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"kick ass" work culture

I've worked/still work with US companies. It's not uncommon for workers to have the company logo tattoed on them somewhere.

The passion for breakfast meetings does my head in too.
 
pinkmonkey said:
I've worked/still work with US companies. It's not uncommon for workers to have the company logo tattoed on them somewhere.

The passion for breakfast meetings does my head in too.
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I've never, not once, seen such a tattoo. In fact, I'd go so far to say that US business culture is extremely anti-tattoo.
 
gracious said:
and do u know what the worst thing is...?

"well, we're not the most productive economy in the world for nothing you know"

fuck. right. off.
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Yeah, it's like a complete dictatorship of capitalism - a people fooled into being exploitated, all with a large dollop of help from religion.

The lions of share of America's economic expansion over the last ten years has gone to the already rich.
 
I'm working for one of the largest US corporates at the mo - out of London. This involves constant fucking video/phone conference calls with them, where my attendance is utterly fucking unnecessary as they'll never listen to a fucking word i say anyway.

Most of them are Ivy Leaguers who think they're oh so fucking sophisticated, when in actual fact a great many of them have probably not even got a fucking passport.

My god they can talk shit. I would never do it again, I far prefer the British style of business I have to say. It's a shame, because its pollluted my view of Americans in general. 'No class system', my arse. They're just more subtle about it.
 
Divisive Cotton said:
Naawwww, come on - is there photographic proof of this anywhere?
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I've seen it myself. Have you ever heard of Ekins? They work for Nike and have the swoosh tattooed on their ankles.

I used to see them a lot in South Korea when I was developing products over there. Some of them were really weird indeed. A friend who worked there describes it as being almost cultish there.

I worked with another US brand & I can think of at least three workers that have the company logo tattoed on them. So there! :p

If you still don't believe me, read this http://www.fastcompany.com/online/31/nike.html
 
pinkmonkey said:
I used to see them a lot in South Korea when I was developing products over there. Some of them were really weird indeed. A friend who worked there describes it as being almost cultish there.
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South Korea is not the US.
 
Yuwipi Woman said:
South Korea is not the US.
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They were US citizens, visting South Korea from the USA to develop sneakers - give me a break here! Or alternatively read the link.

I will try and get pics if I see any.....
 
pinkmonkey said:
They were US citizens, visting South Korea from the USA to develop sneakers - give me a break here! Or alternatively read the link.

I will try and get pics if I see any.....
Click to expand...

I'm not denying that it may happen, but it's not the norm in american work culture. You are acting like that tattoos are required to work in america. :rolleyes:

My boss would tell anyone who tattooed the company logo on themselves to go get some mental help.
 
That's not what I meant at all - it's unlikely it would happen outside of the apparel trade, anyway. But it IS something I've noticed on more than one occasion.

'Course we get little kids over here who shave the swoosh into their hairstyle, but when it's grown men and women, it's somthing else.

The Ekin thing is very wierd. It is an extreme of course but it does exist. It's like you can never leave or something (or get an excellent laser surgeon to remove your tat).

Most people think they're bonkers, yes, whether they are from the USA or outside.
 
I worked for a company that told a woman the day before her wedding that she had to work overtime that day. She told them to stick their job up their ass.

They also required everyone to be at work 15 minutes early to set up off the clock. At the end of the day you couldn't shut down until the end of the shift and cleanup time was off the clock. They got about 30 minutes off each person each day.

At the time I was nearly homeless so I put up with it. I was without heat in the apartment I was renting (late November) so I needed to get the heat on.

The company was a British owned and managed company. In general I'd agree that american work culture is a bit over the top, but I think it depends on the company.

My current employer, let me take 8 weeks off to take care of a sick family member. They paid me for that time too. Probably explains why my 18 th anniversary is this week.
 
gracious said:
is this the same employer you were b1tching about on a previous thread?
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No, this is my primary job. My only complaint with it is that I get a bit bored.

I have a second job that can be a bit problematic.

(Doesn't everyone bitch about their job? :confused: )
 
Did two years in New York.

Hard work, fast.

But nothing beats the "work ethic" in HK. The last job I had I averaged 75 hours a week (sometimes 70, sometimes 80,) and I'm talking full-on, in-your-face pressure for all that time - sell, sell, sell, make money, make money, make money. Ten minutes lunch break at the desk. I lasted four months.

Now. I have another job.

Here we fuckin' go again.

:rolleyes:

:(

Woof
 
Yes. And I've known a few Hongkongers who work not one, but two such jobs!

A family friend who followed the HK "work ethic" finally collapsed with heart problems a few years ago [he was only in his late 30s]. When he got out of the hospital, his boss greeted him the option of "exit or 50% pay cut." The poor fellow opted for the latter :(

NYC's office culture seems a walk in the park after hearing his story.

Life is hard as nail here. But New York is still the place for people who run their own business -- like me.
 
Work, U.S. and U.K.

gracious said:
has anyone here actually worked in corporate america?
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I work for a British company, so I'm not sure my experience is typical, but having worked in both London and New York, I'd say the difference is this: There's a lot less humiliation involved in the American workplace -- and a lot less humor. We're pretty much automatons over here. We don't get any more work done than anyone anywhere else, but we're very good at looking busy. We also don't do any living at work -- upon entering the workplace you pretty much shed your humanity and strap a harness on.
 
Jessiedog said:
But nothing beats the "work ethic" in HK. The last job I had I averaged 75 hours a week (sometimes 70, sometimes 80,) and I'm talking full-on, in-your-face pressure for all that time - sell, sell, sell, make money, make money, make money. Ten minutes lunch break at the desk. I lasted four months.
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Yeah. In New York, you can get away with 55-hour weeks, so long as your boss leaves before 6:30 and you leave soon after, but all the people in management positions that I know work 70-hour weeks at a minimum. I'm sure they do a lot more fucking around than they do in HK, but it's still pretty grueling. I've opted for non-management positions, personally. Bad tickers run in my family, and the stress ain't worth it.
 
What tickles me about corporate USA is their drive for efficiency, their long hours of work, few holidays, their ideal of self-sufficiency, their mantra that free enterprise is best - and yet they still have a national debt that would frighten the sh*t out of other nations.

Even when it comes to debt, Uncle Sam needs to be biggest and best! ;) Yup - the US of A certainly doesn't believe in doing things by halves.

ps. I heard somewhere that the 'Merry Widow' now lives in corporate America. -That 70+% of private wealth is now in the ownership of women. I wonder if the secret feminist cry is, 'Bring on those coronaries!'
 
Oh, I'm not so sure about female ownership -- your source? Sounds like an old wive's tale to me.

But yes, the national debt is the product of 30 years of glorious conservative government and supply-side economics, interrupted only by 8 of "deficit hawk" Clintonian conservative government. The thing to remember is that this is not corporate America's debt -- it's the American taxpayer's. They get a free lunch and we get stuck with the tab, even as real wages have remained stagnant for decades and good-paying union jobs have pretty much disappeared. We'll have another Great Depression one of these years soon, the corporate bandits and their Washington puppets will be reined in a bit and the situation will right itself for a few more decades.
 
septic tank said:
The thing to remember is that this is not corporate America's debt -- it's the American taxpayer's. They get a free lunch and we get stuck with the tab, even as real wages have remained stagnant for decades and good-paying union jobs have pretty much disappeared. ...
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Um, actually we don't get a free lunch. We have the same problems with stagnant wages. Add to that problems with social security and a health care crisis and no we don't get a "free ride." Also, all of that will have to be repaid
--probably at gunpoint, with the Chinese on the other side of the gun. The ones that get the free-ride are the Bushes, the Halliburtons, and the Waltons (Wallmart family).
 
Yuwipi Woman said:
Um, actually we don't get a free lunch.
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Oh, yeah. I guess I should have pointed out that I'm one of those American taxpayers getting shafted to pay for Halliburton's free lunch. I haven't been around much the last couple years.
 
FruitandNut said:
What tickles me about corporate USA is their drive for efficiency, their long hours of work, few holidays, their ideal of self-sufficiency, their mantra that free enterprise is best - and yet they still have a national debt that would frighten the sh*t out of other nations.
Click to expand...

What tickles me, is how you've confused two totally unrelated concepts.
 
D said:
I believe it was actually "free lunch", so fish tacos were probably okay.

:)
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But....But.....

There's no such thing as a free lunch!

(Oh! I forgot. 'Tis not free. It's marked for life.)

;)

Woof
 
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