janicedean164

My boss leaves early everyday & is one of the most laid back bosses I have ever had the pleasure to work for. There is a really good atmosphere here too, now the marketing firm involved with us couldn't be run by a bigger mong, the twat!

into_thewild

I have a lot of respect for people who have stuck out a call centre job for 10 years or whatever and moved upstairs. Sometimes I don't think people realise how tough it is.

Steve_

Ah one of my favourite websites: http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html

My advice is to quit and become self-employed, one of the reasons I don't live in the US frankly because payroll taxes are much higher than in Canada (which is a problem because you have to pay both halves of FICA) and then you have the whole healthcare problem.

But you could start your own business.

Geordie-Tex

- Corporate people here are generally very uptight and talk about nothing but work (I was actually openly reprimanded for discussing the Vikings!). My humour also has never gone down too well and I miss the banter of British offices and the broader mix of people.

I'm sure we work in very different spheres, I'm just a sales associate (but I'll come in to power soon, mwa ha ha) general management seems to be pretty good, we talk about current events, politics, weather, the usual stuff, they even understand the basics of humor. I also work with several different colors and creeds!

- Living to work, not working to live.

Some do the former, some do the later.

- Less team work, more "throw you under the bus" and CYA than the average UK office environment.

There are little groups in workplace of size, I've found people here to be a lot more open.

- Sheer bloody incompetence everywhere.

See the above! You sound jaded!

- The harder you work, the more you get taken advantage of.

I was under the assumption that the eager horse gets the bigger load?

- I hate cubicles and prefer the open office layout where I don't have to IM my boss or rely on email too much.

Never worked in an office, they'll never take me alive.

- Lots of backstabbing.

I have seen this in action, but thankfully never again me. At least, not to my knowledge.

- Managers who act beyond unprofessionally.

There's one in every gaff!

- Too many silly corporate functions, no "hey let's go down the pub after work and grab a couple of pints".

They American work place does seem to be a bit more professional than what I'm used to, very formal in the way they do things. Very few of them drink.

- College degrees required to work $12 an hour menial jobs that a trained chimp could do blindfolded.

Sadly I never attended any higher education beyond the age of sixteen, however that said I have been able to parley myself in to several situations well above my qualified level, partly because of enthusiasm, ability to learn and the very probable assumption that people assume I am saying the correct thing at the time. One thing I have been told is that you must have degrees in something, anything even the obscure courses, to get ahead. I've always been a supporter of vocational courses over run-of-the-mill academics. At least those of interesting subjects, not the science and maths.

- Too many snappy overachievers.

That's how you get ahead!

- Cruelty galore.

No more than back home.

- Awful dress code, particularly women, some of whom come to work dressed like streetwalkers. Dress down doesn't mean dress like a ho'.

I have seen some customers that looked 'questionable' but it seems women here to put more work (not necessarily effort) in to their appearance.

- Few employee rights mean that employers can get away with treating employees like crap, engagin in behaviour that's borderline harassment (as is the case with my wife, who could go to ACAS or CAB back home to lodge a complaint).

In Texas, I believe it is a 'Right To Work' State? Which to my understanding protects the companies and the upper classes over the employees. Seems a little bit backwards to myself but whatever works. I elected to come here, I live with it. However, I have turned a couple of people to my way of thinking by calling it the "Right to Fire'!

ian-mstm

While I'm not fully up-to-date on Right to Work, my understanding is that it means you can't be forced to join a union in order to work for a company. I might be wrong, but I don't think it has anything to do with protecting the company! What you describe is more like "At Will" employment... which means that both you and the company can terminate employment at any time... and is a separate concept from Right to Work.

Ian

scrubbedexpat099

And as an an Employer I can tell you it works both ways!

fatbrit

It has everything to do with it.

ian-mstm

Okay, I'll bite... how does Right to Work protect the employer?

Ian

Giantaxe

It reduces or eliminates the power of unions.

HarryTheSpider

To do or not do what ???

I'm looking to provoke a more considered debate than the simplistic and unhelpful "all unions are bastards" vs "all big business are legalised slave users"

Bob

To stop silly stuff wasting money at a guess...

I know someone who did some work on a movie set, production was halted for a couple of hours because a computer had crashed and they needed an electrician to switch it on but he'd buggered off for the afternoon. The stoppage wasted about $100K all in but because of union rules. Though some of that was also probably liability insurance rules too.

Giantaxe

"Right to work" means that people don't have to join a union even in work places where there is a recognized union. This reduces a union's income and also reduces the bargaining power a union has with the employer. It also discourages unionization of a workforce in the first place. Additionally, it means that those who aren't union members in a workplace are "freeloading" in that they benefit from what a union negotiates with am employer. On the flip side, the argument is that one shouldn't be coerced into joining a union just to do a specific job - that this is a basic freedom that "closed shops" takes away. Finally, there are plenty of studies out there that indicate that states where there aren't "right to work" laws have higher incomes, less workplace accidents etc.

Not sure where I sit on this one:- I certainly believe that in certain jobs unions help to level the playing field a little between employers and an individual employee. This is especially true in a country with such loaded corporatism as the US. Otoh, being required to be a member of an organization - whose objectives you may not agree with - seems an unreasonable requirement to job a particular job.

scrubbedexpat099

There was a good example recently in Denver.

There have been a series of pickets of constructions sites by one Union Chapter, basically guys standing outside will billboards etc.

Anyway it turns out that these were hired day labourers, $10 an hour and no union benefits.

So the local TV Station turns up at the union office to do an interview, nobody available or will ever be available.

So they do their own signs etc, highly amusing.

callowman

Working in America for me was like stepping back to the 19th century - I mention a 35 hr work week and the americans eyes are wide in disbelief
Everyone (in my company) worried about losing thier job
No set vacation
I earn 7 hrs every pay check (14 a month) so I get about 4 weeks total a year
BUT
should I miss 2-3 weeks with a bad illness my vacation is basically wiped out. theres no sick policy.
rare for someone to take 2 weeks off for holidays
lot of backstabbing
work in a sea of grey dreary cubes
lose your job - lose your benefits (cobra is as expensive as buying it yourself)
get sick with no insurance- your down and out-bankruptcy -especially if a hospital bill is involved
NO ONE would ever go to a restaraunt for lunch and order a BEER
WE would love a union at my job but in Florida a right to work state people too scared ....

Steve_

This thread is bringing back bad memories for me.

I think the worst boss I ever actually had in the US was Scottish anyway, complete pratt he was. (And ultimately the reason I left the US because he was so crap he bankrupted the company or it ran out of money at any rate).

I remember one boss I had who was a real scrouge, the sort of person who is looking over your shoulder all the time. That was when he was awake and not taking 40 winks in his office.

I just thought I was unlucky but reading through this lot I see it is more widespread than I supposed.

I tell you one thing that is definitely different working in the US than elsewhere - admitting to mistakes. God help you if you tell your boss you screwed up. That was across the board I found.