20 days a year
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Thursday, 26 July 07 - 05:15 PM (GMT) By Marie D in The big bad corporate world |
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I started thinking about this more after having read a post on an iVillage board, where a 36 yo woman was asking: « am I the only one who works to live? My life happens from 7 to 10 PM and on week-ends. » And really, I can say, too, that my life happens during 3 hours at night and those 20 days of vacation I am getting each year (if you live in the US, please replace 20 by 10, and I guess the feeling will apply even more).
I can't help but thinking: what a waste. I don't hate my job, there are things in it that I really like doing and that helps me deal with the other boring stuff. But still, if I didn't need to get the money that job allows me to make, I would probably stop going there in a minute.
I would probably not stay inactive, but I would find ways to work on something I like without having to make it rentable. I would use all my time for the things I care the most about: family, friends, culture, and my passions: writing and webdesign.
I think this example is even more freaking: a colleague of mine uses these 20 days a year to travel abroad where all her family lives. She spends 340 days a year waiting for that moment and missing her folks. And I think this is really unfair.
Of course we all have to work. But my Finnish colleagues get 42 days of vacation each year. That's almost 2 whole months. Of course it costs more money to the finnish companies, but I do think they are benefiting from people who do not have to squezze the important things in their life into 2 or 4 weeks a year.
Don't you have that feeling sometimes, that the unimportant things are taking more and more place and that your life only gets what is left? Or is your job your life?
Women rules.
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Thursday, 12 July 07 - 07:48 PM (GMT) By Marie D in The big bad corporate world |
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« So, now you work for a company managed by a women » - that's how a supplier I was meeting for the first time after starting my new job, initiated the conversation.
My first thought was « so what? ». My previous job was at a small business owned by a woman, and the job before that within a strategic department managed by a woman, in an international company. So why on hearth would I give any thought to the fact that my CEO is a woman?
Then this morning, while I was gaving an interview with my boss to a business magazine journalist, my boss was introducing the company profile and he said « our CEO is a woman ». There we were again.
It reminded me of the excellent theories of Tom Peters on the subject.
Women, he says, are driving the economic growth. More than the internet. More than China or India. And it couldn't be otherwise: women buy most of the fast moving consumer goods; the men in their life do not even think about those purchases. About 85% of Unilever products are bought by a woman.
When a guy needs a pair of new pats, he'll spend 10 minutes and 40$ to solve the problem. A woman will spend 3 hours at the mall and make it a 800$ shopping session. Now who is making our companies grow?
That's just clothes and food, that's girl stuff, you might be thinking. But women have their word when buying a car or a house. Actually, when they are single, they buy cars and houses on their own. And still, as written by J.T. Halter: « She knows more about the [Volvo] than the salesman who greets her at the door. But how is she treated? As if she has a low IQ , is slightly hard of hearing, and really has no right to be buying a luxury car; and if she brought a male friend with her, odds are 10:1 that the clueless salesperson spent most of his time speaking to him. »
And I can tell you it is totally true, I will never forget that time I entered a BMW retailer and couldn't get one salesman to give me information. (NB: I didn't buy them a car). I will never forget when I signed a contract with my electricity supplier and the guy asked me if I was sure I didn't want to discuss this with my husband first. (For the record, I am single, but I know for sure I need that electricity, thanks).
And that is the way women are treated in business, too. Althoug today:
- 48% of US companies are owned or managed by women
- the growth rate of companies owned by a women is 3 times the rate of other companies
- Since 1970, women have held 2 out of 3 new jobs created.
That is a lot of women in management positions, don't you think?
So really, I think it is high time we stop thinking that women being successfull and rich and powerfull are something to mention, because really, it happens everyday.
In fact I shouldn't even have to write this post.
The awful truth about milk.
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Tuesday, 03 July 07 - 08:58 PM (GMT) By Marie D in The big bad corporate world |
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A big debate has been going on for a long time between those who think we should drink milk and eat dairy (and the industry is on that side) and those who say that milk is for calves and babies. A variation around the same theme is a theory according to which the structure of milk has been modified by changes in the feeding of the cows, and that would be why there are more and more allergies.
I am not a doctor, but I have been studying the lactose intolerance issue recently.
This is something different from milk allergy: an allergy is an absurd immune response to a product, in this case a protein contained in the milk. Lactose intolerance is different.
See, lactose is a disaccharide, a "double sugar", present in milk and dairy. Your body cannot assimilate it, that is why we have an enzyme called lactase, whose job is to break the lactose into two simple sugars that can be assimilated and used by our body.
This is common to all mammalians. And the other common point is that, starting at age 2 (for humans, at least), our body gradually decreases its production of lactase. Why? Because in theory, past the age of 2, we eat other things than milk. So what happen if we drink milk or eat dairy when we don't have that enzyme? The lactose goes directly into the bowel, it stays there because it cannot be assimilated, until the moment the bowel bacteria will start metabolizing it to declutter the place, and here come the cramps, bloating, and other symptoms I am not going to describe here.
We are genetically programmed not to digest milk and dairy after our early years. Now you're going to tell me that you drink liters of milk without getting sick? Or people around you? That's very much possible. Some populations, coming from Northern Europe, have undergone a genetic mutation thousands of years ago, that made them produce the lactase enzyme at adult age.
Mathematically speaking, these people are the exception. Lactose tolerance is the exception. Among other populations, the situation is different: 95% of Asians are lactose intolerant, as well as 95% of Latinos. 80% of black people are lactose intolerant. That is a lot of people.
Of course the dairy industry doesn't talk about this too much. Nor does the food industry in general, that uses lactose in very different products like bread. If you experience bad digestion and are part of a risk population, you might want to give a lactose-free diet a try. And please don't tell me you need milk to get calcium: just eat your broccoli, they're full of it too. Just another thing the industry never talks about.
It must be called "work" for a reason.
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Wednesday, 20 June 07 - 08:05 PM (GMT) By Marie D in The big bad corporate world |
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When I got my first job, I joined a family company that actually was just a bunch of kids under 30, me being the youngest at 21. I don't know by what miracle, but we were doing a good job with huge sales growth. And we were having fun. If I was out on a weekday's night, back to bed at 3 AM and at work at 8AM with nothing left of my brain, my 27 yo boss would understand and send me home.
Then we all grew older, most got married, had kids, the bosses became real bosses, the place became toxic (we even had a few moral harrasment complains) and I left. So did many others. That's how I landed at company #2. Totally different and also quite the same. Most people in their early 30's, a 40-something CEO and a lot of responsibilities towars the multinational that owned the company. We were working hard, but we had fun together and regularly met for a drink, a dinner or a movie after work.
Then my whole department was about to be downsized so I left. That was last year in September. And since then, things are falling apart.
I joined a company where I didn't make any real friends, for the first time in my career. I started looking at the clock and leaving at 5PM sharp because I needed to be out of there. I am a grown up now, so I stayed because the pay and benefits were great, and I need to pay my bills. It lasted 6 months and then management decided there wasn't enough work for me to justify the existence of my position (which was true, I must say, boredom was my daily treat), and I was downsized. That was in March.
When I found a new job in April, I thought it was for the best. But again, there isn't much fun. The people closest to my age are 15 years older than me, we have not much to say to each other, and some are trying to make it really clear. I am good at the job, but I am not a big fan of the place.
I talked about this with an ex co-worker from great company #2. She has a new job too, and she feels the same way as I do. She thinks it was just luck to have what we had there and that what we're experiencing right now, that is the real working world.
I can't help but wonder, is it now going to be this way for the 35 coming years (at least). Isn't there anything I can do but accept?
I guess it must be called work for a reason, then.
Obesity: it is no what we eat - it is what our food ate!
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Thursday, 14 June 07 - 08:53 PM (GMT) By Marie D in The big bad corporate world |
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But industry also has a lot of requirements, and with the years going by, the producers of the primary goods (cereals, milk, cattle etc...) have had to adapt to the industry requirement - this, or going unemployed.
It is commen sense to think that we should not play God with our food, but of course we are all too glad to use science to change things, and now we might be paying the price. Obesity has become a fast growing epidemic, and even our bad eating habits and the lack of exercise are not a sufficient explanation for the speed at which the issue is growing.
Studies have been conducted in Switzerland at 2 different levels. Scientits worry about obesity. Farmers worry about the cattle not being as healthy as it used to be. And interestingly before 1970, cattle would be fed with flax during winter time, when it could not stay outside and eat the grass and flowers. Flax is full of Omega-3, which is good for the cattle and good for the people eating the meat.
But in the 1970's, in order to reduce costs and meet the industry requirements, farmers stopped using flax and started using other products like corn. What we didn't know then, is that those new products were rich in Omega-6, and we totally changed the way cattle was absorbing fat.
The cattle is now less healthy, and we are too, because we are eating excessive amounts of Omega-6 (including in totally different products where the industry adds Omega-6, saying for example that it will help keep a pretty young skin, when we already eat way too much of these Omega-6 !!).
To measure the impact of an Omega-3 diet on weight and health, researches have been conducted on 2 groups of people with weight issues. Both groups received nutritional advice, and were given all the necessary food during 3 month. One group was receiving food in which the Omega-3 level was naturally rich (like organic stuff, meat from cattle fd with flax), and the other group was given the same food made by the regular industry. Both groups lost weight, but the Omega-3 group lost more. And it doesn't stop here: after the 3 months, both groups went back to their old habits while still being monitored. Group 2 took back the lost weight, even more weight sometimes, while Group 1... kept on losing weight! This means that they were benefiting on the long term from the Omega-3 they had eaten.
This all means that it is harder for us all to maintain an healthy diet nowadays. Eating the correct amounts of proteins, fibers, carbs and fat is not a guarantee anymore that we are doing the right thing for our body. Although more and more people are trying to solve part of this by going green or eating organic, I really wonder how far this goes, how sure we can be of what has been approved by the authorities to be eaten safely, and what more consequences are still to come.
Rent A Wife dot Com
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Friday, 06 April 07 - 11:56 AM (GMT) By Marie D in The big bad corporate world |
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Very easy to use: pay an abonment, then pick a wife in the huge catalogue. You receive her within 3 days. When you're tired of her, send her back and receive another one.
Once you validate your order, you arrive on the website of an online dvd rental service, working exactly how it was explained before, but of course you can only rent DVD's.
The news of this made me laugh a lot, although we can regret that the ad agency that conceived this project didn't think about a "rent a husband" equivalent, but I guess the target of this campaign was mainly male. Feminist associations have carried complaints against the advertising agency and the dvd renting company to get the campaign cancelled but so far, it is still on line.
As I told in my previous posts, we are all seeing thousands of advertising messages on a daily basis and we have reached the point where almost none of them impress or influence us anymore. Advertising agencies now face the challenge of having to make their clients more noticable and one way of doing this, is by shocking people.
This certainly serves the company in terms of brand-awareness, I can assure you that the whole country knows that company right now. But is the target customer going to link that company with a positive emotion that will lead them to buy? That is another story...
Neuromarketing and ethics.
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Thursday, 05 April 07 - 06:10 PM (GMT) By Marie D in The big bad corporate world |
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I saw a very interesting documentary on neuromarketing last night, and it raises a lot of questions - for any consumer and for marketers like me.
Right now scientists are able to determine what part of your brain is activated by a product or a brand. As an example, they run this test : someone receives soda to drink via a pipe, and at the same time is shown a picture. Picture #1 is a bottle of Coca-Cola (chosen because universally known), picture #2 is an unbranded bottle. The brain reacts this way: when receiving the drink associated to the unbranded product, the part associated with taste reacts: the brain analyses a taste it cannot identify any other way.
But when receiving the drink associated to Coca-Cola, the brain doesn't even activate the taste part, it directly activates the memory part.
That means, in short, that this brand creates an emotional reaction and not a rational one. And of course what every brand in this world wants, is to be associated with a positive emotional reaction, because this reaction is part of the buying process.
No need to say a lot of companies -that wouldn't want their name mentioned in the documentary- are interested in this, because that would help them influencing the buying process. In a world where we all get to see about 1,000 advertisings of all kinds every day, good old TV commercials have lost a big part of their impact, and companies are looking for new ways to promote their products.
Some are financing studies whose aim is to find our "buy button", some part of our brain that would make us buy without thinking twice.
This raises ethical questions : where do we cross the line between marketing and manipulation?
I wrote in previous posts that I am convinced that marketing actually has an impact. But I also believe that good marketing consists on identifying needs, creating products that satisfy those needs, and make potential consumers aware that the product exists and that it satisfies their need.
I firmly disagree with any mind-manipulation, I think that any mean that disqualifies your free-will is unethical.
Luckily enough, scientists agree on the fact that there is no "buy button" and that the buying process is very complicated. That should prevent, at least for now, that unscrupulous people try manipulating us into buying what we do not need or want.
Job hunt, episode 2.
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Wednesday, 28 March 07 - 10:02 AM (GMT) By Marie D in The big bad corporate world |
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This is something you must do by law here in Belgium, otherwise you lose your right to social security and to unemployment benefit. This administration is also supposed to help you finding a new job.
When I lived in the Brussels area a couple of years ago, I once found myself unemployed for a couple of week between 2 working contracts, and I went to the unemployment administration offices. I can tell you that was a universe I had never imagined: there are 22% of unemployed people in the Brussels area, and only one unemployment office. So you get there and receive a ticket with a number and an estimated waiting time (over 1 hour in my case). Then you wait for one of the 40 clercks to call for your number.
There were literally hundreds of people waiting in that huge room and I remember having thought about how much time we were all losing there instead of being actually looking for a job, making phonecalls or going to interviews. But at least, once you were registered, the administration was actually trying to help you.
Now in my small hometown, that is another story. The place smells like alcohol and demotivation (no kidding), so you immediately know those people aren't going to find you a job. Any question you ask to the receptionist is answered with a sigh. There are only 3 clercks for registration and you wait and wait and wait (no ticket, no time estimation). I ended up being registred by the receptionist, standing up in the hall, with a long queue of wating people next to me. I wasn't given any information on how to use their services, consulting their job offers, signing in for a training... Nothing.
I can understand that people in this administration are not well paid and that seeing poeple who just lost their job every day is kind of depressing. But again, the message they send is wrong: they are there to help you and they look totally hopeless.
On a happier note, I have an interview this afternoon :-)
Job Hunt, episode 1.
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Tuesday, 20 March 07 - 09:00 PM (GMT) By Marie D in The big bad corporate world |
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Step 1 of my job hunt plan : go to temp agencies. That is what I did this morning. And boy, I had no idea there were so many differences between them all!
Of course they all do the same thing, but from what I have seen, there are huge differences in the the way they consider marketing and customer service (hey, I am their customer, too, after all, even if I'm not the one who pays them).
The first agency I went to was definitely the worst example. The lady there had "I hate my job" written on her forehead. She looked so depressed I almost got suicidal thoughts - hey I lost my job, I need to be cheered up and to hear I am going to find a great workplace, and the message there was kind of hopeless! Then the agency manager came in, back from some outside meeting, sit at her desk and started rambling and complaining out loud. This lasted all the time I was there.
And after all this, they had not the tiniest job to offer to me, apparently I am over qualified.
Very important detail : they are surrounded by competitors, there are a dozen of other agencies in the same street, you just have to walk a few meters between 2 of them. No need to say I was pushing the next door 2 minutes after having walked out that desperate place.
Good for me, the 2 other agencies I saw after that were totally different: people were great, looked so happy to be there they made me want to apply for their jobs, and they found a couple of offers matching my profile. So I am waiting for their client's feed-back now.
So the lesson for today is: please be coherent with your product. Look healthy if you sell health products, look fresh and clean if you sell cosmetics, and please look happy with your own job if you're trying to sell jobs to others. Otherwise you'll look like you weren't even able to find one good job for yourself. And people like me now need to believe in good jobs!
I have been fired
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Monday, 19 March 07 - 06:01 PM (GMT) By Marie D in The big bad corporate world |
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These things happen, I know, but still, it is hard.
The funny thing is that I found this job boring most of the time but I had decided I was not ready for big life/career changes right now, and that I would enjoy the great pay and benefits for at least the next 6 months to give myself time to figure out what I want to do.
Well, I guess life has its own way of kicking your butt... I have to figure it out really quickly now!
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