|
spog posted:I often wonder that if someone came to the US from, say somewhere in the Nordics, and set up a large business but with the philosophy of treating their staff well, whether they would be a huge commercial success. But you don't have to look as far as Nordic companies. Costco treats their employees pretty well and I'm pretty sure they're a huge commercial success.
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 09:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 01:21 |
|
|
sweeperbravo posted:I interpreted this as people stole the paper cups and used them to create the fire-hazard-coffee-maker-hiding-spots. Please confirm. We used them with the illicit coffee makers and French presses, yes. Phlegmish posted:I'm not a programmer or whatever, but it seems like they have enough bargaining power that they could just tell them to take this job and shove it. Isn't an actually good programmer highly valued on the labor market? Even from the point of long-term profits it's not a good idea to treat your employees like poo poo as the good ones will just leave. JavaScript coders. Almost all Indian. No one quit over it. This was at a weird time for AT&T when U-Verse hadn't taken off yet and their land line business was dying a slow death. I do not know if they are still as draconian now. Every job since then has gleefully provided free coffee. One even gave us fresh fruit twice a week. AT&T was trying to cut costs anywhere it could, including on the day it announced its T-Mobile bid laying me off. Best day of my life, save for some kids being born.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 11:43
|
|
|
I remember when I used to have ATT DSL it was impossible to cancel my service. I called several times and the service rep literally refused to cancel and kept asking if I wanted a better deal. I think I eventually got through to someone but it's probably the most appalling service I've ever seen.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 11:47
|
|
|
Away all Goats posted:I hear IKEA is doing quite well. This happens time and time again, company is proven to do better when the employees are treated as human beings and not disposable forks. A job I worked at in 2010 changed hands and the new holding company demanded that managers reported in person to the shareholders quarterly. My department manager came back from one of those meetings complaining that the shareholders were unhappy. The thing is our department had higher than expected earnings and they grilled her as to why they weren't higher, she quit about a month later. Hell, I once worked somewhere where during our monthly all-staff meetings, the CFO would remind everyone that she could fire us any time she wanted. Thankfully I seem to have currently landed in a place that does at least attempt to treat employees as people now.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 12:43
|
|
|
Mu Zeta posted:I remember when I used to have ATT DSL it was impossible to cancel my service. I called several times and the service rep literally refused to cancel and kept asking if I wanted a better deal. I think I eventually got through to someone but it's probably the most appalling service I've ever seen. That rep would probably have been fired if he had let you cancel.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 13:07
|
|
|
spog posted:I often wonder that if someone came to the US from, say somewhere in the Nordics, and set up a large business but with the philosophy of treating their staff well, whether they would be a huge commercial success. My company's based in The Netherlands, and we get a flavia machine with 15 types of coffee, 30 min paid lunch breaks, and 20 days of PTO with the number of days increasing after 2 years. And we're doing OK. So, yeah. That's my anecdote.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 13:07
|
|
|
Iron Crowned posted:This happens time and time again, company is proven to do better when the employees are treated as human beings and not disposable forks. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 14:26
|
|
|
Shai-Hulud posted:I worked in an office for one of the biggest companies in the world. We mainly worked night and late shift because we were doing a lot of international stuff in other time zones. Every cup of coffee cost 30 cent... So you had the choice to try to stay awake working overtime till 9:00am without coffee or give back a couple of bucks every week to your glorious company overlords for providing you with stimulants. We only have 14 employees and rarely have everyone working together at the same time, so we provide snacks and drinks and we have a water fountain. The bigger issue is that we only have two mini fridges instead of one big fridge and a very small kitchen, so we run out of drinks within like 3 weeks and everyone needs to bring their own for a while until we can go shopping again.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 15:07
|
|
|
We have free tea/coffee/hot chocolate and fountain drinks and I honestly couldn't care less. It's nice to have a cup of tea in the morning but if they stopped providing this, I'd just drink (tap) water. This poo poo (as well as foosball/pool tables which we also have) is the least of my concerns. The gym is nice though. What is actually dumb marketing movie is the idea Coca-Cola had to move to 1.25, 1.75 and 2.25 liter bottles. Like what the gently caress? Supposedly it's better aligned with consumer needs but who ever thought this poo poo is great but I wished I had exactly one more cup of coke (at a higher cost)?
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 15:46
|
|
|
It's not a huge deal, I just drink water most of the time myself, but it's the little things that can make or break your work experience.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 15:48
|
|
|
mobby_6kl posted:We have free tea/coffee/hot chocolate and fountain drinks and I honestly couldn't care less. It's nice to have a cup of tea in the morning but if they stopped providing this, I'd just drink (tap) water. This poo poo (as well as foosball/pool tables which we also have) is the least of my concerns. The gym is nice though. Which flavor of Soylent do you prefer?
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 15:51
|
|
|
Flavor? Flavor's for the weak.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 17:13
|
|
|
spog posted:I often wonder that if someone came to the US from, say somewhere in the Nordics, and set up a large business but with the philosophy of treating their staff well, whether they would be a huge commercial success. I know a few people who worked for IKEA and they all loved it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 17:30
|
|
|
My wife works at a big financial institution here in Alberta, she gets fresh fruit delivered to her office every day, free coffee and tea (her floor actually has an entire open kitchen for employees) and on Fridays a lady comes around with a cart and gives everyone a beer 
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 19:37
|
|
|
TOO MANY GOBLINS posted:My wife works at a big financial institution here in Alberta, she gets fresh fruit delivered to her office every day, free coffee and tea (her floor actually has an entire open kitchen for employees) and on Fridays a lady comes around with a cart and gives everyone a beer Counterpoint...Alberta. Your Prime Minister thinks you're North Montana.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 19:43
|
|
|
Krispy Kareem posted:Counterpoint...Alberta. We're Canada Texas, sure, but rent is next to nothing and I'm like an hour away from the Rockies, so who cares  Does completely forgetting a province of the country you're governing count as a "dumb move in marketing"? 
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 19:50
|
|
|
I work for a tech giant and they're required to have free fruit for employees on every campus, as well as tea/coffee/soft drinks.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 20:02
|
|
|
Iron Crowned posted:Which flavor of Soylent do you prefer? only a goon would have a witty comeback in response to someone saying they'd drink water
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 20:02
|
|
|
I don't even own a soda.
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 20:06
|
|
|
ArtIsResistance posted:only a goon would have a witty comeback in response to someone saying they'd drink water "Look at this weirdo who wants plain, flavorless water  "
|
|
#
?
Aug 1, 2017 22:59
|
|
|
Ultima66 posted:I work for a tech giant and they're required to have free fruit for employees on every campus, as well as tea/coffee/soft drinks. by whom?
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 00:20
|
|
|
More like oldsourceless.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 01:51
|
|
|
TOO MANY GOBLINS posted:We're Canada Texas, sure, but rent is next to nothing and I'm like an hour away from the Rockies, so who cares To be fair, our province isn't even worth remembering. We have the landscape of Texas with the cuisine of Idaho. The only thing worth saving is Jasper and Banff. And in regards to Ikea, I hated working there. Given, it was as a cashier. We had to work with old piece of poo poo POS terminals, working with a shopping system that somehow 30% of all customers couldn't wrap their heads around. No, that table from upstairs is only for display, you have to go to this aisle on the tag and look for this bin and grab the boxes from it. Oh good you're back, wait, you see this yellow 2 on the box? This piece comes with two boxes and you only have half of them. You need to go back and grab the second half. Oh, this pillow is also a display. Hold on I need to call Caroline in textiles to grab one for you. This is going to take 5 minutes... [8 minutes pass] Okay that will be 1300 dollars. Oh your paying in cash, okay i'll count through all of these $20. Oh it's only $700. I guess you'll have to go to our ATM and grab cash from your Credit Card, your Debit Card, and your other Credit Card as they all have withdraw limits. Making this literally the only transaction today that would have been excessively quicker if you used a credit card like a normal person. As a result of that I was often severely behind on my metrics, and given a couple of days where my till was off by more than a couple dollars (out of several thousands you could make in a shift), they had to officially reprimand me and punish me by making me work on the self serve machines where I couldn't handle cash. That said, if it were another department it probably wouldn't have been so bad. They did treat us okay, soon after I started they gave everyone $200 in gift cards just cause. And in the break room they had a small cafeteria that constantly rotated dishes every day for every meal (almost always was something they didn't serve in the restaurant), and the cost was sub $5 for a meal.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 05:44
|
|
|
So what you're saying is, Ikea itself is a cool and good place to work if you have to work retail but the customers sucked?
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 09:56
|
|
|
spog posted:I often wonder that if someone came to the US from, say somewhere in the Nordics, and set up a large business but with the philosophy of treating their staff well, whether they would be a huge commercial success. Volkswwagen famously got run out of some Southern state by the government because they insisted on giving their unionized workers too much of a say. jojoinnit posted:So what you're saying is, Ikea itself is a cool and good place to work if you have to work retail but the customers sucked? Too bad the owner is an actual Nazi supporter.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 10:03
|
|
|
steinrokkan posted:
 Lol now that I've gone down this rabbit hole, everything he says sounds a little fascist. Sort of like an Ikea version of an Eames chair this sounds like the furniture salesmans Mein Kampf: Ingvar Kamprad posted:Kamprad explains his social philosophy in his "Testament of a Furniture Dealer": "It is not only for cost reasons that we avoid the luxury hotels. We don't need flashy cars, impressive titles, uniforms or other status symbols. We rely on our strength and our will!" jojoinnit has a new favorite as of 10:41 on Aug 2, 2017 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 10:32
|
|
|
steinrokkan posted:Volkswwagen famously got run out of some Southern state by the government because they insisted on giving their unionized workers too much of a say. Where was this? Southern states will suck any automaker's dick for opening a plant so I'm surprised to hear they'd force one out.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 11:19
|
|
|
^^^^ Might be a different example than what I'm thinking off, but something like that happened in Chattanooga, Tennessee ^^^^steinrokkan posted:Volkswwagen famously got run out of some Southern state by the government because they insisted on giving their unionized workers too much of a say. Yeah, that must have been loving surreal for the VW guys. IIRC when they had set up the factory they just went up to their employees and basically went "Okay, now you lot just set up a union and we'll organise a worker's council". You know, like they were used to from back home, because that makes things run more smoothly. And then the whole thing suddenly just exploded into a giant state-wide issue in front of their eyes. I think at one point the actual governor openly threatened the workers that if they were to unionise, VW would immediately pull out and never come back to the state, which of course was news to VW. Perestroika has a new favorite as of 11:38 on Aug 2, 2017 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 11:35
|
|
|
Krispy Kareem posted:Where was this? Southern states will suck any automaker's dick for opening a plant so I'm surprised to hear they'd force one out. Looks like I misremember it slightly, in 2014 Geman VW representatives tried to get their Tennessee plant to unionize, citing it as a requirement for further expansion in the US, but the workers were persuaded by anti-labour organizations with government ties not to enroll into unions, which would be a blow to VW's organization. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/19/without-unions-vwmayhavetroubleexpandinginsouth.html Apparently the VW hasn't left Tennessee, but has been dealing with anti-union activists trying to sabotage their internal procedures ever since. Eventually they managed to get UAW enrolments to a minimum threshold required to give UAW reps some privileges, but only after defeating anti-union "unions" that wanted to hijack the plant and push the UAW out, and the same anti-union activists are still fighting them to this day. http://www.ibtimes.com/southern-momentum-tennessee-vw-workers-opposed-unionizing-says-its-underdog-uaw-1555323 It's hilarious that "pro-business" interest groups are fighting tooth and nail against one of the biggest corporation's own preferences. steinrokkan has a new favorite as of 11:41 on Aug 2, 2017 |
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 11:38
|
|
|
Perestroika posted:^^^^ Might be a different example than what I'm thinking off, but something like that happened in Chattanooga, Tennessee ^^^^ Ha, you are right, their senator promised that the factory would open a new manufacturing line if they rejected the union vote, even though the company itself had repeatedly rejected such claims. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-corker-idUSBREA1C04H20140213
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 11:53
|
|
|
Yeah, that is weird. Even stranger when you consider the other auto plant in Tennessee (Saturn's Spring Hill) was known for its unique relationship between workers and management. It's not like this is the first time an automaker has tried something different in Tennessee.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 16:26
|
|
|
steinrokkan posted:It's hilarious that "pro-business" interest groups are fighting tooth and nail against one of the biggest corporation's own preferences. it's beyond stupid but in their minds (the government's mind, at least) if they let VW unionize and it works out well it leads to danger for other businesses in the state once again, really loving stupid but they can swing it mentally as pro-business
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 16:36
|
|
|
It's definitely 'pro-business' in that we've spent the last 30 years watching how easy it is for automakers to move factories. It's also completely ignorant of how German companies view unions. Their system works a lot better than the American version. I wonder if BMW had similar issues in North Carolina.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 16:41
|
|
|
If one group of people unionizes, then other people might unionize as well! And then workers might have rights! That would destroy the company! I remember when the new big supermarket opened in my area, there was a billboard right across the street that for months had advertising very specifically against grocery worker unions. I have no strong feelings on unions one way or the other, but one of the biggest local supermarket chains has almost exclusively unionized workers, and while their prices tend to be marginally higher than other places nearby, the quality of the products and stores are almost universally better as well. And, at least ostensibly, people working there tend to be a bit happier.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 16:44
|
|
|
I'm absolutely pro union and in Mass all the supermarket chains are union mandatory. Sadly this makes people angry at unions and just ranting that they sap money from their check.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 16:48
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:I'm absolutely pro union and in Mass all the supermarket chains are union mandatory. Sadly this makes people angry at unions and just ranting that they sap money from their check. I interviewed at a union supermarket once and it was a whole 50 cents a paycheck. Oh man 50 cents! That's so much to start as a full time employee and have benefits. Compared to Wal-Mart who hires you as a temp and then decided later if you can move into part time and then full time. And part of orientation is a 10 minute long video about how unions are evil and you need to protect your signature from the evil union reps who will do things in your name that you don't like because unions aren't in it to help employees they just want to make money for themselves.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 19:22
|
|
|
My very first job was at a union supermarket in RI I had to pay $100 for union dues out of my first four paychecks and then like $5 after that I think. I was making less than $6 an hour too. I didn't really understand it at the time because we don't teach important things in the US, but even then it didn't really seem like a big deal. I am now a massively pro-union leftist but haven't been in a union job since.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 19:31
|
|
|
The only time I even cam close to a union job is when I applied to be a truck helper for UPS during the holiday season. The full time hiring season was closed, and it probably wouldn't be open again until well after our seasonal positions were up, so there was no guarantee of prolonged employment. During the whole tour of the facility, the tour giver did not mention this was a union position, so when I turned up the next day and had a ~$200 up-front charge to cover union dues on the employment contract, I was surprised. I wasn't going to pay dues for a part-time overnight job I'd have for about 2 months with no guarantee of continued employment, so I walked. That is my union story. I understand the need of them, and tend to lean pro-union, but I'm a non-committal turd, so I probably wouldn't join one myself.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 20:00
|
|
|
When I was at a newspaper the union just took $8 or $9 per paycheck. There were no upfront fees.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 20:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 01:21 |
|
|
In a lot of fields, Union employment works like a kind of insurance; much like car insurance, you pay a little bit over time so that if some bullshit happens they take care of it for you. Union scaremongering is a lot like minimum wage scaremongering. And the really ironic thing is that a lot of anti-Union baby boomers were in their twenties and thirties when Unions were much stronger.
|
|
#
?
Aug 2, 2017 20:35
|
|
