Bonjour Paresse

[dr_mabeuse]

A new book is reportedly taking France by storm, as reported in today's Chicago Tribune. It’s called “Bonjour Paresse” which translates as “Hello Laziness” and is apparently the Gallic response to the flood of Americna career-enhancing self-help books that have inundated French bookstores over the past two decades. Rather than telling you how to get ahead in the corporate world, this book takes the position that corporations are corrupt, they no longer care about their workers, and they have no interest in rewarding hard work and good ideas. Their employees owe them no more loyalty than what they get from these corporations.

The sane response to this kind of work life, the author contends, is to sluff off while looking busy. The book is tongue-in-cheek, but apparently is stirring up some spirited debate.

I’ve been waiting for something like this since my own unfortunate run-in with corporate culture a couple years ago when I was laid off a month shy of my ten-year anniversary. I remember my naive shock at realizing that, despite what my company had said, they really didn’t give a damn about their employees; they were just squeezing us and making us run scared for everything they could get out of us. I’ll never be able to look at a corporate job the same way again.

The book’s not available in English yet, but watch for it. It’s way overdue.

---dr.M.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

That is a definite read. Thank you Zoot.

I think a lot of us have been aquainted with the "No one is indespensible" rule.
Even the unemployment office tends to side with the employer these days.

There was also and interesting article in Parade magazine today about how many Americans can't afford health insurance. Most places shop for the cheapest, but crappiest benefit packages around.

 

[rgraham666]

Every time I observe the modern corporation at work I hear that odd sound.

Like people knitting, with the occasional meaty THUNK occurring every so often.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Every time I observe the modern corporation at work I hear that odd sound. Like people knitting, with the occasional meaty THUNK occurring every so often.

rgraham666,

You are so far behind the times.

Listen for the clatter of GameBoy controls and the SPUT, SPUT, SPUT sound of dull spoons.

 

[shereads]

"People are our biggest resource," isn't just a corporate slogan. It's absolutely true, in the same way that pine trees are the biggest resource of paper mills.

That was made clear after one of the dozen or so rounds of traumatic layoffs I've witnessed at various companies, when the president sent the rest of us a memo congratulaing us for having survived "yesterday's barnacle-scraping."

I have a good friend who still doesn't get it. He's a second-generation Cuban immigrant and grew up on the American dream, and the poor guy still blames himself every time he's passed over for a promotion in favor of the boss's nephew, or lacks the foresight to leave a company before it closes.

To help him snap out of it, and learn to use his company as it uses him, I bought this book, which I had heard promoted on a talk show:

"Fire Your Boss."

It's another self-help book. But this one's premise is the same as the French book Dr. M described: the corporate culture that rewarded employee loyalty breathed its last at least a decade ago. Even in Japan, it's no longer considered a good idea to disembowel yourself when you find yourself scraped off of the corporate shoe.
It's not your fault. It's only your fault if you continue to torture yourself by expecting better from the next company.

The title doesn't mean quit your job, it means you can find peace of mind by realizing it is just a job. Not a source of fulfillment and respect, for which the author advises we look elsewhere. The likelihood of a fulfilling career is negligible in the modern corporate world, because people are simply a commodity. When it's time for layoffs, it's a numbers game: salary, years to retirement, and a minimum number of personal considerations - like whether a woman is in her childbearing years (not good) or whether someone seems like the type to bring a lawsuit.

A job, on the other hand, is just an exchange of work for money; with no expectation of loyalty from the company or recognition other than monetary, disappointment is unlikely. And the possibiities that a job can be replaced with another job are a lot better than with a career.

A new book is reportedly taking France by storm, as reported in today's Chicago Tribune. It’s called “Bonjour Paresse” which translates as “Hello Laziness” and is apparently the Gallic response to the flood of Americna career-enhancing self-help books that have inundated French bookstores over the past two decades. Rather than telling you how to get ahead in the corporate world, this book takes the position that corporations are corrupt, they no longer care about their workers, and they have no interest in rewarding hard work and good ideas. Their employees owe them no more loyalty than what they get from these corporations.

The sane response to this kind of work life, the author contends, is to sluff off while looking busy. The book is tongue-in-cheek, but apparently is stirring up some spirited debate.

I’ve been waiting for something like this since my own unfortunate run-in with corporate culture a couple years ago when I was laid off a month shy of my ten-year anniversary. I remember my naive shock at realizing that, despite what my company had said, they really didn’t give a damn about their employees; they were just squeezing us and making us run scared for everything they could get out of us. I’ll never be able to look at a corporate job the same way again.

The book’s not available in English yet, but watch for it. It’s way overdue.

---dr.M.

 

[R. Richard]

I too was laid off from a corporate job just short of when they would have had to pay me a pension. I too was rather bitter.

I then became a consultant and I began to see some of the other sides of the problem.

My ex-company tried to hire my consulting corporation to finish the job I was doing when I was laid off. I hired a lawyer.

Frequently when I go into a company to try to figure out what is going wrong, I find totally incompetent/unqualified people staffing the trouble spots. Frequently the manager who hired the incompetent/unqualified people did so because he/she/it could have more workers if the current workers were not getting the job done.

In more than one case I have found employees who were terrorizing other employees with/without the support of management. (Yes, I have been threatened and even physically assaulted. I grew up in the mean streets of several central cites. If you want trouble with me, try jumping into the wolf cage at the zoo, it will be quicker, less painful and you will get more sympathy from the wolves.)

What I am trying to point out here is that there is trouble on both sides of the labor/management interface. Do not expect a company to show loyalty. However, you still need to put out a day's work for a day's pay. However, a day normally starts at 8AM and runs until 5PM with an hour for lunch. Paid overtime, SI! Unpaid overtime, NO! Keep your resume updated at all times and keep in touch with your friendly neighborhood recruiter.

A pension is nice. However, when you get within a few months of qualifying for a pension you automatically acquire a target on you, visible to management. There is nothing they cannot ask of a guy close to pension qualification. I am now funding my own pension.

(By the way, the company that laid me off just prior to my qualifying for a pension had the CEO call me and tearfully plead that my demands were so unreasonable that he would have to turn his wife out on the street to pay me. I told him that it would not be necessry. I knew several professional pimps who could turn the bitch out better than he could. Despite my calm, professional manner, he chose to use profanity and threaten me. Tsk, Tsk tsk!)

 

[snooper]

S Adams summed this up in Dilbert in 1988 when the boss with the pointy hair says "For years I've been saying that Employees are out most valuable asset."

In the second frame he continues, "It turns out I was wrong. Money is our most valuable asset. Employees are ninth."

In the final frame one of the minions says, "I'm afraid to ask what came eighth."
The answer was, "Carbon Paper."

 

[DirtyJJ]

Thanks for the book notice, dr. It looks like a good read. I think we could all do with a dose of laziness.

I feel for you with your layoff.... I too had the naive view that since I was such a loyal employee with good performance, I would be spared a layoff... but no. No one is immune. It was truly a shock. Soon I will be starting a new job at a place that SEEMS to care a little more for their employees, but I know that nothing is that secure anyore. It makes me sad and frustrated when I think about how disposable companies feel that their people are. I agree with the cliche that people ARE a company's most valuable asset, I really do.
JJ

 

[snooper]

... No one is immune. ... I know that nothing is that secure anyore. ...
JJ

Only two secure jobs in this world:

Tax collector or undertaker.