A woman has slammed Switzerland for ‘exploiting seasonal workers’ after she was fired twice from a hotel and bar in the county.
Nila Marino, from Cape Town, travelled to the Swiss Alps at the end of November in the hopes of staying for the next couple of months by getting a job there.
At the start of January, Nila started a new job at a bar in Wengen, Switzerland after being fired from another place in a nearby ski town.
‘My time here has been a s*** show to put it lightly,’ she said. The travel influencer first started a role as a waitress in a restaurant at a hotel in Vangen which she enjoyed at first.
She said her team was ‘really good’ and described her manager as ‘awesome’. But after about 10 days, Nila, who said she’s always wanted to be a YouTuber, said she found the shifts too hard.
Nila Marino, from Cape Town, travelled to Switzerland Alps at the end of November in the hopes of staying for the next couple of months by getting a job there, but she was fired twice instead
‘It was exhausting, I didn’t have a day off when I was there, it was the busiest period,’ she said.
‘I was honestly struggling so much at that job because I was doing split shifts. I was doing early mornings and then I would finish late as well.’
Nila then got fired because she wasn’t ‘enthusiastic’ enough and found another job for the bar in Wengen.
But when she started, Nila said she was faced with the tough task of serving more tourists than usual due to a ski competition.
She said that because it was ‘so busy’, the owners brought in more workers to help for just that week, one of which included their daughter.
‘I thought their daughter was really nice and I got on super well with her. But then a few days in I started to notice that she had really weird moods.
‘I would say something to her and she would barely respond and I was getting a really weird vibe from her. ‘
Nila said she proceeded to ignore her, adding that starting that week was challenging as there were ‘so many Swiss people.’
‘Me not speaking German was really hard because they were really rude and I had to learn so many Swiss drinks. All the beers were in German, so there was a lot to learn.’
The 27-year-old said she thought she did ‘really well’ and learn ‘a lot’ in the short time that she was there.
Nila said she was let go from the hotel’s restaurant because she wasn’t ‘enthusiastic’ enough
She then found out from her housemate that their daughter was ‘gossiping’ about her at work and said Nila was ‘too slow’ at her job, which was also later repeated by her boss.
The following week, Nila said she felt ill and only worked three days because the business shut for a day and she took a day off sick.
‘In that week, my manager basically had a chat with me and was just criticising everything I was doing.
‘Told me that I was too slow and that I was asking too many questions. Apparently they couldn’t deal with all the questions I was asking, which I’ve never been told in my life. A new job and I can’t ask questions?’
Nila claims that she felt ‘unwanted’ and got the feeling that they wanted to fire her. She then said that the company ‘used her’ to deal with that busy week, claiming that this was a ‘common thing in Switzerland.’
The TikTok influencer said they made up a ‘bunch of excuses’ as to why they had to let her go and she hit out at the country for their treatment and ‘exploitation of seasonal workers.’
‘It’s f***ing awful. I am so disappointed in Switzerland, I thought it would be completely different.
Nila said she then got fired from a bar in Wengen because she was ‘too slow’ and asked ‘too many questions’
Users took to her clips to comment their views on the situation, with some saying they could relate to how she was feeling
‘No-one gives a f*** about you, they treat you like absolute s*** and I’m f***ing tired of it, I think it’s pretty clear.’
Nila said that her landlord offered to let her keep her place and continue renting it because ‘they’re not hiring anyone else’.
But she said she’s not actively looking for another job and is instead asking people she knows if anything is available.
‘If I could just find some work for another month that would be great. The one part of me is so ready to leave and get the f*** out of here because my mental health has taken such a toll in the past two months. I’m doing okay but it’s been hard.’
Users took to her clips to comment their views on the situation, with some saying they could relate to how she was feeling.
One wrote: ‘Same – got fired after only two weeks in Switzerland and I still don’t know why but I also thought what is meant to be will be.’
Another penned: ‘Swiss-Germany is well known to be very tough & unfriendly people around… just come to the French part, u will have a nice time!’
A third said: ‘Swiss here! Come to Basel, it’s much more international and we are chill!’
A fourth commented: ‘It’s the mentality of the employers here. I’m not treated any differently. It’s not you, it’s them.’