MSNBC reports today that Jacques Chirac, France's President, will sign the highly protestes labor law that allows for French companies to fire employees under the age of 26 within the first two years of their employment with out being required to give an explination.For the world new uninclined, this has led to huge protests that were far greater in scope than those in the United States over immigration issues.
The reason for this law (as I understand it) is that there is a French ideal that once you have a job you are a secured employee of the company. But this has led to a lower quality of employee who does not participate at their active best (and obviously so as there would seem to be less incentive). So hence the law.
Talking with some friends over a week ago I mentioned this situation to them as they were talking about problems they see in the young American work force...it is as though we expect things to be just handed over to us. Jonathan Sampson did a video you can watch on his site. The video was done a TCU(Texas Christian University) about these students perceptions of money...I think you'd be very surprised to see how ungrounded in reality some of their ideas are. People expect that money would be handed over to them on a plater...but not so.
Or I remember hearing a story on NPR story on All Things Considered about how blogs in China are very popular, especially among the "Me Generation" of single Chinese people who grew up as only children and are very self absorbed. (You can listen to that story here).
And you've got to wonder...what is this generation becoming but people who want as much as possible, but instead of working hard for it, they demand it. And if that is what this new young generation is thinking how can it be corrected and changed?
Picture from BBC News.
Related Tags: France, Chirac, Labor, Protests, Work Force, China, Law, Business, Money, Youth, Students
2 comments:
I know I said on my blog that I didn't care, but I was joking around. Maybe this will cause the quality of work to improve, or at the very least decrease what you have alluded to, which is this false sense of entitlement that is so pervasive.
There's a disconnect between the young, work and money, and it isn't just the U.S. or Europe.
Japan rose to industrial superpower status over quite a short period of time historically, peaked, and has receded. The expectation have remained, and have affected society across the board.
There are Japanese men who go to work in the morning, although their jobs went away years before, they still go through the motions, and hang out at the local cafe' all day because it would be a shame to admit the lack of work to the family.
Here's an article on the youth of Japan's work ethic: Japanese Youth Bailing Out Of Job Market - Wall Street Journal
Leigh
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