An Englishman abroad finds a new home in Zurich

Paul Checkley has made a new life in Zurich Keystone Archive

The increasing globalisation of the world economy has seen thousands of Swiss executives move away from home to pursue their careers abroad.

But the process is a two-way street and many foreign executives are living and working in Switzerland. One of them is British audiologist, Paul Checkley.

Checkley, 39, specialises in audiology, the science of hearing. For the past two years, he has worked for the hearing aid systems specialist Phonak.

Based in Stäfa, on the north shore of Lake Zurich, Phonak is among the world’s top three hearing instrument manufacturers and recently acquired rival developer, Unitron, based in Canada.

Checkley is a member of the company’s marketing team. Born in 1962 in a small village in southern England, Checkley studied medical physics at University College London before following post-graduate studies in audiology.

He began his career as an audiological scientist at the Institute of Laryngology and Otology in London before becoming a clinical audiologist at one of the city’s biggest hospitals.

After spending his entire working life in Britain’s state-funded National Health Service, moving to Switzerland to work in the commercial sector involved major cultural and attitude changes.

“Working in the National Health Service money was always an issue,” he told swissinfo. “If we needed more instruments or computing equipment we had to make a very specific case to management and we were never sure of getting what we wanted.”

It’s a very different story at Phonak which saw its net profit jump 92 per cent last year to around SFr95 million ($53 million) on buoyant sales of its new digital product, Claro.

Not only is Phonak’s financial state more healthy, Checkley says there is also a more dynamic atmosphere among staff.

Nine-to-five approach

“Working for the state in Britain, there was a very nine-to-five approach. The team I worked for was fairly under-motivated because of the lack of funding and I find people are more motivated here. People work longer and are more willing to give their all to a project.”

Checkley likes living in Zurich and says he enjoys a higher standard of living than he could have dreamed of in London. And it’s not just down to money.

“The transport system works so well here,” he explains. “In London, it was a nightmare commuting to work because although my journey was fairly short, it took a great deal of time.”

In Switzerland, Checkley does without a car and travels to work by tram and train every day.

But there are inevitably things that any expatriate misses when living abroad. Indicating the surroundings of his favourite Thai restaurant in Zurich, Checkley says he often misses London’s vibrant social scene where the choice of bars and eateries is so much wider.

And, of course, friends and family are also missed. Checkley is an outgoing and sociable man but admits that it wasn’t easy at first to make new friends in his adopted city.

“Although I don’t need German at work because it’s a fairly international environment, I find it is important socially, he says. “And the problem is I’m learning High German and I only hear Swiss German and it’s hard to make the leap between them.”

Checkley spends much of his time away from Zurich travelling for work. He’s responsible for training and product introduction in The Netherlands and Scandinavia, and also presents field study data to academic experts across Europe and the United States.

Coming back to Zurich from his last work trip abroad, Checkley says he finally felt like he was coming home. A contented Englishman abroad.

by Michael Hollingdale