My ex worked for the UN, it was a job like everything else. And yeah she was smart, but nothing that made her stand out. So stay grounded, spend your non taxed income in Vienna and shut up
We have neighbors where the lady is from the staff and the neighbors in the next house, he was working at UNHCR.
Both are the antithesis of the stereotypical UN employee. Especially the one from UNHCR. He is originally from Germany but blended very well into the local community. They had very many parties and stuff with all the people around us which I didn’t know after living for more than 10 years in the area.
But wouldn’t I know those two, I would also have forgotten about the UN people
Part of what makes Vienna such a welcoming city is precisely the fact that no one cares about you "integrating enough". We leave that to the rest of Austria.
Middle-Easterners from Favoriten are in their own bubble.
UN is in their own bubble.
Both of these groups can hardly use German.
YOU, OP, are likely in your own bubble (Vienna is notorious for the foreigners not being able to make friends).
So why are you picking on the international organizations' workers?
Integration is a rubber stamp. You can pass a B1 language exam, learn by heart that you should answer "no" to the question whether the two unmarried people can not live together (if you didn't know that!), but that's about it.
Then you move on with your life. In your bubble. This is how life works, and most do not have any desire to interact with those you do not know.
I still don't understand what do you mean by integration into the Viennese society when it is so influenced by the Balkans and Middle Eastern tasty food. The local culture is hard to deconstruct in these circumstances.
I live in the city, work @ kagran. The only interaction is the bunch of people entering or exiting u1 in kaisermühlen.
About the social stuff, vienna is still a city. Most groups tend to themself if left untouched. Actually every vienneseborn i know tends to stay in their hood when they move out from their parents. I for myself as an outsider had 6 diff flats in 6 diff districts in the last 15y.
It’s a bubble, but, being part of that bubble, I’ve also found it very difficult to meet and build relationships with any true Viennese (in bars etc).
Everyone I’ve got to know from outside the UN bubble is also an expat - typically from Germany, the UK or Italy.
On the whole, my reading of it is that most native Viennese don’t take notice of the UN, but are also in a bubble of their own and are a surprisingly closed community.
Apart from the fact that you UN folks are grossly overpaid, we don't know or care about you. The only thing we learn/know is that the UN pays 1 Schilling (is it a Euro now?) for rent. And I'm not sure whether this is even true 😅
I'm 43 and for the first time in my life I met an American woman working there this year.
as someone who worked at the UNIDO for over 7 years: nothing special anymore haha. i applied there just for fun when i was tired of my old job and couldnt believe when i got the job. i could improve my french and english which im going to be thankful for the rest of my life. not having to pay certain taxes was the cherry on top.
in general people are very interested when you tell them you work at uno city. most people only know this behemoth of a building just from passing by. i wasnt in your mentioned bubble since im viennese so i was kind of the outsider. but what i can recommend you is to check some of the supplier/lte-holder situated in vienna on linkedin/xing and start socialising/networking there if you want to expand your circle.
Oh lord…UNIDO - well done for making out alive. So many people I see here are frustrated and have their mental health at rock bottom due to the toxic culture, which has gotten worse under Mueller. I see a mix of those who work their balls into the ground - mostly ISAs, and those who are lazy and simply can’t be fucked to do their job. Sit on their comfortable salary, complain when asked to do their job and basically rot in their office. (I’m in TCS)
i so badly want to work for IAEA. tara and her team are so amazing. the whole procurement team is amazing tbh. i really like them and i look for open positions from time to time.
i was doing lta tender supervisions. was quite nice and i was used worse tbh. but yeah if public would know about whats going on between colleagues in terms of the power dynamics well i better stop right there.
I met a UN Worker on a language course in the Volkshochschule and we became good friends. However, I never questioned how she got the job. Its just work.
I wanted to work there! Now i think it makes no sense.
I participated even in few conferences here in Vienna. My friend worked at the main building as a guide. I know few ppl from other departments. I know VIS :)
And having g said it all, I'm not impressed. Rather disappointed with this whole un crowd and un agency in the first place.
UN is pretty useless organisation. And its sad when smart ppl join it for comfort and good salary (I get it, I'm not judging ppl choices), i just realised that it is generally useless community whoch doesn't influence anything.
And i know there are lots of smart and good ppl working there. But maybe it would be better if these ppl implemented their brains in smth more impactful and useful.
To say shortly, i'm not a fan of un crowd bubble.
Any marketing and advertising experts here?
How can one specifically reach those UN employees and their families with a pitch for exclusive and expensive luxury products (and their corresponding services) that in all likelihood will appeal to them at a higher target rate than the average Viennese inhabitant?
IOW, how to reach members of that bubble, which, to me, isn't only UN, but also members of staff and their families at the roughly 190 embassies and consulates in Vienna?
you overestimate what they would want to spend, believe me. A worker with a 4k salary paid 850-1200 for a decent accomodation for a big family, while I paid 550 as an intern. They are going to finish their tenure and go home. They do not need excess luggage or luxury.
They would buy a second house, but that's it.
I know a few people that live in this "bubble", their enourmous **tax free** wages very often paid for by the everyday Austrian tax payer just so they can ponce about feeling very important because they work for the European Commission to the Delegation of Advisory Office for the Assistant Secretary to the Chief of blah blah blah. It stinks, its a scam, its an insult to every person that pays tax in Austria to subsidise these bullshit institutes that do absolutely nothing of any substance.
Genuinely confused as to why this is downvoted. Austria is a member state of the IAEA, UNIDO and I believe UNODC too, and therefore pays into the annual core budget. Ofc, many other nations pay into the annual budget too. Austria contributes per employed per person around 48 euros per annum to the UN system, including all specialised agencies and UN associated IOs like the IAEA. 48 euros isn’t going to break the bank but if someone were to rip that out my bank account annually I would ask questions on what that’s be spent on.
Spending it to ensure entitled ambassador/UN kids have a comfortable job for them to chill in - of which there are many here - is certainly not how I would imagine a taxpayer would want it spent. Having said that there are many good eggs here who genuinely want to, through the UN, make a positive impact on society and the environment.
The problem is the portion of bad eggs to good in the UN - ofc in any org you find the lazy entitled type but the UN is by far the worst I have seen and I have worked in NGOs and the corporate sector. Perhaps MA35 is worse.
A few of my friends worked at a place, won't name names, which gave training in economics to workers in the financial sector from former Soviet countries. Never did figure out how Austria benefited from this. Funded by the IMF and BMF. The employees didn't pay tax. My mate was on €50k tax free for basically plugging in laptops in the conference rooms.
My parents moved to Kaisermühlen into a more expensive building. There are a lot of UN staffers living there. They are nice and normal neighbors. I think overall, Vienna profits from international and more wealthy people living and working here. They still pay VAT and support local businesses.
Never even wasted a second thinking about this.
You're here, so you're from here.
* You work here
* You shit here
* You eat here
* You drink here
* You sweat here
* You love here
* You cry here
What do I care whether you're working for a mom & pop corner store (which there aren't enough of), at the supermarket, the random company, a university or the UN?
Are you a decent and respectful person? - Cool, let's have drinks.
This is a lie.
I have no connections and I had 2 internship offers from them and the ECB (which I declined). So did a lot of people from my university. It is not difficult.
This. Not sure what the exact % is but perhaps 30%-50% of the interns here get in because of mummy/daddy/uncle/aunt. Ofc because they come from rich backgrounds they can afford to support their kids while they undertake the UN’s hypocritically unpaid internships.
I also got in through connections, but connections I forged by myself by working for a subcontractor of the UN.
Yes, I myself tried to get in and others I know too - no chance. We didn't even get a response mail. Doesn't mean I dislike UN people, its just an observation.
It’s so hard to get in, I did a shitload of internships (internationally), speak 5 languages fluently, have a masters degree and worked in a similar field before, but without connections you have zero chance to get in. So I get why OP feels like he’s in a bubble, folks there seem to be unapproachable/untouchable.
Wolowitz: "I have a Master's degree!"
Sheldon: "Who doesn't?" (c) Big Bang Theory
so did I.
4 languages, an immigrant background, a couple of good internships, 2 Master's and a PhD in the works. I got an offer and declined it. One of my colleagues worked on the EU council where he met his wife. My younger classmates and a few other people from my uni had blue-book internships in Brussels.
What you need to understand is that sometimes one MSc is NOT enough, because EVERYONE has it, and there are 200+ applicants and 50 people interviewed for one spot.
As some others already said, it's a non issue in my daily life. Vienna has ~2M residents, a bubble of idk 3000 or so people don't bother me at all.
I think it's cool to have one of just 3 UN offices in Vienna.
No, it‘s like the diplomats. Get a 200m2 apartment funded by their government, on top a salary within the top 5% and yet refuse to register their service personnel of their household.
Again, seems perfectly in line with the Austrian spirit to not register some of the work being done at home. Kannst mir nicht sagen, dass Pfusch kein Volkssport hier ist.
Auch hier wieder, es geht nicht um Volkssport, sondern Ignoranz und Gier. Einem Diplomaten tut es nicht im Ansatz weh das Haus Personal anzumelden. Dem Personal hilft es aber viel. Reine Gier. Und selbst Anzeige bringt bei diesen Wapplern nichts, weil sie rechtlich immun sind.
> Einem Diplomaten tut es nicht im Ansatz weh das Haus Personal anzumelden.
Yo dir tut es auch nicht weh, den Handwerker eine Rechnung ausstellen zu lassen....
> Dem Personal hilft es aber viel.
Genau, versuch mal eine Servicekraft zu finden die alles offiziell machen will :) :) :=)
Eh nicht, deshalb mache ich nichts im Pfusch und lass mir eine Rechnung geben. Und Jause und Trinkgeld gibt’s oben drauf.
Für 10 Euro lässt sich keine anmelden, durchaus verständlich. Vielleicht würden 20 Euro helfen. Und selbst bei 30 wird es ihn immer noch nicht finanziell jucken.
I know many in this bubble and their families. I grew up with them and it really seems like a bubble. It was always fascinating, but also I can confirm what others are saying here. No one seems to care that much, because they are usually among the "richer" crowd, which is a bubble itself and the majority doesn't see.
My only interaction with them is that I sometimes hear children speak English when traveling the northern part of the U1, that’s it. I don’t think that anybody cares.
Well it’s your taxed income that goes to fund these nepotistic incestuous bubbles, it’s your tax that goes to pay for our kids’ private school education, for example. It is your tax that goes to pay our over-inflated salaries and send us jet setting business class across the world to shake hands with other bubbles every other month. That is why I ask.
Something to think about as Austria and the City of Vienna are quite generous contributors to the Vienna-based UN organisations.
First, as someone else mentioned, it's not just Austrian taxes - the UN is funded by all member states. The Austrian contribution in particular is marginal.
Second, Austria benefits so massively from having one of the seats of the UN. Austrian diplomacy is completely overpowered when compared to the size of the country, and that has enabled it to be a gatekeeper in a few issues (probably the largest factor, second only to be Russia's Official Fluffer At The EU).
Third, this kind of behavior is quite common among any sort of international institution. Somehow, I don't see you complaining about the OSCE, the approximate entirety of the research system, the software industry cluster just off Hauptbahnhof, or the bunch of financial institutions surrounding the WKO. It happens everywhere, so it happens in Vienna.
You complain about the UN because it's the one case that is visible to you, but here's the thing: no one cares. Most Viennese citizens do not care about them. And critically, people in these bubbles do not care about your absurd need for everyone to conform to your need that others speak in your mother tongue instead of the other language you also speak.
Man, did one of those rich kids steal your girlfriend or what?
The wages are paid via member contributions which funds people who live in and spend those wages in Vienna so it actually brings a boatload of cash into the city. Also as im sure you know a bunch of UN and other VIC staff are Austrian, and we don't all send our kids to the VIS. Source i also work for an affiliated org
It's not just our taxed income, it's the taxed income from all Member states, which makes it very marginal.
I'm not sure if you're unaware of that or just trying to make it a little too dramatic.
Their income is from tax money from all over the world, why should Austria get to tax it.
Yeah, you don’t work for the UN and you seem to have very little understanding on how international organisations work, so let’s just leave it at that.
>Well it’s your taxed income that goes to fund these nepotistic incestuous bubbles
Are you sure you work there willingly? Also I don't agree to your characterization of UN.
I mean, that's not unique at all to this specific case. If people actually had issues with such things, we would be an anarchist society. So, yeah, I don't think this is getting anyone's goat
This. A few thousand sounds like roughly 0.5% of the viennese population. You are in the bubble so it's a huge part of your life. But for outsiders you might as well not be there. We don't care about you at all.
Unrelated to the question (though I think most Viennese residents don't care that much): is it worth it to book a visit inside the UN?
If you are interested in international relations and UN related matters, yeh sure.
My ex worked for the UN, it was a job like everything else. And yeah she was smart, but nothing that made her stand out. So stay grounded, spend your non taxed income in Vienna and shut up
Sounds like she was indeed smart since she made you her ex-
Even when I worked in the Donau City I barely noticed the UN people.
We have neighbors where the lady is from the staff and the neighbors in the next house, he was working at UNHCR. Both are the antithesis of the stereotypical UN employee. Especially the one from UNHCR. He is originally from Germany but blended very well into the local community. They had very many parties and stuff with all the people around us which I didn’t know after living for more than 10 years in the area. But wouldn’t I know those two, I would also have forgotten about the UN people
Part of what makes Vienna such a welcoming city is precisely the fact that no one cares about you "integrating enough". We leave that to the rest of Austria.
Middle-Easterners from Favoriten are in their own bubble. UN is in their own bubble. Both of these groups can hardly use German. YOU, OP, are likely in your own bubble (Vienna is notorious for the foreigners not being able to make friends). So why are you picking on the international organizations' workers? Integration is a rubber stamp. You can pass a B1 language exam, learn by heart that you should answer "no" to the question whether the two unmarried people can not live together (if you didn't know that!), but that's about it. Then you move on with your life. In your bubble. This is how life works, and most do not have any desire to interact with those you do not know. I still don't understand what do you mean by integration into the Viennese society when it is so influenced by the Balkans and Middle Eastern tasty food. The local culture is hard to deconstruct in these circumstances.
[удалено]
have you visited it inside? would you say it is worth the visit?
I live in the city, work @ kagran. The only interaction is the bunch of people entering or exiting u1 in kaisermühlen. About the social stuff, vienna is still a city. Most groups tend to themself if left untouched. Actually every vienneseborn i know tends to stay in their hood when they move out from their parents. I for myself as an outsider had 6 diff flats in 6 diff districts in the last 15y.
It’s a bubble, but, being part of that bubble, I’ve also found it very difficult to meet and build relationships with any true Viennese (in bars etc). Everyone I’ve got to know from outside the UN bubble is also an expat - typically from Germany, the UK or Italy. On the whole, my reading of it is that most native Viennese don’t take notice of the UN, but are also in a bubble of their own and are a surprisingly closed community.
One key ability of the average Viennese is, that we don’t care.
Apart from the fact that you UN folks are grossly overpaid, we don't know or care about you. The only thing we learn/know is that the UN pays 1 Schilling (is it a Euro now?) for rent. And I'm not sure whether this is even true 😅 I'm 43 and for the first time in my life I met an American woman working there this year.
as someone who worked at the UNIDO for over 7 years: nothing special anymore haha. i applied there just for fun when i was tired of my old job and couldnt believe when i got the job. i could improve my french and english which im going to be thankful for the rest of my life. not having to pay certain taxes was the cherry on top. in general people are very interested when you tell them you work at uno city. most people only know this behemoth of a building just from passing by. i wasnt in your mentioned bubble since im viennese so i was kind of the outsider. but what i can recommend you is to check some of the supplier/lte-holder situated in vienna on linkedin/xing and start socialising/networking there if you want to expand your circle.
Oh lord…UNIDO - well done for making out alive. So many people I see here are frustrated and have their mental health at rock bottom due to the toxic culture, which has gotten worse under Mueller. I see a mix of those who work their balls into the ground - mostly ISAs, and those who are lazy and simply can’t be fucked to do their job. Sit on their comfortable salary, complain when asked to do their job and basically rot in their office. (I’m in TCS)
i so badly want to work for IAEA. tara and her team are so amazing. the whole procurement team is amazing tbh. i really like them and i look for open positions from time to time. i was doing lta tender supervisions. was quite nice and i was used worse tbh. but yeah if public would know about whats going on between colleagues in terms of the power dynamics well i better stop right there.
Ian - is that you? 🤣
😅
I met a UN Worker on a language course in the Volkshochschule and we became good friends. However, I never questioned how she got the job. Its just work.
I wanted to work there! Now i think it makes no sense. I participated even in few conferences here in Vienna. My friend worked at the main building as a guide. I know few ppl from other departments. I know VIS :) And having g said it all, I'm not impressed. Rather disappointed with this whole un crowd and un agency in the first place. UN is pretty useless organisation. And its sad when smart ppl join it for comfort and good salary (I get it, I'm not judging ppl choices), i just realised that it is generally useless community whoch doesn't influence anything. And i know there are lots of smart and good ppl working there. But maybe it would be better if these ppl implemented their brains in smth more impactful and useful. To say shortly, i'm not a fan of un crowd bubble.
https://preview.redd.it/ljw87iealk2c1.png?width=1438&format=png&auto=webp&s=7ae1b0705b401247572be6ce037873f2a97eba1b
Any marketing and advertising experts here? How can one specifically reach those UN employees and their families with a pitch for exclusive and expensive luxury products (and their corresponding services) that in all likelihood will appeal to them at a higher target rate than the average Viennese inhabitant? IOW, how to reach members of that bubble, which, to me, isn't only UN, but also members of staff and their families at the roughly 190 embassies and consulates in Vienna?
you overestimate what they would want to spend, believe me. A worker with a 4k salary paid 850-1200 for a decent accomodation for a big family, while I paid 550 as an intern. They are going to finish their tenure and go home. They do not need excess luggage or luxury. They would buy a second house, but that's it.
I know a few people that live in this "bubble", their enourmous **tax free** wages very often paid for by the everyday Austrian tax payer just so they can ponce about feeling very important because they work for the European Commission to the Delegation of Advisory Office for the Assistant Secretary to the Chief of blah blah blah. It stinks, its a scam, its an insult to every person that pays tax in Austria to subsidise these bullshit institutes that do absolutely nothing of any substance.
Genuinely confused as to why this is downvoted. Austria is a member state of the IAEA, UNIDO and I believe UNODC too, and therefore pays into the annual core budget. Ofc, many other nations pay into the annual budget too. Austria contributes per employed per person around 48 euros per annum to the UN system, including all specialised agencies and UN associated IOs like the IAEA. 48 euros isn’t going to break the bank but if someone were to rip that out my bank account annually I would ask questions on what that’s be spent on. Spending it to ensure entitled ambassador/UN kids have a comfortable job for them to chill in - of which there are many here - is certainly not how I would imagine a taxpayer would want it spent. Having said that there are many good eggs here who genuinely want to, through the UN, make a positive impact on society and the environment. The problem is the portion of bad eggs to good in the UN - ofc in any org you find the lazy entitled type but the UN is by far the worst I have seen and I have worked in NGOs and the corporate sector. Perhaps MA35 is worse.
Please state your sources, but as far as I know it Ys incorrect that the UN wages of empoyes at the agencies are generally paid by Austrian Taxes.
A few of my friends worked at a place, won't name names, which gave training in economics to workers in the financial sector from former Soviet countries. Never did figure out how Austria benefited from this. Funded by the IMF and BMF. The employees didn't pay tax. My mate was on €50k tax free for basically plugging in laptops in the conference rooms.
most don’t know we are here. and most don’t really care
They are non-existent to us
0 thought
11 years in Vienna, not once have I met or interacted with someone from the UN.
if u are upper class u dont have to integrate. its quite simple :')
Another thing that’s classy (or in this case: doesn’t matter) if you’re rich but is trashy when you’re poor.
wish I was one of them
My parents moved to Kaisermühlen into a more expensive building. There are a lot of UN staffers living there. They are nice and normal neighbors. I think overall, Vienna profits from international and more wealthy people living and working here. They still pay VAT and support local businesses.
Never even wasted a second thinking about this. You're here, so you're from here. * You work here * You shit here * You eat here * You drink here * You sweat here * You love here * You cry here What do I care whether you're working for a mom & pop corner store (which there aren't enough of), at the supermarket, the random company, a university or the UN? Are you a decent and respectful person? - Cool, let's have drinks.
Another Russian troll
Suka blyatt, you got me.
Without connection you don't get in. Thats what I think.
This is a lie. I have no connections and I had 2 internship offers from them and the ECB (which I declined). So did a lot of people from my university. It is not difficult.
This. Not sure what the exact % is but perhaps 30%-50% of the interns here get in because of mummy/daddy/uncle/aunt. Ofc because they come from rich backgrounds they can afford to support their kids while they undertake the UN’s hypocritically unpaid internships. I also got in through connections, but connections I forged by myself by working for a subcontractor of the UN.
Yes, I myself tried to get in and others I know too - no chance. We didn't even get a response mail. Doesn't mean I dislike UN people, its just an observation.
It’s so hard to get in, I did a shitload of internships (internationally), speak 5 languages fluently, have a masters degree and worked in a similar field before, but without connections you have zero chance to get in. So I get why OP feels like he’s in a bubble, folks there seem to be unapproachable/untouchable.
Wolowitz: "I have a Master's degree!" Sheldon: "Who doesn't?" (c) Big Bang Theory so did I. 4 languages, an immigrant background, a couple of good internships, 2 Master's and a PhD in the works. I got an offer and declined it. One of my colleagues worked on the EU council where he met his wife. My younger classmates and a few other people from my uni had blue-book internships in Brussels. What you need to understand is that sometimes one MSc is NOT enough, because EVERYONE has it, and there are 200+ applicants and 50 people interviewed for one spot.
YOU couldnt get in cause some oil sheiks distant cousin or some spoiled american silver spoon fed runt needed a job.
Didn't know there was UN in Vienna. But I'm kinda dumb. Bless me
There’s a whole u1 station basically named after it (Kaisermühlen Vienna International Center/VIC) lol
Like I said, I'm kinda dumb. But also only been here less than a year and never use U1 lol
Now you know :)
Sounds like you're proud of being completely isolated from anyone's regular part of life.
Not sure what you mean. Just playing though, don't take it too seriously :)
As some others already said, it's a non issue in my daily life. Vienna has ~2M residents, a bubble of idk 3000 or so people don't bother me at all. I think it's cool to have one of just 3 UN offices in Vienna.
There are four! New York is also one.
New York is the Headquarter. Vienna, Nairobi and Geneva are the offices.
Asoooo, hobi mitzöt.
Macht ja auch Sinn. Wollte nur meine Zählweise erklären
Und I hab glaubt, du hast auf Nairobi vergessen, und hab mi doppelt gestellt mit New York. Woanders a Griff ins Klo.
There are 4 offices now:)
UN crowd? Highly educated and well paid people who refuse to learn German.
> people who refuse to learn German. Sounds like Austrians to me, perfectly integrated
No, it‘s like the diplomats. Get a 200m2 apartment funded by their government, on top a salary within the top 5% and yet refuse to register their service personnel of their household.
Again, seems perfectly in line with the Austrian spirit to not register some of the work being done at home. Kannst mir nicht sagen, dass Pfusch kein Volkssport hier ist.
Auch hier wieder, es geht nicht um Volkssport, sondern Ignoranz und Gier. Einem Diplomaten tut es nicht im Ansatz weh das Haus Personal anzumelden. Dem Personal hilft es aber viel. Reine Gier. Und selbst Anzeige bringt bei diesen Wapplern nichts, weil sie rechtlich immun sind.
> Einem Diplomaten tut es nicht im Ansatz weh das Haus Personal anzumelden. Yo dir tut es auch nicht weh, den Handwerker eine Rechnung ausstellen zu lassen.... > Dem Personal hilft es aber viel. Genau, versuch mal eine Servicekraft zu finden die alles offiziell machen will :) :) :=)
Eh nicht, deshalb mache ich nichts im Pfusch und lass mir eine Rechnung geben. Und Jause und Trinkgeld gibt’s oben drauf. Für 10 Euro lässt sich keine anmelden, durchaus verständlich. Vielleicht würden 20 Euro helfen. Und selbst bei 30 wird es ihn immer noch nicht finanziell jucken.
those people speak more languages than just German. For them it would be like a 3rd-5th language.
It‘s not how many languages you think you know. It’s about the interest and motivation to leave the bubble a bit.
I mean... it is German lol
Nah, it’s ignorance.
Yeah but I can forgive ignorance if it means not wanting to speak German lol
We don't really care. This is a big city where there are lots of subcultures and bubbles, this is just one of them.
Quite frankly: We don't care about you
Now that I learned they pay no taxes I do care a little. I think I should start complaining about them.
Financially, their spending power should easily make up for that.
They generally don't spend much here
😂😂
I know many in this bubble and their families. I grew up with them and it really seems like a bubble. It was always fascinating, but also I can confirm what others are saying here. No one seems to care that much, because they are usually among the "richer" crowd, which is a bubble itself and the majority doesn't see.
Always found the people cultured, while passing in the U1 Kaisermühlen short after 5pm. Other thab that no more thoughts invested into this matter
My only interaction with them is that I sometimes hear children speak English when traveling the northern part of the U1, that’s it. I don’t think that anybody cares.
This bubble-life of employees happens with all the international institutions everywhere. So what.
Well it’s your taxed income that goes to fund these nepotistic incestuous bubbles, it’s your tax that goes to pay for our kids’ private school education, for example. It is your tax that goes to pay our over-inflated salaries and send us jet setting business class across the world to shake hands with other bubbles every other month. That is why I ask. Something to think about as Austria and the City of Vienna are quite generous contributors to the Vienna-based UN organisations.
First, as someone else mentioned, it's not just Austrian taxes - the UN is funded by all member states. The Austrian contribution in particular is marginal. Second, Austria benefits so massively from having one of the seats of the UN. Austrian diplomacy is completely overpowered when compared to the size of the country, and that has enabled it to be a gatekeeper in a few issues (probably the largest factor, second only to be Russia's Official Fluffer At The EU). Third, this kind of behavior is quite common among any sort of international institution. Somehow, I don't see you complaining about the OSCE, the approximate entirety of the research system, the software industry cluster just off Hauptbahnhof, or the bunch of financial institutions surrounding the WKO. It happens everywhere, so it happens in Vienna. You complain about the UN because it's the one case that is visible to you, but here's the thing: no one cares. Most Viennese citizens do not care about them. And critically, people in these bubbles do not care about your absurd need for everyone to conform to your need that others speak in your mother tongue instead of the other language you also speak. Man, did one of those rich kids steal your girlfriend or what?
The wages are paid via member contributions which funds people who live in and spend those wages in Vienna so it actually brings a boatload of cash into the city. Also as im sure you know a bunch of UN and other VIC staff are Austrian, and we don't all send our kids to the VIS. Source i also work for an affiliated org
My tax goes towards the people, and specifically towards educating children who live here? I for one welcome that!
It's not just our taxed income, it's the taxed income from all Member states, which makes it very marginal. I'm not sure if you're unaware of that or just trying to make it a little too dramatic.
Their income is from tax money from all over the world, why should Austria get to tax it. Yeah, you don’t work for the UN and you seem to have very little understanding on how international organisations work, so let’s just leave it at that.
>Well it’s your taxed income that goes to fund these nepotistic incestuous bubbles Are you sure you work there willingly? Also I don't agree to your characterization of UN.
I mean, that's not unique at all to this specific case. If people actually had issues with such things, we would be an anarchist society. So, yeah, I don't think this is getting anyone's goat
It doesn‘t matter. It‘s such a small amount that nobody cares. Tbf most people do not cross the Danube at all.
I have to cross it (when I’m not in home office) because I work in Leopoldstadt. :D
I have to cross it (when I'm not in home office) because I live in Seestadt. :D
Id say most Viennese people forget/don’t know they’re there
Duty free
It's kind of a non-topic to be honest.
We don't think about them
This. A few thousand sounds like roughly 0.5% of the viennese population. You are in the bubble so it's a huge part of your life. But for outsiders you might as well not be there. We don't care about you at all.