Friday, September 03, 2010

RMJ on Labor Day

Posted by Mickey Z on 09/03 at 12:32 PM
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  1. I’ve got a great one: in my school (an extra curricular language school) the work is measured two ways. One, the class hours and two 5 days a week, 8 hour shifts.

    So, for two months in the summer we have a bunch of extra courses. They add enough hours to everyone’s schedule so that you have either, 6 days a week, or two days with 12+ hour shifts.

    You must do it and there’s no overtime pay: it’s called “peak time.”

    Management staff just look you in the eyes, and say, no no, it’s “peak time.”

    if pressed they say, “it’s in the contract.”

    That’s actually the best part. In any country you have contract laws and labor laws. There are rules. In China we have the ‘foreign experts’ contract’ and everyone has to use it as a template to stay legal.

    You can’t just write into the contract - “we reserve the right to have you on call 24 hours a day and you must throw yourself off a cliff on command.”

    We could all sign to that and it would mean nothing.

    I once told this to my boss and she just said, “but it’s in the contract.” and looked at me like I was mad.

    Posted by Andy from Shanghai  on  09/03  at  12:51 PM

  2. Thanks, Mickey.

    Andy...Great comment. We are surrounded by “Catch 22s”....Your comment reminds me of that fine print in many credit card contracts that prohibits any law suit against them and forces mandatory arbitration. Mandatory arbitration is also a common practice in some States in any kind of suit. Usually it is a scam - a jobs program for lawyers and judges who could not quite cut it in the real legal world.

    Posted by RMJ from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  09/03  at  04:07 PM

  3. Good evening everyone. Work sucks, labor sucks.

    My advice and I’m sure I’ll change my mind in 2 hours or less, even if you love what you’re doing, don’t do it often, don’t develop any kind of habit or addiction. Being is also doing, though few respect this. And lastly, don’t listen to anything I have to say, listen to yourself.

    Posted by Joe of Maine from The Window  on  09/03  at  05:32 PM

  4. …Ok, I missed the matinee. Daddy duty called. Daddy is freaking sleepy! Apocalypse WOW! Manana.

    Since I never stay on subject here, I’ll jump on board tonight and add to the list. The first three COMMANDMENTS were compiled by my former boss (whom I actually loved) and I. We were trying to determine the most “friendly fascist” of all email commands we’ve ever received from “Corporate.” The first is from his stint at Olive Garden, the other two are from our time together:

    --You no longer have problems. You have opportunities. (Awesome.)

    --We are not “down-sizing” we’re Right-Sizing. (Seriously—we got this message!)

    --Team Leaders: please explain to the other Team Members that we are the Home Office not “Corporate.”

    While I was filling in at “our” Bethesda location a waitress/part-time manager informed me that she had to work (while pregnant) until the night before she was induced. Two hours after giving birth one of the Team Leaders called her to yell at her for not getting her shift covered. (I actually confirmed this with the asshole in question.)

    More tomorrow…

    Posted by Maxwell Black from Arlington Va  on  09/04  at  02:09 AM

  5. Also, our company used to have some departments. Like academic (teachers and teacher-managers/trainers etc etc, customer service, sales and then upper/regional management etc etc.

    They thought it was to complicated and decided to rename it.

    It was brutally honest - this is a school remember. Now we only have two sections to the entire global company:

    sales
    and, production.

    Yes, the classroom work, teaching and academic policy come under ‘production’ now. They then use this nomenclature for everything. School One has a production meeting ..and so on.

    I joked, “at least it’s honest”

    brutally honest ...

    Posted by Andy from Shanghai  on  09/04  at  08:36 AM

  6. Mornin’ Mickey and all....
    joe...listening to myself sometimes gets me in big trouble. I’d rather listen to you. Last night on ‘VT This Week’ on VPT they said that there are now at least 10 succession candidates on the ballot. The one for governor, Dennis Steele, is lookin’ real good, but he won’t make it because he’s not a dem/repub.

    Max...Thanks for your great comment. I plan to link it to those who say that there are no issues for U$A labor.

    Andy...One of my worse jobs was for a non-profit. I was forced to work during a flood when my house was filling with flood water. That was the worse boss I ever had.

    “Systems” continue to deteriorate. Last night we had another power outage - not related to weather - just malfunction all over the place - even in NY in Schenectady.

    Posted by RMJ from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  09/04  at  09:06 AM

  7. Thanks, all. I just up a new LAbor Day-ish post. See you there.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  09/05  at  05:06 AM

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