Persistence

[blue_condition]

As many of you know I'm a bit stir-crazy at work and really want a new job... so I get a lot of calls from agents.

Comments

[kixie]

Ah yes, Americans are notoriously stingy on the holiday allowance. Depressing, no?

[blue_condition]

The American long-hours-"presenteeism" culture is unsustainable, I think. But trying to make it work in the UK will be a bit of a challenge!

If I was a young man, susceptible to the dubious lure of cocaine, sports cars, and expensive mistresses, I'd probably give it a go for a year or two - at least until the inevitable burnout (happened to a mate of mine who worked at Nomura in the early 90s - he had the whole bit, coke, BMW M3 Evo, vigorous sex life... and then went pop and spent the next 18 months in bed!)

As it is, I'm in my late 30s, I'm more excited by real ale, diesel locos and sprawling on the sofa with my beloved!

[missfairchild]

But trying to make it work in the UK will be a bit of a challenge!

Yes - it's something I will resist with every ounce of strength I have. It's a horribly superficial and self-serving attitude. Who wants to waste their life pushing paper around and looking busy instead of actually doing the job and going home? Gah.

[blue_condition]

I also don't like the US "company as extended family" thing. Work is something I do for 8 hours or so a day, and even those 8 hours reluctantly. I don't like work, there are other, more creative things I'd rather be doing with my time. It helps that the people I work with are intelligent, mostly amusing, and fairly low-key.

US companies seem to want to be all-inclusive. Live the company social life, wear the company polo shirt. I've seen the presenteeism and the creeping overflow into "real life" destroy several people and several relationships - Oracle used to be about the best place in the world for early coronaries and messy divorces.

[cyberspice]

I'm right with you there. The salary isn't enough for the lack of holidays, the extra stress, American work ethic, and the London premium.

I reckon that with my current benefits, holiday, salary etc I need a salary of at least 60K to make any move down south worth my while.

[blue_condition]

> susceptible to the dubious lure of cocaine

;P

[vin_petrol]

Some day I really should write up an LJ entry about what happened when a high-flying American manager came to the Pindar York offices to run them. For some obscure reason, he decided that the empty desk in the department I worked in would be a sensible place to setup shop. I think he wanted to show he was a "man of the people" or something. This was when there was me and (slightly mad) Howard there.

I take it you've seen MASH? He was Major Frank Burns, living in The Swamp with Hawkeye Howard and Trapper Vin. The culture clash was astonishing. He never really did like my "discussions on the failures of the capitalist system". He liked even less the inflatable aliens in the window, Howard's *ahem* lax timekeeping and the "memorial bookcase" dedicated to his made-redundant-predecessor.

[steer]

But you're a staunch defender of the virtues of capitalism these days.

[vin_petrol]

But that doesn't stop me winding up annoying Americans, does it? :-)

[cyberspice]

I was scared that I would end up being arrested when I worked in LA.

As it was, despite 'toning down' (no swear words, religion or politics on the t-shirts. Wearing other than black) I stood out like a sore thumb in the lab and I'm not really that 'unique'. I think most people worked out I was a personality but I could tell that one or two people didn't approve.

It was just like the book, Microserfs. The American engineers really did by their wardrobes from Gap.

[makyo]

Would this company happen to have the same name as the current mayor of New York, perchance? I went for an interview there a couple of years ago during a brief phase where I thought ``some companies in London might pay me enough to live there during the week and come home at weekends - after all, how bad can London really be?''

So I traipsed down there for an interview, got asked a bunch of irrelevant puzzle questions, told about the paltry holiday entitlement and the long hours (``I'm often here twelve hours a day'' quoth the project manager, in a disturbingly gleeful manner), and then they turned me down because I wasn't aggressive enough.

Which I thought was fair comment. It'd have been nice if they'd paid my travel expenses, though.

My mad friend Katie went for an interview there recently - I'll forward you her writeup of the experience.

[blue_condition]

That would be the one, yes. I figured the twelve hours a day went with the territory.

I've about as much chance of letting my CV go there as I do of joining the priesthood, but it'd be fun to hear just how bad they are. ;)

[thecesspit]

Is it actually legal to only give 15 days holiday a year in the UK?

I thought it was a minimum of 20?

If the flesh merchant had any nouse, he'd have gone back to the company, and sold you, but said on condition the holiday was 25 days a year.

Just to see there reaction.

But Flesh merchants aren't really on your side...

[blue_condition]

I don't know - the kind of berk who signs up for that sort of job doesn't care about employment law - it's voluntary slavery.