Apologies if the title may sound dumb, but please let me explain.
So I just watched this video of Grindelwald, and it looked amazing, but as many other videos from Switzerland, all the houses looked uninhabited.
I couldn't spot a single person around any house, or on the windows, or on the balcony.
The towns looked pretty much populated by tourists only.

So my question is do Swiss, like actual Swiss people, live there?
And I mean day to day life, all year round?
Or are they traveling for work outside the town and are only returning home in the evening to spend the night?
I can't imagine the people there during the weekend being in their homes, or around the houses spending time with their neighbors, and their kids playing outside.

I presume these are houses rather than just summer farmhouses. They’re 500m above ‘civilisation’ and a 25 minute drive down to the ground. In winter when it snows it must be nearly impossible to navigate in a car. Some of them aren’t even on the road

(of course I'm excluding people from French or Italian speaking areas)

Or do they simply don't understand eachother when speaking different dialect or Swiss German?

Hi! I came to Switzerland last year and applied for a permit, but it took very long to get one. I received it in May and I tried applying for LAMAL after I received it.

The company I applied with said they have to add some "extras" starting next year to cover for the months during which I didn't pay, and I do not understand it.

Why isn't the penalty just a simple billable field "penalty" that I pay to cover those months or whatever? Why do I have to pay for insurance if I was not legally a resident? How would they have known when I came into the party if I would've applied for the permit before actually moving in? Can I drop these "extras" after a while or am I forever bound to pay them?

This whole process feels like a big scam.
I would greatly appreciate any help for understanding the situation I am in. Thank you very much!

Dear all,

I am planning a move and was wondering if anyone has heard of Reloswiss? After having some bad experiences with moving companies I want to do it right.

so I am asking if anyone has heard of these guys?

thanks in advance!

So Im a junior software engineer and I feel like it is impossible to find anything, which is quite depressing thinking "either go do other studies or land a job where there is no growth possibility"

In one year I got 1 interview, which felt more like a courtesy than a real interview (feedback was shallow, and during the interview they gave me one question "present a project you did", and as I was expecting them to ask more questions about it later I kept the summary simple, which then led to the "any more questions? We'll keep in touch")

And I don't know if it's me who has an issue or simply they all want 10+ years of skill in the field, but mentally that is hard

I kinda needed to vent, and ask if you have any tips ?

Money is short so I cannot simply do a 6 month trip to learn a new language, and my main is french, not german (I can quickly talk, but work related is too weak)

Settle a debate for me. My partner, and his mother, are telling me I’m making a massive faux pas and throwing away my chances by not emailing the people I’ve interviewed with to follow up with them.

Context, this was a 2nd round in-person interview that happened Friday and they said they would reach out in a few days to say whether I got the job or they were giving it to someone else. The whole thing was set up by someone in HR who doesn’t work in the country so I don’t even have their direct emails to send them a “thanks for meeting with me still very interested” message.

Partner has never worked for a company here and his mother is in the medical field while I’m more in the assistant/admin area of things so I can’t really trust either of them to actually know what the proper etiquette is (interview was with a very large family office). My thinking is, I’ve said everything I can say and asked everything I can ask in these 2 interviews and reemphasized how I would really like the job without sounding too desperate, sending a follow up email a week later would just be clogging up their inbox when it seems like they haven’t made any decision yet either way.

Thoughts? To send a thank you after an interview or no? Obviously if I had any big questions I would email my contact to ask like they said I should.

Hello everyone! 🤗 I am enrolling at University of Geneva and I just arrived from New York. The university recommends and international student company called Score Studies, and I am trying to determine with deductible to take. I called their hotline but couldn't really get any additional information on what counts towards the deductible.

I have a chronic illness and require frequent medical visits and medication. I'm planning on taking out the Premium plan but when I do the math: 1500 CHF deductible + 206 monthly premium (x12) that comes out to 3972 a year versus 500 CHF deductible + 556 a month = 7124 a year.

I know the general rule for insurance is if you go to the doctor a lot, go with the lower deductible... but that math doesn't really make sense here? I'm assuming I'll hit the higher deductible, so why wouldn't I choose the lower cost? They say with the premium insurance there's no copay and all medications are covered without the deductible.. does anyone know why I wouldn't hit the 1500? Please advise if you're familiar with this insurance or if there's something I'm missing!

https://scorestudies.ch/en/our-solutions

Hi everyone, due to bus delay I missed my train to brienz…making us late for the pre booked Rothorn railway train 😭😭😭😭😭Did we just wasted our ticket or are staff usually flexible and kind enough to offer us another time slot?

It seems like the market is in pretty bad shape right now.
However, there must also be positive stories.

Did you land a good job recently? Notice your company hiring again after a freeze? Got promoted? Got more interviews than expected? Is your industry picking up?

Share your story below!

Hi everyone,

I often travel around the country by train with a friend who has a GA travelcard . We love exploring, but we've reached a point where we've visited all the major urban centers and the main museums dozens of times.

We are looking for some fresh inspiration! Do you have any recommendations for niche, lesser-known places to visit? We'd love some ideas for cool itineraries or unique things to do that are a bit more off the beaten path and ideally not too expensive.

What are your favorite hidden gems or underrated day trips?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Where is the nearest place I can dispose of a swollen power bank? Where should I take it? I'm in the canton of Schaffhausen.

I'm visiting France and I would love to buy some clothes and bring them to Switzerland via road. Will I be taxed (this is my first time and I am not Swiss or from the EU).

Basically what do I need to know about shopping outside of Switzerland and bringing them in?

Hey!

I am a Bit confused now with the Limited Information available on the Internet for this case and hope someone here can chime in.

I am 30 years old, German and married, I will start working for a company in Zürich this autumn. This job will be subject to Quellensteuer as I will be on a B permit.

With my starting date I will also move to Switzerland (Schaffhausen) as I want to live there. My wife will also move but stay with her German employer for now. She will go to work in Germany close to the border every day.

Now I know a bit: usually she would get taxed for 4,5% of her income in Germany and 80% of her income would be taxed in Switzerland. However, for Germans there is an exception to this for the first five years. So in those years she will get taxed just like before.

As far as I know she will have all Sozialversicherungen in Germany (Krankenkasse etc.)

Perfect. But what’s the impact on me? I know I will probably say that my wife is Erwerbstätig which will reduce my net pay a bit. But anything else to be aware of?

If anyone had a similar thing, how would I go about all this? What paperwork do we need to submit and where? We need a Ansässigkeitsbescheinigung for her employer - anything else?

Thank you so much!

Do you have any experience with lifecircle ?

I come across the post about Pegasos and Dignitas, but I would like to hear about lifecircle (that centre/provider). lifecircle does not accept new member for now yet if someone has been a member or accompanied family or friend in the past, tell us about your story.

Last night around midnight I called the police because of a guy who’d been pacing back and forth on the street for a while, blasting some kind of recitation in a foreign language from his phone at full volume. When a neighbor said something to him, he started arguing and shouting religious phrases. I told the dispatcher I was scared because the guy genuinely didn’t seem okay, and that this has been happening for a few nights now. The woman on the phone thanked me, said I did the right thing calling, and that they’d send someone to check it out.

We stayed up for another two hours because the guy just wouldn’t stop with the noise and yelling. Police never showed.

Kind of confused now, not sure what went wrong.

Hello,

I know that twice a year, special GA Day Pass tickets are available through Coop or Interdiscount for around CHF 55. Do you know if there will be another release of these tickets during the rest of the summer?

Hi everyone, after five years with the company, I’ve been on sick leave for six weeks due to burnout and am completely emotionally drained.

Two days ago, my company abruptly stopped paying my salary! Their reasoning: I supposedly didn’t see the company doctor, even though I have a note from my primary care physician. On top of that, they’re suddenly claiming that my continued pay entitlement has been exhausted because of the flu I had last year.

That’s absurd, since my contract includes daily sickness benefit insurance (80% for 720 days), but the company apparently completely failed to file the necessary paperwork. Now I’m left without a single cent. Should I file a written complaint about the missing sick pay registration or go straight to the conciliation board? I’m going crazy with frustration.

Is this a gray area that only a lawyer can untangle for me?

My dad forgot his shoes in nightjet train berlin to Zurich, is there any way to get them back? Has anyone been in this situation before

Question: I want to go to Valais and eat fresh apricots off the tree or out of a farmer’s crate at a road-side stall, or however the freshest apricots can be had. Is it as simple as going to Saxon and walking around until I bump into a basket of apricots or can I make a reservation at an orchard for an apricot-picking experience? I would be traveling by train from Zurich. We’d probably make an overnight trip of it, so distance/ease of travel isn’t a constraint.

Context: The apricots I’ve had in Zurich this summer are the best I’ve ever had by a huge margin. I’m from the US, and apricots in the US are relatively uncommon and not very good—in fact, they’re usually bad. Apricots don’t travel well, so unless they’re grown and eaten in California, an apricot in America was shipped green and ripened in a crate (no doubt with chemical assistance). In Switzerland they seem to ripen on the tree and don’t travel very far, and the difference is MAJOR. I had good apricots in Torino (Italy) in 2011, but this Swiss apricot revelation seems to be in a league above.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

We are in the midst of a bike tour and want to get a cycling cap, maybe a bottle, some Switzerland or cool cycling related things, anyone have any ideas? Looking for a cool local bike shop or something that has cool caps, accessories, etc.

Hello fellow Switzerland guys and girls ,i am Balkan guy in his middle life age, working as waiter/barmen but also adaptable to new challenges and jobs , is someone offering job to make a working permit to move there?

I would be thankful 😁 Also suggar mommies come as an option, i am willing to learn Deutsch or French is not a problem.

The Eurostat (cant copy link) shows that Switzerland scores the lowest (42%) in home ownership in Europe (home in which one lives). Especially in poorer countries like Albania Romania Hungary Croatia the ownership of homes is very high (at 90%) . Can someone knowledgable explain those differences? Does it mean the housing crisis is actually worse in Switzerland (or Western Europe) and people can afford better housing in Central/Eastern Europe? Or does it mean young Eastern Europeans live with their families (I dont think this would be considered ownership if your parents own it)? Or perhaps there are more immigrants in Western Europe, temporarily living in a country and renting is much more accepted/ makes more sense. Thanks a lot