I found this while having a look round on the interweb and just wondered how much truth there was in the fact that the age of 23 is correct for the Bulgarians to start work.

Bulgarian Teenagers - the Laziest in EU
Young Dutchmen start work at 16, Bulgarians at 23

Bulgarian teenagers are the laziest in the EU. They start working at 23 at the earliest, while in Europe young people start working 7 years earlier. Over 70% of the 16-year-olds in the Netherlands combine study and work. In Great Britain teenagers start their first job at seventeen on the average, in Germany and Austria, at 19. This information laid the basis for the new Strategy on Youth approved by Bulgaria's government few days ago. The research shows that 50% of young Bulgarians want to have their own business and to have no bosses on top. The same percentage of young people in Europe become entrepreneurs attracted by the challenge to prove they can succeed. Bulgarian teenagers don't want to work anything except the career they have studied for. In comparison the first job of the young people in Europe doesn't require any special qualification, the work mainly in the service sphere to pay tuition. Once they have graduated they seek a job corresponding to their new skills.
The report presented at the cabinet sitting also shows that the Bulgarian men continue to live at home far longer than most of their peers in other EU countries. Bulgarian girls stay with their parents till 28, while men remain “mommy's boys” well into adulthood – they leave home at 30 on the average. Young people in Bulgaria are not interested in politics and rarely volunteer for any pro-active projects or become members of an NGO. Only seven percent of young Bulgarians are NGO members and 2.2 percent are members of a political party. In Western Europe this percentage is three times higher. The results of the research made the cabinet map out a new strategy that will help young people get professional orientation already at school. The idea is to help them understand what they want to do before they enroll in a university, combine work and study or enroll in NGO courses to get additional education.

We had a young Bulgarian working for us for two years.

He was 27, still lived at home with his parents and explained to us that he was only prepared to work three mornings per week as he 'had the right not to work more than that until he'd decided what to do with his life'!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

At his age, I'd finished university, was in my third full-time job and had already lived and worked in over four countries!

27 and still undecided what to do with his life my heart bleeds no wonder they are the laziest in the EU or possibly the world I would think, and yet the older generation seem to work so hard and almost till they drop

cheekychops wrote:

27 and still undecided what to do with his life my heart bleeds no wonder they are the laziest in the EU or possibly the world I would think, and yet the older generation seem to work so hard and almost till they drop

Not in my village they don't! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Poor souls, what a shock to have to go out and work, after all work is a four letter word!! My generation would have been kicked out the door and told not to come back until they had a job. I started work at the age of fifteen like many others in our era, started a six year apprenticeship as a hand compositor and was fully qualified with certificates before I was 22.

My boss called me "
laddie"
even on the day I was due to receive my indentures back from the Works Manager, after receiving my Indentures and being congratulated by the Works Manager my boss called me Mr. How times change, are they any better now we ask ourselves? Are we doing the right things for the present generation, in the case of BG it certainly doesn't like we are.

Eric

I don't think that they are lazy.It's possible a severe lack of opportunity.You can either work in a shop or bar for 2 lev an hour or the corporation for 10-15 lev a day.Our village has about 700 inhabitants and work for about 30-40 people.I guess that's the norm for the villages.If there was more work I guess they would be out working.At least they ain't out shop lifting,dealing drugs or mugging old ladies like so many back in the UK that do have opportunity.

itchyfeet wrote:

started a six year apprenticeship as a hand compositor and was fully qualified with certificates before I was 22.

Small world itchyfeet ... I'm also a time-served hot metal comp, before moving onto paste-up and typesetters, repro-cameras, platemaking and eventually to full page make-up systems and imagesetters!

The day I finished my apprenticeship (after the bronze-blue tar and feathering ha ha) I got a job with Compugraphic (one of the first wave of actual 'typesetting' devices) which took me around Europe and the World which was jolly nice indeed as a young single man!

Chris wrote:

itchyfeet wrote:

started a six year apprenticeship as a hand compositor and was fully qualified with certificates before I was 22.

Small world itchyfeet ... I'm also a time-served hot metal comp, before moving onto paste-up and typesetters, repro-cameras, platemaking and eventually to full page make-up systems and imagesetters!

The day I finished my apprenticeship (after the bronze-blue tar and feathering ha ha) I got a job with Compugraphic (one of the first wave of actual 'typesetting' devices) which took me around Europe and the World which was jolly nice indeed as a young single man!

Indeed a small world Chris, I finished my apprenticeship with compositor certificates and also line setting certificates on the Linotype machine from the London School of Printing (still got them somewhere!). I circulated around the general trade as was the custom in those days and had compositor jobs in one company and the Linotype jobs in others. I started in the Cornwall Press in London and worked on 20 magazines including Autocar and Amateur Photographer, then moved around the trade and worked on Daltons Weekly for two years and ended working for the London Evening Standard for 12 years on the Intertype machines. These machines were amazing with the keyboard being so different to the qwerty one, I could hold a conversation with someone and comfortably set 25,000 characters an hour, not possble on qwerty. I have owned my own press and become a semi-expert on Quark Xpress, did not have the opportunity such as yours, well done!!
Thank goodness I missed the feathering, "
we were gentlemen of the press"
in London, a good bang out was all that was needed thank goodness!!

Eric