Question about eating meals at work

[Martim Silva]

Don't think so. If I were to bet my lunch money on it, I would say this comes from the paternalistic tradition of Salazar. This seems a lot like what we had during the communist era (where there was no overly strong restaurant lobby) and seems a type of thing Catholic "socialist" paternalists would come up with.

Interesting reasoning, Martinus. Completely wrong, but still quite an interesting attempt at thinking about the causes of something.

But no, sorry - the Meal Allowance ('Alimentation Subsidy', as it is its technical term here), was introduced in 1976 as part of the workers' conquests after the overthrow of the dictatorship. Of course under Salazar wokers had no right to this.

In fact, the work ethics of the dictatorship followed very closly those that seem to be favoured by many Americans here: no Meal Allowance, no Vacation Subsidy, no Christmas Subsidy, only 2-3 weeks' worth of vacation, easy firing, tiny severance payments (if at all), small and short-lasting unemployment benefits.

People back then were scared slaves to their employers, who could fire at will and thus demanded insane hours of work (often with no compensation) and did not allow for virtually no private life (the day she gave birth to me, my mom got a call from her job, asking when was she coming back).

Those who accept these practices as good are just one tiny step away from enslavement.

This seems especially true of the Americans: the majority are very afraid to speak their minds to their bosses, they do not fight for their rights, and are willing to sacrifice their personal time to an insane level just to avoid being fired.

Anecdotally, the US and UK versions of Gordon Ramsay's 'Kitchen Nightmares' aired here recently. The American version is not only edited to create sensationalism (making Ramsay appear far more aggressive than he really is), but also in the US version, whenever he asks the employees what is wrong with the place in front of their employer, there is a general unwillingness to say what is (clearly) wrong. It not only seemed not very brave of them, but it also gave the impression that the only thing those people would be free to be is fired after the show for speaking their minds against the boss.

Some may speak of Europeans as 'serfs'. I fail to see where.

Europeans fought to get their benefits (and today we have an European strike), while Americans just bow their heads to their employers, afraid to get fired.

[Berkut]

The level of understanding Silva has about how things work in America is truly impressive.

[HVC]

Europeans are lazy and entitled, Americans are scared sheep. See, you can both be right

[DGuller]

The level of understanding Silva has about how things work in America is truly impressive.

He's got some right ideas.  He hasn't written any of them out, but I'm sure he has to have some.

[OttoVonBismarck]

The level of understanding Silva has about how things work in America is truly impressive.

I'll say this, I remember back in the EUOT days when I'd see mind-boggling Euro-comments like his it'd be good for me spending a long time either trying to rigorously debunk the nonsense or me just bursting into a troll-laden fit that resulted in a warning from the mods. Nowadays when I see stuff like that I have to conclude it is just blatant trolling and thus not worth comment, or that the Silva is so stupid there is simply no line of rational argument that would explain anything to him.

While Silva is actually dumber from what I can tell, he reminds me of Black Dragon who was always saying ludicrous things about America and painted this rosy picture of Italy as a paradise except for the "dark-skinned south."

[PDH]

"Sins are forgiven, stupid is forever."

[DontSayBanana]

Nice sensationalism, Martim.  The flaw in your analogy is that several of the things you mentioned are outlawed, "even" here in the US.

- Maternity leave is protected at both the state and federal level.  Your lovely little anecdote could very well result in an American business owner losing that business.
- Work without compensation is off the table.  Pretty much every full-time employee is going to have some kind of system for accruing paid time off, and plenty of medical emergencies have federal protection so that employees have a job to come back to.

The editorialism in Kitchen Nightmares is well documented, but you're refusing to consider there's another viewpoint.

Rather than see their employers simply as a lifeline, a lot of American employees are trained to see themselves as part of a team.  We're all too conscious that the business needs to exist for our jobs to exist.  We're going to be reluctant to point out a small business owner as the problem, because that opens up the option that our job will go away.

[DGuller]

On top of that, it's simply counter-productive and bad manners to criticize your boss in public, since you undermine their authority and make them all defensive.

[HVC]

On the maternity leave, at least, you guys have an insanely short term.

[garbon]

On the maternity leave, at least, you guys have an insanely short term.

Completely ridiculous that my French Canadian colleague is going to be gone for a year.

[dps]

On top of that, it's simply counter-productive and bad manners to criticize your boss in public, since you undermine their authority and make them all defensive.

And a lot of workers aren't going to bother pointing out what's wrong because they just don't give a shit. 

[DontSayBanana]

On the maternity leave, at least, you guys have an insanely short term.

Completely ridiculous that my French Canadian colleague is going to be gone for a year.

How about a teacher with almost two years back-to-back maternity leave?  She's worked one semester out of the last four, and she's collected a salary for both years.  I kind of hope she gets pregnant again, just to see if the school board's going to develop the balls to fire her.

[HVC]

On the maternity leave, at least, you guys have an insanely short term.

Completely ridiculous that my French Canadian colleague is going to be gone for a year.

How about a teacher with almost two years back-to-back maternity leave?  She's worked one semester out of the last four, and she's collected a salary for both years.  I kind of hope she gets pregnant again, just to see if the school board's going to develop the balls to fire her.

your standard leave is 3 weeks. that's less then most african countries

[OttoVonBismarck]

We evolved such that women after giving birth didn't require a year of inactivity. Hunter-gatherer women mostly resume their regular duties within a day or two of childbirth.

[Grey Fox]

On the maternity leave, at least, you guys have an insanely short term.

Completely ridiculous that my French Canadian colleague is going to be gone for a year.

Why? It's not like as if we don't pay for it.