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US CEO has harsh words for french workers

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IAteYourMother said:
Well, actually, they might already be being paid what's appropriate for 3 hrs of work. And if they worked 8 hrs, then they should be paid 8/3 of what they are currently being paid.
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IronWing said:
Not buying into slothful workers was only one issue. The other issue is Taylor's statements about seeking low wage workers elsewhere. Labor arbitrage works for the elite but no one else.
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why is he going looking for lower wage workers?

He is getting more productivity per euro than what the French are generating.

There becomes a point where even though you want to support the locals; the health of the business has to be considered.
 
When I lived in Germany, the germans were just as bad. We show up for work and the krautsdid not. We ask where the fuck they wrre a d the standard answer was, "no work today, holuday" WTF! YOU JUST HAD 3 HOLIDAYS THIS MONTH!
 
OutHouse said:
When I lived in Germany, the germans were just as bad. We show up for work and the krautsdid not. We ask where the fuck they wrre a d the standard answer was, "no work today, holuday" WTF! YOU JUST HAD 3 HOLIDAYS THIS MONTH!
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Better than the alternative. My first job out of college had no sick days and 1 week vacation.. after you had worked there for one year. Are you kidding me
 
OutHouse said:
When I lived in Germany, the germans were just as bad. We show up for work and the krautsdid not. We ask where the fuck they wrre a d the standard answer was, "no work today, holuday" WTF! YOU JUST HAD 3 HOLIDAYS THIS MONTH!
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Except when they're on the job German workers are actually productive.
 
Farang said:
Better than the alternative. My first job out of college had no sick days and 1 week vacation.. after you had worked there for one year. Are you kidding me
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Yeah, fuck that. People who act like it's virtuous to work 60 hours per week and not use all of their vacation days can go shove it up their ass. When people are at work then yes, they damn well should work and not goof off but work shouldn't be your life either.
 
AznAnarchy99 said:
This is true. Especially with their language and culture.

And yes, people in Europe do not like to work at all. Although I'd rather be in France where places are actually open at a regular time. Here in Rome, places close randomly whenever they feel like.
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scandinavia has pretty high productivity per hour worked and low unemployment, don't lump northern europe (responsible europe) together with southern europe (lazy dumbass europe) and don't even bring up eastern europe (thieving europe).
 
OutHouse said:
When I lived in Germany, the germans were just as bad. We show up for work and the krautsdid not. We ask where the fuck they wrre a d the standard answer was, "no work today, holuday" WTF! YOU JUST HAD 3 HOLIDAYS THIS MONTH!
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The Germans have a great life style and great wage for their area. They are also really well trained. They know their shit and are efficient.

You never have to ask a German to get to work if it ain't a holiday. A holiday though is sacred and must be enjoyed away from the office.

The motto with them is they work until the job gets DONE. If it takes 5-6 hrs instead of 8, you can leave the office without political repercussions. Management assumes you have the innate "German pride" to do a solid job before going home.

If it takes you 9-10 hrs of showing your face at work just to get on the inside with the boss, it actually has the opposite effect. The boss will view you as INEFFICIENT as to why the fuck it took you so long to do a task that should have been finished much earlier.
 
People shouldn't compare with France with Germany or Switzerland on this issue. They all treat their employees pretty generously compared to the US but in Germany and Switzerland shit gets done. In France? Not so much.
 
dr150 said:
The Germans have a great life style and great wage for their area. They are also really well trained. They know their shit and are efficient.

You never have to ask a German to get to work if it ain't a holiday. A holiday though is sacred and must be enjoyed away from the office.

The motto with them is they work until the job gets DONE. If it takes 5-6 hrs instead of 8, you can leave the office without political repercussions. Management assumes you have the innate "German pride" to do a solid job before going home.

If it takes you 9-10 hrs of showing your face at work just to get on the inside with the boss, it actually has the opposite effect. The boss will view you as INEFFICIENT as to why the fuck it took you so long to do a task that should have been finished much earlier.
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Yea I hate the time = hard work mentality. I've worked at places where I had to put in 10 hour days because we had morning and end-of-day meetings, I literally zoned out for half the day (couldn't always straight up surf the internet because my monitor was visible) and I was a top performer. It's because I came to work and busted my ass in the morning and by noon was usually satisfied with what I got done
 
Farang said:
Yea I hate the time = hard work mentality. I've worked at places where I had to put in 10 hour days because we had morning and end-of-day meetings, I literally zoned out for half the day (couldn't always straight up surf the internet because my monitor was visible) and I was a top performer. It's because I came to work and busted my ass in the morning and by noon was usually satisfied with what I got done
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Ugh, memories of my old job. The guy who owned the company wanted you at your desk eight hours per day regardless of the work you were doing. In a place that was rationally run you could work 60 hours one week to get a job done on deadline and then take 20 hours of comp time the next week when there was no billable work but no, they wanted to see people in their offices like good little worker drones. Getting laid off from that place was the best thing that ever happened to me.
 
A LOT of US employees only actually work 3 hours as well. They spend an amazing amount of time online and on their smartphones.
 
soulcougher73 said:
America has yet to learn life is not about "working" till death.
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Yeah, but at the same time it's no unreasonable to actually expect people to work during their eight hours per day. If unions were just about thing like protecting reasonable vacation time and 40 hour work weeks I would be the most pro-union person in the country. Unfortunately in our country they have turned into organizations whose primary purpose is to protect slackers and fuck ups.
 
EagleKeeper said:
More like if you want a dollar pay; give me a dollar worth of work.

If the French seem to be working only 3 hrs of an 8 hr day; then they should get paid 3/8 of what they presently are paid.

Since they refuse to increase the output or decrease the wages, the company will go elsewhere.

What is wrong with that?
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Nothing wrong with that. I have a friend who tried to do some business in France. Basically, if you think US unions are aggressive, you ain't seen nothing.

He was looking to do some work getting industrial machinery made. He visited a factory, and the same 1 hour work; 1 hour chat and horsing around before going back to work, mentioned in this article was pretty common. Not only that, but the wages were scarcely believable; the fork-lift driver was on €80k ($105k).

In France, labor laws mean that it is nearly impossible to fire anyone (in case of misconduct) and even harder to make workers redundant.
 
I talked to a CEO in Dubai a while ago and he took on a company with Europeans (mostly British) expats, Americans, locals Emiratis, and Indians. He said he'd fire all the Europeans and Emiratis if he could because only the Americans and Indians actually work.

My experience working internationally is that some Europeans can work hard depending on the person, but even the hard working ones take an incredible amount of holiday leave, much of which is sanctioned by the governments.
 
Americans have a culture of hard work. I have personally known many people who worked 60+ hr work weeks for 10yrs+. My dad worked 60-80 hrs a week for roughly 25 years in a row. Standard work week for him was 10 hrs a day, 6 days a week, but sometimes would work extra. Expecting the rest of the world to be this hard working is a bit naive though.
 
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Juddog said:
Americans have a culture of hard work. I have personally known many people who worked 60+ hr work weeks for 10yrs+. My dad worked 60-80 hrs a week for roughly 25 years in a row. Standard work week for him was 10 hrs a day, 6 days a week, but sometimes would work extra. Expecting the rest of the world to be this hard working is a bit naive though.
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America is like 20th in the world in terms of hours worked. America is quite lazy compered to the rest of the world, assuming you're going by pure numbers.
 
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