224 CultureShock! Chile
uniforms. This is particularly helpful to women from lower
income families who do not have the money to spend on
work clothes.Employees
When hiring local workers in Chile, you may be surprised
to find their high school listed on the curriculum vitae
in addition to the university. Chileans have the habit of
writing extremely long resumés overloaded with detailed
information. However, naming the high school also serves a
very important function. It indicates with whom the applicant
studied and facilitates the use of the old-boy network.
A common practice is to specify gender, age or physical
attributes in job advertisements. Most firms will ask for a
photograph of the applicant for their file.
All offices employ a man known as a Junior. This person
is responsible for miscellaneous errands. Juniors go to the
bank, deliver documents (which makes courier services
somewhat obsolete), purchase office supplies, etc. In many
offices, the Junior also provides a number of personal
services for other employees. However, this is not his job
and is done only as a favour.
Each employee is responsible for paying for his or her
personal long distance telephone calls, faxes, photocopies,
etc. (Calls and faxes made regarding business are excluded.)
At the end of the month, you might be expected to declare
your personal calls and faxes. In some instances you are
asked to keep track of personal photocopies on a nearby list.
These amounts are then tallied and paid.Other Work Matters
Benefits
Employees are given 15 days paid vacation following the
first year of employment. This amount increases with time.
In addition, there are 12 public holidays in Chile. If the
holiday falls on a weekend, the worker is not compensated
with a weekday off, unless it is legally celebrated on the
following Monday. When an employee is absent from work
due to illness, a licencia (doctor’s note) must be presented