I onced worked for a graduate of the Joseph Stalin School of Business Management. It took almost 4 years to escape that gulag. I can't believe that no one was killed in that place back then.
I left that job nearly 20 years ago, and still occasionally have a nightmare about it!
I got an orange as my Christmas bonus from my last employer.
With our company we have to use it by Dec 31 or lose it. For a couple of years, the company bought my unused vacation, but not any more. That's why everybody in my dept will be off the last 2-3 weeks of the year. Then corp freaks out when the 13th period sux.
BTW we get no Christmas bonus at all, not even the $20 we used to get for a turkey or ham. We also stopped the all bonuses during the meltdown.
SVreX wrote: I got an orange as my Christmas bonus from my last employer.
Jealous-my boss never gets me an orange. 
............(self employed 
)
My clients often buy me liquor though. 
MrJoshua wrote: Jealous-my boss never gets me an orange.
Sure he did!
Robbie wrote: Attracting and keeping talented staff is one of the largest business challenges, and of course there are many strategies to solve it, but one reason very few companies offer short work weeks is because very few employees actually want it.
Do you have a source for this reason? I don't believe it.
""
way back when I was a professional Video editor... I used to work 3 thirteen hour days in a week. It was perfect, mon, tue, wed.. and then off the other four. I am not sure if my neighbors thought I was rich or a drug dealer
SVreX wrote:MrJoshua wrote: Jealous-my boss never gets me an orange.Sure he did!
Almost-I sold the car to Dyinto and then I painted it orange for him. Sigh, I bought my boss an orange.
Reading this makes me happy to have left a small company this year. There should be a law against owners sons taking over a company.
many times the kids of the owner have ruined a company. I saw it happen with Boscov's here in PA and NJ. When the old man ran the store, it sold decent stuff at a good price. Once the kids got their hands on it, they tried to pad the bottom line by getting rid of the name brand stuff for junk...
OHSCrifle wrote:Robbie wrote: Attracting and keeping talented staff is one of the largest business challenges, and of course there are many strategies to solve it, but one reason very few companies offer short work weeks is because very few employees actually want it.Do you have a source for this "reason"? I don't believe it.
Nope no source, other than the reality that few companies offer short work weeks. I know that this is 'using a word to define itself' though.
Seriously though, ask around. How many people would take a 20% pay cut to get an extra day per week off? I know a ton of people who say they would prefer it, yet none have actually followed through on asking for it. 20% is a huge difference.
In reply to Scottah :
Indeed many a fine operation has been ruined that way.
It's also hard to advance in to the upper ranks in a place like that when you aren't in the family, regardless of your talent or skills.
No overtime pay. No vacation. No benefits. Paycheck? Whatever is left. No dress code. No time clock. Work only when I want to. 20' commute. Admin does 90% of my work. Yeah, self employed can work out well.
HappyAndy wrote: In reply to Scottah : Indeed many a fine operation has been ruined that way. It's also hard to advance in to the upper ranks in a place like that when you aren't in the family, regardless of your talent or skills.
I got out of a business I was a principal in for that very reason. Because I wasn't THE principal. Now I'm in a much larger private company that may have some transition issues when the current owner finally decides he's done. But at least it's a much stronger company in every sense. Only time will tell.
First year I worked here we got a $700 christmas bonus, the next year we got 40 hours of PTO back(recovery from government shutdown), this year... bupkiss, not even the annual christmas lunch.
If I hadnt seen it coming as much I would be in full Clark Grizwald. https://www.youtube.com/embed/TQXuazYI_YU
mad_machine wrote: many times the kids of the owner have ruined a company. I saw it happen with Boscov's here in PA and NJ. When the old man ran the store, it sold decent stuff at a good price. Once the kids got their hands on it, they tried to pad the bottom line by getting rid of the name brand stuff for junk...
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Walmart...
ultraclyde wrote:HappyAndy wrote: In reply to Scottah : Indeed many a fine operation has been ruined that way. It's also hard to advance in to the upper ranks in a place like that when you aren't in the family, regardless of your talent or skills.I got out of a business I was a principal in for that very reason. Because I wasn't THE principal. Now I'm in a much larger private company that may have some transition issues when the current owner finally decides he's done. But at least it's a much stronger company in every sense. Only time will tell.
I had good friend who was a partner at a local architecture firm. Had been there his whole career. He was responsible for taking the owner to nudie bars and making sure he got home OK. The owner starts slowing down, doing mostly expert witness testimony. Brings the son in to run the place and it goes downhill quickly. My friend left and has now been several other places. He didn't really criticize the old company but I always felt he was pissed.
My friend and I used to end up on asbestos projects a lot. They did the abatement design and we managed the project and did air sampling. When he heard I had 2 degrees in entomology, he started calling me bug berkeleyer.
WildScotsRacing wrote:mad_machine wrote: many times the kids of the owner have ruined a company. I saw it happen with Boscov's here in PA and NJ. When the old man ran the store, it sold decent stuff at a good price. Once the kids got their hands on it, they tried to pad the bottom line by getting rid of the name brand stuff for junk...Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Walmart...
I was in Walmart the other day trying to buy a couple of things. They had three berkeleying registers open. I hear their sales are down. How about hire some competent people to man the registers, because I'm done with you.
I live in a smallish town where it takes some effort to avoid Wal-Mart. On the bright side, more and more locals are starting to put in that effort. As a result our little downtown area is starting to come back slowly.
Back on topic, I used to work for one of the large automotive companies. Getting some people to make and then stand behind a decision was a pain in the ass. There were several occasions, where all the necessary hurdles had been overcome, but no one would take responsibility. In most of these I would tell them to just put my name on whatever was needed. I love not dealing with that BS anymore. The job was easy. A couple Bob Costas in the punchbowl berkleying ruined it.
Scottah wrote: Reading this makes me happy to have left a small company this year. There should be a law against owners sons taking over a company.
Generally it is the first generation builds the company, second runs it down trying to pull out as much cash as possible and third generation sells it.
I personally am the 6th generation in my family business. The hardest thing for us is competing against large companies that are able to establish decent training programs that enable a high turnover rate because of low pay and a demanding workload. The other hard part is the consolidation of all industries, every company just wants to deal with a limited number of vendors that can cover their entire territory.
Robbie wrote:OHSCrifle wrote:Nope no source, other than the reality that few companies offer short work weeks. I know that this is 'using a word to define itself' though. Seriously though, ask around. How many people would take a 20% pay cut to get an extra day per week off? I know a ton of people who say they would prefer it, yet none have actually followed through on asking for it. 20% is a huge difference.Robbie wrote: Attracting and keeping talented staff is one of the largest business challenges, and of course there are many strategies to solve it, but one reason very few companies offer short work weeks is because very few employees actually want it.Do you have a source for this "reason"? I don't believe it.
I believe it, no one takes vacations anymore.
First a story from my previous employer... we were kind of a dotcom and it was 2008. I had a vacation planned, and made sure to close a big sale on my last day. When I got back I was locked out of my email. I called and was told to drop off my laptop as soon as possible. They fought my unemployment claim.
My current employer is pretty good though. My only gripe is that they merged PTO and sick time. A nice idea if you think you now get more time off. A terrible idea when you realize it creates an incentive to come to work sick and spread it around the office. I did get them to put hand sanitizer all over the place, and am working on a flu shot program.
As for vacation time... I have 82 hours to use by 1/1/16. I can roll some over, or cash some out, but then I'll just have more next year. Its hard to get away!
A dad started a rep firm and his three sons took over after many years of success. After a while two got together and fired and bought out the aggressive sales type brother. Then the two brothers fought and the one bought out the other brother with the help of retired daddies money.
Then the last brother divorced his 25 year marriage wife and picked up a party girlfriend 1200 miles away and commutes back and forth while a long term trusted employee runs his two companies with minimum accountability.
Twice we were told there were no raises or bonuses due to buying the brothers out of the company. I am a strong believer that an owner can do whatever they want - I just decided to move on.
I used to work 4.5 day weeks, when I was in Charleston SC about a 15 years ago. Fairly common there, IIRC.
I'd love to work 3 x 13.33 - Perfect schedule.
I'm actually hoping to cut a day and work for 80% of my salary in a few years. Wife works Tu-Fr now and it seems like a great schedule.
Robbie wrote:OHSCrifle wrote:Nope no source, other than the reality that few companies offer short work weeks. I know that this is 'using a word to define itself' though. Seriously though, ask around. How many people would take a 20% pay cut to get an extra day per week off? I know a ton of people who say they would prefer it, yet none have actually followed through on asking for it. 20% is a huge difference.Robbie wrote: Attracting and keeping talented staff is one of the largest business challenges, and of course there are many strategies to solve it, but one reason very few companies offer short work weeks is because very few employees actually want it.Do you have a source for this "reason"? I don't believe it.
Why would someone have to take a pay cut to get an extra day off? I'd love to work 4 10-hour days and take an extra day during the week.
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