Unions in developed countries with good labor laws don't make sense. They cater to the mediocre and the masses - and their policies go against the vien of competitiveness and innovation.
VW deactivates employee email outside working hours
21–30 of 129 posts
Re: VW deactivates employee email outside working hours
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany has plenty of unions and Mercedes, BMW, Audi seem to be doing well enough You have two sides, with U.S. on one side where workers just work, with little thought for quality of life, and the other side is Europe, where they get paid a bit less, but they have 4 weeks vacation and much less demanding work load. I dunno about you, but I'd gladly sacrifice $10K(which is pretty much the whole difference between the…
4 is the absolute minimum, and in most countries that minimum is 5. The average is more like 7 weeks.
As far as I understand, Europeans count stat holidays, and Americans don't.
A typical American gets 2 weeks of stat holidays on top of their 2 weeks of personal holidays, so that's almost the same as the European getting 4 weeks.
Re: VW deactivates employee email outside working hours
#23Cool idea. Sounds like you can still send emails but not receive any until work. I noticed that mobile email doesn't always help get more work done, unless you're the person asking the questions in the emails. If a bb user is busy answering other people's questions... you're likely doing their work too. The culture of "we're waiting on you" that grows in an organization is the real enemy. Interruptions are bad too. W…
There could be serious/hilarious consequences to this send-but-not-receive policy... inability to correct a mistake in an email sent right before the embargo-period... a bunch of work done on cancelled/already-solved issues... expectation mismatches with new/outside/other-time-zone correspondents.
For some reason I'm also reminded of the scene in Swingers where Jon Favreau's character leaves a string of increasingly pathetic chopped-off voice messages, each trying to soften/undo/complete the previous, but in the absence of real interactivity, failing miserably.
Re: VW deactivates employee email outside working hours
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany has plenty of unions and Mercedes, BMW, Audi seem to be doing well enough You have two sides, with U.S. on one side where workers just work, with little thought for quality of life, and the other side is Europe, where they get paid a bit less, but they have 4 weeks vacation and much less demanding work load. I dunno about you, but I'd gladly sacrifice $10K(which is pretty much the whole difference between the…
You can quit and take time between jobs. $10K should let you backpack around Europe for about 3-6 months, which is more of a perk than Europeans get. I'm not quite sure why more people don't do this. Bank a bunch of money at a nice professional job, then quit and be funemployed for 6-12 months while they do lots of cool, life-affirming things. A bunch of my friends have done it - either backpacking around the U.S, or…
For a few months that's possible, but at 12 months it starts getting tricky if you ever want a job again. May be less of a problem in tech, but in a lot of areas if you're "long-term unemployed", HR just screens out your resume; companies seem to only want to hire employed or recently-employed people (cf. http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/ct-biz-0905-wor...).
Re: VW deactivates employee email outside working hours
#25Union knowledge workers. Outside of healthcare do they exist in the US?
Let's start a union.
That solves problems and creates problems.
Many things that are decided today based upon merit or by management discretion become tenure based. That is good and bad.
The good: - Your contract will require things to be done in a fair and equitable way, per the contract. - Your pay will be more predictable. - Benefits will probably be better. - You will have an advocate in the event of a dispute.
The bad: - Your contract will require things to be done in a fair and equitable way, per the contract. - Everyone has an incentive to stick around. - Certain types of people are very good at manipulating systems to their benefit. (This is present in all organizations, but the dynamic is different with a union)
I've worked in union positions in the past. IMO, the best thing about it is that there are no secrets with regard to compensation.
Re: VW deactivates employee email outside working hours
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
4 is the absolute minimum, and in most countries that minimum is 5. The average is more like 7 weeks.
As far as I understand, Europeans count stat holidays, and Americans don't. A typical American gets 2 weeks of stat holidays on top of their 2 weeks of personal holidays, so that's almost the same as the European getting 4 weeks.
Erm, I've never received so little holiday, even when I worked low paid manual work.
Currently I get 25 days per year not including 6 days stat, for 31 days total or just over 6 weeks total. This is considered average for London and the UK, I would consider 5 weeks to be the absolute low end in the UK. At the upper end in London the news about the Tube Drivers strike disclosed that they have 40+ days holiday, which is just over 8 weeks.
When I lived in Sweden the numbers were higher, with it being compulsory to take a fortnight in a contiguous block in the summer. The UK is the worst of the lot, and we have it OK.
Just my experience, but it varies so greatly from what you're quoting that I felt obliged to respond.
Re: VW deactivates employee email outside working hours
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
4 is the absolute minimum, and in most countries that minimum is 5. The average is more like 7 weeks.
As far as I understand, Europeans count stat holidays, and Americans don't. A typical American gets 2 weeks of stat holidays on top of their 2 weeks of personal holidays, so that's almost the same as the European getting 4 weeks.
It depends on the country, but Denmark counts them separately: there are 12 official state holidays that you get off regardless, plus a minimum of 5 weeks of movable holidays (often 6, but 5 is mandatory), so 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 weeks total.
Re: VW deactivates employee email outside working hours
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
4 is the absolute minimum, and in most countries that minimum is 5. The average is more like 7 weeks.
As far as I understand, Europeans count stat holidays, and Americans don't. A typical American gets 2 weeks of stat holidays on top of their 2 weeks of personal holidays, so that's almost the same as the European getting 4 weeks.
that is not true. In Europe, when you say "I have 30 days of holidays", that means 30 days that you can personally take off whenever you want (more or less). National holidays, like Christmas, are never counted because they are free for everybody. So assuming the US and Europe have a similar number of national holidays, you get about 2x more personal holidays in Europe.
(Again, this varies. In Germany it is usually around 28-30, in Spain around 22)
Re: VW deactivates employee email outside working hours
#29Cool idea. Sounds like you can still send emails but not receive any until work. I noticed that mobile email doesn't always help get more work done, unless you're the person asking the questions in the emails. If a bb user is busy answering other people's questions... you're likely doing their work too. The culture of "we're waiting on you" that grows in an organization is the real enemy. Interruptions are bad too. W…
Poor planning on someone else's part doesn't make an emergency in my part. I've always hated this statement. I can understand, to some extent, not bailing out those who are habitually poorly prepared, but how can you justify not bailing someone out if it's what's best for your company?
You're ignoring the longterm effects of someone who chronically creates work for others due to their lack of preparation or ability. It is not good for a company to put itself under stress like that. It's especially poisonous when the person shifting and creating work like that is in a leadership position in the organisation because it sets the template for everyone else. Organisations that let that kind of behavior run rampant; fail to achieve.
Being able to distinguish between a real emergency and a real problem that is solvable in the normal course of operations is an essential skill.
Re: VW deactivates employee email outside working hours
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Germany has plenty of unions and Mercedes, BMW, Audi seem to be doing well enough You have two sides, with U.S. on one side where workers just work, with little thought for quality of life, and the other side is Europe, where they get paid a bit less, but they have 4 weeks vacation and much less demanding work load. I dunno about you, but I'd gladly sacrifice $10K(which is pretty much the whole difference between the…
That European social model is about to go bankrupt. (The American one soon thereafter, though not for lack of hard work.)