I French fellow I know worked for a "major international company" at Zurich for a few years. The company officially spoke English internally and his English is very good. Unfortunately most informal things were done in a German dialect which he didn't master.
Likewise his wife, who is also pretty good at English, didn't master the local language & felt isolated in Switzerland. She wasn't allowed to work since it wasn't the EU and she didn't have a critical skill.
They've moved back to France, even though the salary is considerably less. French social benefits like child care are so much cheaper that I suspect their standard of living hasn't suffered much from the lower salary.
Edited to note that this happened well before the agreements with the EU that studi mentions.
Last edited by seacue; 6th Jan 2005 at 18:44.