Work Ethic

[nickxxon]

Nick,
I work for a company headquartered in the US with a facility in Ireland. I was responsible for setting up the facility and getting the bugs worked out.
As for the work ethics, I feel Europe and the US are about the same. I have worked with people on both side of the ocean who are very ambitious and other who just wanted to get by. One thing I have seen in the Irish work force is that there are many more hourly workers with secondary education. They seem to be more motivated than the many in the US.
As for vacations and holidays, most US companies honor the country's national holidays, but, the vacation, initially, seems less in the US. I know of several Germany companies that shut down for the month of August. In the US is seems that many companies start out with 2 weeks and over time grow to 4-6 weeks.
Other than the time difference and the time to fly over, working with our Irish facility and some German companies has been just like working with a facility around the block.
Good luck, hope everything goes well.

 

[KnaveTO]

I used to work in the for-profit world on Bay St. in Toronto (our version of Wall St.). I got 2 weeks paid vacation and 6 sick days a year. In Ontario 2 weeks paid vacation (or 4% of your annual wages if you are part time) is the legislated minimum. Most of Canada is the same. However I also got profit sharing and I worked at least an 8am-6pm day there as I was projects manager and reconciliations officer. Now that I am in the non-profit world I get 3 weeks vacation, 20 sick days and 4 personal float days (whatever I want to do with them). I work a nice and simple 10am-6pm day and can work from home when I need to.

The work ethic is set by the company you keep I find. If you are in a good company where people feel they are contributing and are willing to work together for the betterment of the company then that company has a good work ethic and so do the employees. If you are in a company where everyone comes in and just does their job and that is it then the ethic will reflect that as well further infecting the rest of the workforce within that corporate entity.

 

[legendaryfrog]

you only get a week off every year?

Yes and no. I have to be out of work 1 week per year (in days other than holidays), but like I said i can take a vacation day anytime I want. really, I could take a whole month off If I chose too. But then again, I'd have to make up for the work I missed.

My friend from high school studied up to be a radiologist, he's just now finishing his residency, and he tells me he'll be getting 8 WEEKS MANDATORY VACATION DAYS PER YEAR; once he gets a job, ofcourse. In addition to that, a cool 350k annual salary. Nice. Im jealous of him.

 

[AquariumFish]

Yes and no. I have to be out of work 1 week per year (in days other than holidays), but like I said i can take a vacation day anytime I want. really, I could take a whole month off If I chose too. But then again, I'd have to make up for the work I missed.

My friend from high school studied up to be a radiologist, he's just now finishing his residency, and he tells me he'll be getting 8 WEEKS MANDATORY VACATION DAYS PER YEAR; once he gets a job, ofcourse. In addition to that, a cool 350k annual salary. Nice. Im jealous of him.

since I like being a total snit - that salary is about 35k :lol:

 

[necigrad]

I'm 33, and my work ethic went from doing my job well as a teen, and even into my early/mid 20's, to "I'll do MY job, exactly my job, nothing more, and stay the hell away from me." Do I still care? Yes. Emphatically. But my management, both locally and corporatly, have fostered this attitude. Rules are only enforced when it gets the bosses in trouble. When you try to correct things before they cause problems, nothing gets done, then when it does cause a problem, you get the "Well this is the first I'm hearing about it" from the exact same person you told.

I also work 10 hour shifts, of which I probably work only about 4 of. Perks of the industry.

Full disclosure, and I think this is important, I work for an airline. I'm not gonna post which in this thread, but it's on the board, and given my location me saying that we had a merger recently should give it away. Airlines are an odd business. Corporate officers take, take, and take. Everyone else strugles to get a piece of the same pie through union negotations. If it's a good year you may be at least somewhat sucessful. If it's a bad year you'll be lucky to get cost of living adjustments. If the airline has money problems, especially in this day and age, concessions are common. The problem there is concessions are permanent until the contract is renegotiated, which the airlines won't do until they must.

On the flip side I can fly for free pretty much anywhere in the US, for taxes into Europe, and on another carrier my price from LAX to Sydney was $276.50USD round trip INCLUDING taxes and fees. I have awesome medical and dental. It's not all bad.

I think work ethic is partially based on the individual, but more importantly based on the work enviroment. If your employees are happy and feel valued, they will kill themselves to do their job. If they're reduced to a necessary expense, at best they won't care.

 

[Coler]

29...barrister (trial attorney)... lazy workforce & horrible bosses...self-employed

 

[legendaryfrog]

On the topic of flying, I also get free flights to major US cities, and $200-400 business round trip tickets to major cities in Asia and europe, as long as I stop by the Pepsi offices when I'm there (assuming there is one)

 

[tepelus]

"mandatory" he wrote, meaning he has to take it whether he wants to or not, but didn't see how many he can actually earn, if i perceived that correctly...lol!

OOPSY! I'm a dope, didn't realize there was a second page! LOL!

 

[Que]

You have all kinds everywhere you go. I couldn't imagine going to a job where you do about 4 hours of real work. I'd bet bored.

I work a 40 hour week. I get 4 weeks of vacation on top of 11 holidays. Bonus? I wish.
I consider myself a somewhat hard working dude who gets paid by the hour. I go out of my way to get the job done right. ALL of my work has my initials on it and ALL my work is directly traceable to ME so I take pride in my work and do all I can to do it right.
On the retail side of business and in the consumer service sector I find incompetence at every turn. From cashiers who don't know how to make change to fence installers who part the underground wires you warned them of with a shovel. From the petstore clerk who can't tie up a bag of fish properly to the guys who tune-up a car and forget to change the plugs. I hate dealing with all these idiots. It's a plague that's hit society and who can blame them. After all many of todays newer workers are ones who've seen their fathers and mothers work their butts off for a company only to be dropped in an instant like an empty gum wrapper. It must be tough to see someone who works hard and cares about what they do to be let down in such a bad way. It kinda makes it hard to care for any company that could and does drop employees because the shareholders need to see SOMETHING is being done to curb costs after a bad quarter.

I'll continue to work the way I do because that's the way I grew up. I do care about what I do and I'm good at it but I know I can end up on the unemployment line on any given Monday. I really need to learn how do business online and say goodbye to corporate America forever. Screw you and all you've taken from me.

I'll be in on time tomorrow... I swear. lol

Q


Q

 

[magakitty]

I work in the ministry - non-profit of course. I am salaried now and have 2 weeks vacation (I one got 1 week when I was hourly), 1 week personal time (we don't get paid holidays since we are a ministry) and 1 week sick time. My health insurance premium is paid by the Mission. Were I to add any famiy members I would have to pay for them, and it's cheaper to keep them on hubby's insurance. My vacation time will increase as my length of service grows, to a maximum of 6 weeks paid vacation.

hubby on the other hand is paid hourly, but makes more mone than I do, also gets 2 weeks vacation, 7 paid holidays and 2 personal days, and 1 week sick time.

We were both born in the late 50's and raised by working class parents. we were taught a strong work ethic. You get in there and do what it takes to get the job done. idle time is stealing from your employer. My job is largely administrative, and I am currently revamping the rehab program for women. I am on call 24/7 for problems at work, and do a lot of tele-commuting during my "off" hours. I don't always have time to get all of my casenotes and whatnot done in an 8 hour day.

It really depends how a person is raised, I think, but probably is somewhat determined by the work environment. We are strongly encouraged to be creative at work as long as we don't interfere in someone else's area of authority. We are very protective of our own areas because of prior improprieties and former bad management. (we are almost totally a new staff - 2 years or less with the mission) We have a good team and we are working hard to make things better for the clients and the staff.