she could to get every cent possible from Hugh.
Hugh found it impossible to continue working for the security company even though he was getting a large salary, because he was having to pay for his wife's house and expenses, 100% of his two daughters upkeep, as well is trying to pay the rent for a place he was living in and to feed himself. Hugh never complained about having to contribute to his daughters upkeep. After all, he loved them dearly and wanted to see them grow up properly and successfully. What he did have a problem with however is the same thing that many divorced men in Australia have a problem with, and that is that sometimes the ex-wives become unreasonable and try to get the ex-husband to pay 100% of the outgoings of the household that they have left rather than 50% of the costs of bringing up children.
Hugh soon found that he couldn't afford to pay his own rent and buy food after he had paid his ex-wives mortgage and all costs for his ex-wife and the children. His situation was becoming desperate.
Hugh's solution to his problem was to quit his very responsible and high-paying job and start a lawn mowing service. He went straight from being a high-powered and highly intelligent corporate executive to a home handyman. We'll also happened was that he ceased having his salary paid by a corporation that kept taxation records in their computer system and went to a system where he was the owner/operator of his own business and, since most jobs were paid for in cash, declared only as much money as he needed to to satisfy his ex-wife's needs. He then was able to keep the rest of the money for himself and eke out a meager lifestyle. His ex-wife's lifestyle also suffered dramatically as she was not unable to garnishee his salary from the large security company. In the end, she got far less than she would have gotten if she had been reasonable at the start.
My observation is that it's really sad when a marriage gets to this situation and the person has to trash their career to save being savaged by next partner.
Hugh, if you are out there somewhere reading this, I tip my hat to you.
Hugh and I first met 26 years ago when Hugh had just arrived in Australia from Scotland and I was a manager in a large Australian company. At the time Hugh was one of the applicants for a number of jobs I have available and, being impressed with his skill set and his keen attitude, I gave him a job as a security alarm technician in that company. The company was a major Australian company and had an electronic Security Division as well as a Guards Division.
Hugh proved to be a friendly and humourous guy, a hard-working man and soon was being promoted through the ranks of his colleagues into positions of responsibility. A couple of years later I left that company and continued my career elsewhere. Hugh stayed with that company and started to achieve positions in management. As time went by he switched to the guards division and became extremely successful.
Of course, with success comes hardships. For Hugh it was in his marriage. As the years went by Hugh was getting a seriously big salary. When his marriage broke up his wife applied to the Australian legal system and did everything she could to get every cent possible from Hugh.
Hugh found it impossible to continue working for the security company even though he was getting a large salary, because he was having to pay for his wife's house and expenses, 100% of his two daughters upkeep, as well is trying to pay the rent for a place he was living in and to feed himself. Hugh never complained about having to contribute to his daughters upkeep. After all, he loved them dearly and wanted to see them grow up properly and successfully. What he did have a problem with however is the same thing that many divorced men in Australia have a problem with, and that is that sometimes the ex-wives become unreasonable and try to get the ex-husband to pay 100% of the outgoings of the household that they have left rather than 50% of the costs of bringing up children.
Hugh soon found that he couldn't afford to pay his own rent and buy food after he had paid his ex-wives mortgage and all costs for his ex-wife and the children. His situation was becoming desperate.
Hugh's solution to his problem was to quit his very responsible and high-paying job and start a lawn mowing service. He went straight from being a high-powered and highly intelligent corporate executive to a home handyman. We'll also happened was that he ceased having his salary paid by a corporation that kept taxation records in their computer system and went to a system where he was the owner/operator of his own business and, since most jobs were paid for in cash, declared only as much money as he needed to to satisfy his ex-wife's needs. He then was able to keep the rest of the money for himself and eke out a meager lifestyle. His ex-wife's lifestyle also suffered dramatically as she was not unable to garnishee his salary from the large security company. In the end, she got far less than she would have gotten if she had been reasonable at the start.
My observation is that it's really sad when a marriage gets to this situation and the person has to trash their career to save being savaged by next partner.
Hugh, if you are out there somewhere reading this, I tip my hat to you.
posted by Alan at
11:12 PM
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