Kiwi couple ‘shocked’ by Aussie work culture after moving to Melbourne

A young Kiwi couple have shared the sad reason they decided to leave Melbourne and the big thing about Australia that left them shocked.

A young Kiwi couple have revealed the sad reason they didn’t want to stay in Australia.

Cassidy Skelton, 28, left New Zealand because her partner Nicolas, 32, who works in marketing, could make double the amount of money in Australia.

The couple share a young son and, because her partner’s income was set to increase so drastically, the move meant she could be a stay-at-home mum in Melbourne.

It seemed like the ideal situation.

“I had just given birth to our first child, and my fiance felt the fatherly pressure to provide more, so I had the option to not return to work. We also just wanted to work out being new parents away from home,” she told news.com.au.

The young family moved to Melbourne to earn more money. Picture: Instagram/cassidyskelton

Cassidy said they loved Melbourne but missed home. Picture: Instagram/cassidyskelton

Ms Skelton said they “loved” Melbourne, made lots of lovely friends and enjoyed the city’s vibrancy, but ultimately, the culture shock was too much.

The young couple went from being surrounded by family and friends to having to navigate living in a big and competitive city.

“I feel when you’re on holiday in Australia, it just feels like everything is bigger and better there, but when you actually live there, it’s so different,” she said.

Once they moved to Australia, they realised that the approach to work was vastly different from that of New Zealand.

“The working culture in Melbourne was the hardest to enjoy. We were shocked at how employers spoke to their staff and just the expectation to work overtime unpaid,” she said

Ms Skelton found it difficult to accept that work-life balance was not a priority. They’d made the move to improve their circumstances as a family and yet now were hardly seeing each other.

“There was also no focus or understanding on mental health or work life balance in our experience,” she said.

The couple have now started their own business. Picture: Instagram/cassidyskelton

She shared how they both discovered they weren't happy. TikTok/cassidyskelton

The young mum explained that the move made them realise how much they’d taken the laid-back, family-orientated Kiwi culture for “granted” and how overwhelming the hustle culture of Melbourne was.

“I think the hustle made us realise how much no amount of money was worth my fiance being out of the house for 10 hours a day five days a week,” she said.

Ms Skelton stressed that things in Melbourne were never terrible, but after a chat with her partner, she realised they both were only staying for the other one.

In a viral TikTok, Ms Skelton re-enacted their chat.

“The other day, my fiance goes to me. ‘Are you loving it here?’ I was like, ‘baby, I love how much you love here’, and he was like, ‘really, because I love it here because you love it here’,” she said.

The couple decided to head home. TikTok/cassidyskelton

She said they are excited to be home. Picture: Instagram/cassidyskelton

The penny dropped and they both realised that neither of them enjoyed Australia more than New Zealand.

“Do neither of us like it here and are we pretending to like it because we think the other person is really happy?” she said.

Ms Skelton said she thinks the issue was that they were both just homesick and wanted to spend more time together as a family.

“We don’t like wearing shoes and we just want to chill the f**k out. If the biggest pull in Australia is more money, we just need to make more money at home,” she said.

Ultimately, the couple decided to return to New Zealand and, although that means Ms Skelton can’t afford to be a stay-at-home mum anymore, it still feels worth it.

It’s also given them the foundation to be confident enough to start their own marketing business, giving them flexibility.

“It was the biggest driver in us starting our business so we could be home with our little family,” she said.