You’ve heard of “going postal,” a euphemism for “going crazy” that was coined when several disgruntled postal employees all started firing off weapons at work. Well, now there’s a newer, sadder phenomenon happening. Within the last 18 months, 23 employees of France Telecom, a telecommunications company, have committed suicide. While there’s no other known link between the different employees other than their jobs (France Telecom is a nationwide company, and the employees who killed themselves were not all in the same offices). The Times Online has a fascinating in-depth article with possible theories about what led these civil cervants to take their own lives:
Le travail is the cornerstone of modern France in other ways, too, Baudelot says. “In Italy and Spain, people rely on the family for solidarity. In the UK, there is both a cult of individualism where you are taught to get by on your own and a sort of primal neighbourhood solidarity — in the pub, for instance. France is different. People are taught to get by in groups and it is in the workplace where they seek the solidarity they need. The workplace is the cement of our society.”
The cement, however, is cracking as unemployment and globalisation impose a competitive edge to the world of work. “The violence of the modern economy is the same everywhere. But it is felt much more keenly in France,” says Baudelot. “People sense that social bonds are unravelling and they are disorientated by that.”
Ever worked for a company that let people bring their pets to work? I did, and when my cubemate brought in his cocker spaniel it made my whole day more interesting. Well, one office in Corpus Christi, TX, has the right idea. When an employee of the J.C. Elliot Landfill found a cute kitten among the garbage, he brought the kitty (named, appropriately, Elliot) back to work. Elliot is now the “office cat.” If you click this link about the story, you will find both an adorable picture of Elliot at work on his computer and a good Office Space joke. In the meantime, I’ve decided this is an excellent excuse to post one of my favorite kitty videos. This is really going to improve the quality of my Monday.
Having an evil boss doesn’t just hurt morale and your will to live – it’s also bad for the economy. A new study from USC’s School of Business finds that bad bosses cost the US economy about $300 billion a year. That is a lot of money. Where does it come from?
Lawsuits – wrongful termination, harassment, creating a hostile work environment… you name it.
Lost productivity – people bitching about their bosses, hiding from them, crying in the bathroom, etc., instead of working
Retention/hirings and firings – employees are more likely to leave jobs with unpleasant working environments (note: the Evil Empire went through about ten assistants a year. That is a lot of time devoted to reading resumes, arranging interviews, making offers, training new people, and the like.)
Morale – not just unhappy employees, but if clients, vendors, or customers get wind of how unhappy a place is for workers, they are 80 percent less likely to continue their business there
In other words, you now have a really strong case for getting your boss fired. Good luck!
I’ve seen enough people who get jobs thank to stunts – starting websites, entering karaoke contests – that I’m starting to think writing resumes and actually going to job interviews is about to go the way of the dodo bird or Lehman Brothers.
A 23-year-old recent college graduate in London, Alex Kearns, was frustrated by his job search not going anywhere. Kearns, who majored in the super-practical fields of French and Italian (hey, I minored in French and am not hating, but I was willing to acknowledge my field of study wasn’t necessarily the one most sought-after in the job market), decided to take matters into his own hands. He printed a huge copy of his CV and held it up in London’s busy Trafalgar Square. The gambit caught the attention of the International Business Development Group, who offered him an interview and eventually a job:
He has now begun working as a sales executive at their London offices, selling consultancy services to companies in the UK and abroad.
His stunt also brought offers of an interview with another company and work experience in an advertising firm.
Look, I say good for Alex. The thing is, though, the more people who pull stunts like this and get jobs from them, the more likely we are to see hordes of people trying to do the same thing. Personally, if Union Square starts filling up with recent college graduates standing around holding up copies of their resumes, it’s going to get really old really quickly. How long can gambits like this work before people become immune to them? I still think it’s worth perfecting the art of resume-writing.
While the internet is kind of like the Wild West in terms of what’s allowed and what’s not, there is one rule I think everyone can agree on: don’t use all caps. IT LOOKS LIKE YELLING. Anyway, one company decided not only to take a firm stance against all-caps, but to show no mercy to people who wrote that way. Vicki Walker, an employee of ProCare Health in New Zealand, was let go from her job after sending out an all-staff email written with the caps lock key on.
Walker sued ProCare for wrongful dismissal, and won, getting a settlement. Though her email annoyed coworkers, she pointed out that ProCare did not have an approved company style guide. Even though her all-caps bothered people, there was no specific protocol on how emails were supposed to look. I’m sure that was ProCare’s #1 agenda item as soon as the lawsuit ended.
Do you think an all-caps email is a good reason to fire someone? I’d say no, but five or six in a row from the same person might convince me otherwise.
Have you ever run low on work excuses? I mean, your grandmother can only die so many times before it starts to sound suspicious. That’s why someone thought up “The Office Kid,” a kit which helps you seem like you’re a parent. The kit includes a photo of a cute-looking kid (in the ethnicity of your choice), a child-produced drawing that you can hang up in your office, and a list of offspring-related excuses. It’s perfect if you suddenly decide to pull a Lindsay Lohan in “Labor Pains” and pretend to be pregnant to get sympathy – in this case, you’ll have years’ worth of excuses without even having to produce an actual child. Just remember to be consistent about what the little angel’s name is.
The African prince spam email is such a well-known one that by this point I almost chuckle at the sight of one in my inbox. However, the recession is causing spammers to get creative – if people don’t have money, then what else can you extract from them? Easy – offer a job. ITWorld’s Cara Garrison reports on one recent spam email she got:
The letter is from Jacob Dube, who says he’s “looking for a goodhearted person with a possible life line to assist me.” Dube claims to be the personal assistant to the president of Zimbabwe, whom Dube describes as a despot responsible for fixing recent elections. Dube says the president has asked him to move $22.5 million to Malaysia, where the president will high-tail it to should he be forced out of the country.
But Dube has other plans.
“I have decided to divert this money for my personal use,” says Dube, “and probably to invest it in [an] oil/gas contract in your country.”
Dube has already deposited the money in a South African bank, so here’s the ‘call to action’: “All I want you to do for me is to come to South Africa so that we can change the ownership of the deposit to your name…” That’s all this guy wants from you. He then goes on to describe how dangerous South Africa is for foreigners, detailing the latest attacks and killings that have been going on.
Well, I’m sold. Meet you guys in Africa! Last one on the plane is a rotten egg.
You may find this information positively shocking, but as the economy continues to suffer and companies find ways to cut costs – and jobs – asskissing at work is on the rise. That seems entirely logical to me, since when people are worried about losing their jobs they’ll do things in order to prevent that from happening, and one time-tested way of keeping your job is getting your boss to like you.
According to the same survey, backstabbing and office politics are also up 40 percent. I have no idea where these numbers came from. I mean, it’s one thing to be able to say “backstabbing is on the rise” because you’ve noticed more people doing it in order to preserve their job security, but that can only ever be a casual observation at best. How can you possibly quantify the amount of backstabbing that is going on? Even if you did a survey of workers, you could come up with something like “40 percent of people say backstabbing is on the rise,” or “40 percent of workers admit they’re more backstabby now,” (which seems to be what the surveyors did, since the rest of the piece is about a worker poll) but that would still be a little bit of a stretch.
One Travelocity.com employee has either the coolest or lamest job ever – I can’t really decide. The gnome who appears in Travelocity’s ads has become kind of a Flat Stanley (or the lawn gnome from Amelie, your call), shlepping around the world and having his photograph taken in all kinds of cool places. However, since a lawn gnome is, well, an inanimate object, a Travelocity employee has been deemed his “personal assistant” and is responsible for traveling with the gnome wherever he goes. This could be seen as the most depressing and lonely PA job ever, since the gnome can’t talk to you or hold your spot in line for the bathroom. However, this could also be seen as the best PA job ever, since the job entails traveling around the world – stops so far have included Cancun, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon – based on the place Travelocity readers select in polls.
So – let’s hear your thoughts in the comments. Is this a humiliating job that requires you to lug a gnome around the world, or a job on par with Australia’s Best Job Ever? What do you think?
The economy going south has meant that the number of ads for virtual assistants has skyrocketed. All kinds of individuals and companies are touting the benefits of virtual assistants, and – of course – pointing out that you virtual assistants are cheaper than the real kind, since you don’t have to provide a living wage or health insurance. However, while a virtual assistant can plan meetings and send emails on your behalf, there are plenty of things he or she cannot do, including:
Fetch coffee.
Fetch drugs.
Pick your kid up from school.
Take your dog for a walk.
Solicit a prostitute for you.
Stand there while you throw a coffee mug at him/her.
Grab you a sandwich while they’re on their lunch break.
Wait in line all night to get you concert tickets.
I’ve seen enough people who get jobs thank to stunts – 
You may find this information positively shocking, but as the economy continues to suffer and companies find ways to cut costs – and jobs – asskissing at work is on the rise. That seems entirely logical to me, since when people are worried about losing their jobs they’ll do things in order to prevent that from happening, and one time-tested way of keeping your job is getting your boss to like you.
One Travelocity.com employee has either the coolest or lamest job ever – I can’t really decide. The gnome who appears in Travelocity’s ads has become kind of a Flat Stanley (or the lawn gnome from Amelie, your call), shlepping around the world and having his photograph taken in all kinds of cool places. However, since a lawn gnome is, well, an inanimate object, a Travelocity employee has been deemed his “personal assistant” and is 
