Comments on: Working in CA

By: Graham

Graham — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:48:55 +0000

Working in a hardware store during a J1 in Southern California, we were supplied with a feast of donuts on saturdays and free coffee every day. If we worked on sundays we’d get a free lunch, a decent one at that.
The strange thing was that everyone stuck rigidly to their job and didn’t seem to be able to adapt to different positions. I remember the whole store were upset that one girl on the cashiers desk had somehow managed to ‘destroy’ the credit card machine and they were predicting ‘massive lines’ because all credit card transactions would have to be done the old fashioned way. It took about 1 min to take the credit card machine apart and remove the paper jam (yes, thats all it was…) and we were back to normal. I was called to the managers office and commended on my initiative and my cleverness. We laughed about it for hours at home. Perhaps that was just Southern California though.

By: Primal Sneeze

Primal Sneeze — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:14:39 +0000

I had a colleague once seconded from the US to Ireland for a year. On Friday’s he’d order in buns, doughnuts, and so on for his team … who totally ignored the free feast for weeks until they realised it was for them, not expected visitors/customers.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:31:17 +0000

hmmm not sure. San Jose is further away from SFO so theoretically a step down BUT San Jose a bigger place than Santa Clara. I’ll ask about the coolness factor..standby…

By: pete

pete — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 22:53:17 +0000

My emplyer has just moved their (our?) Global HQ from Santa Clara to San Jose. Is that a step up or a step down?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:39:14 +0000

It’s in stealth mode so I cannot say When it launches I’ll post here about it. It’s pretty cool though.

By: Tym

Tym — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:55:59 +0000

That disease is no joke. Ask anyone who has worked at the Sun or Mail newspaper group in Ireland for their views on English lout employers.

Must be no writers in California. What’s new and innovative about the software?

By: Tomaltach

Tomaltach — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:30:27 +0000

OECD figures for 2005/6 show that if worker productivity (GDP per hour worked) is 100 in the US, the following are some comparative EU figures:

UK 83
Germany 91
France 101
Norway 131
Ireland 104

Obviously Norway’s figure is distorted because they litteraly struck oil. But still, this shows that France is at least as productive as the US. The trouble for France (and most of Europe’s big economies) is that their Labour productivity growth was above that of the US between 1980 and 1995. But the growth in productivity in Europe declined thereafter and fell behind that of the US during the Clinton boom. This means that France and US could be seen as neck and neck but France seems to be slowing down.

Ireland of course bucked the european trend with the Celtic Tiger, but that’s another day’s work.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:29:49 +0000

hmm I don’t know about the love affair with French productivity. My friend Paul http://www.darrach.net/ is astonished at the empty Airbus factory on Saturday mornings even though they are years behind schedule…

By: Gordon Davies

Gordon Davies — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:39:34 +0000

1. The French do not work a 30 hour week. The legal working week is 35 hours. Middle management do not have a limit on their working hours, but benefit from 22 days additional leave per year. the French are the most productive workers in the world, on an hourly basis. The consequence of this is that those who can’t stand the pace are excluded from all work – which is why unemployment is so high.

In many ways France, for all it’s faults, is an example to folllow… a post modern, post industrial society that stiil ranks as one of the most succesful in the world.

2. Ireland suffers still from the “English disease”. Business continues to be run by incompetent management on the lookout for short term gain. This runs over into the managent of public affairs… a FF government that has untold ressources at its disposal but who have failed to even provide minimal services to the inhabitants of Ireland. Their one success, the creation of a new Ascendancy, non residant, non-tax paying but generous in their financial support of certain leading lights of FF..

By: Dan Sullivan

Dan Sullivan — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:26:38 +0000

I worked for large US software company in Ireland and later on spent 18 months in Boston as a result and the contrasting in working environment, age profile and working day was remarkable.