Working ... or not... in France

Yet another new Parisian experience. As I left our apartment this morning, I noticed traffic on the major road outside was blocked and there were a lot of police around. I heard the faint rumbling sound of a shouting crowd in the distance. A bit puzzled, I continued on my way to get the car & head to work. A few minutes later, I found myself face to face with a shouting mob of striking demonstrators... as I crossed the major street just in front of them (now blocked off for them to walk down) . There were at least 20 policemen and 10 vehicles blocking off the busiest street in Europe during rush hour for a crowd of some 200-300 demonstrators. The demonstrators were cheerfully marching, shouting and brandishing their signs. All really just another day in France...

I went to work :-)

The working culture is very different in France than in the US. In the US, people work for companies 'at will' - they can resign or be fired with a couple of weeks notice. People see that they need to perform to earn, and keep, their job - and the employer has the right to fire/hire.

In France, there is a strong sense that working life is managed by a triumverate of workers, employers and the government. Workers are represented in this not only by unions but also by elected worker representatives. Employees are proud of the fact that they have rights and strongly feel that they need to exercise them and that employers should not be allowed to make decisions unilaterally. For example, to make any change in headcount/staffing numbers, I have to run the proposal by the committee of employee representatives for 'consultation' (we can agree to disagree, so I can still do it, but this process is very time-consuming and costly). If I want to cut more than 10 positions in a year, I will need to write up a full, detailed proposal that will need to go to the government for approval. Even better... if you fire someone because they are a poor performer, you still have to give them a severance package based on their years of service.

This is indeed a very different world.