
The Miserable French Workplace and the Fight to Change It - jseliger
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/opinion/the-miserable-french-workplace.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0
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jzwinck
The French "closet" for unwanted workers reminds me of the American "rubber
room" for unwanted teachers:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reassignment_centers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reassignment_centers)

An inhumane concept, to be sure. If you want to let these people go, pay them
severance and let them be on their way.

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green_lunch
I'm constantly amazed that people will fight to have less power over their own
lives.

If you do get a job, the same law that allows you to have a long-term contract
essentially makes you a slave to the company. It's so hard to get, it makes it
that much harder to leave.

Owning your own business is nearly impossible due to the red tape and
regulations involved, so the entire economic landscape is either a large
company or the government.

The real problem in France is that it doesn't really give any incentive for a
company to start there, and it certainly doesn't give it a chance to grow.

This will only become more apparent over time when the global economy gets bad
and more companies pull out and move to more favorable countries.

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fighting
Maybe they do not see it as being a wage slave. Making it difficult to fire
people can help employees take a stand on moral/ethical grounds and just plain
refuse to comply without fear of being fired. Anecdotal, but french employees
seem to have no fear of self expression unlike employees of many other
nations, which is far away from slavish behavior.

