From what I can gather in your post (it’s been a long time since I’ve made use of Google Translator), you are speaking of the economic downturn and job losses in France compared to the U.S.?

After reading Arnaud’s story, Pink Slip, it just broke my heart. I can’t tell you how worrisome the job market is in Illinois. I do want to point out one thing that has been going on in the U.S. and is not often being reported.

Many companies are using this job market as an excuse to bleed their workers dry. The new tactic being used by large corporations (and I speak with authority on this) is to put their employees on forced unpaid “furloughs”.

An example that I can give you is a true story of someone I know personally. ..

A small company which is a subsidiary owned by a large corporation was doing very well, in fact, they were making a lot of money. However, the larger corporation decided that they could make larger profits for themselves by forcing the employees to take one week unpaid furlough. The way the smaller company is set up, this was very difficult but they did it. The larger corporation saved $10 million that week, so they decided to do it again the next quarter. The way the unemployment benefits are set up in the State, the first week the employees could not receive unemployment benefits (a percentage of their paycheck) but the next quarter when they were forced to take another unpaid furlough, they could apply….which many employees did.

So, the larger corporation has decided that the next unpaid furlough would be different. What they did was just cut the employees pay for that quarter by the amount of one week’s salary and they were basically forced to work without pay for one week. This also kept them from being able to apply for unemployment benefits for that week.

Now, the smaller company is not doing so well, moral is low, production has suffered, and profits are rapidly declining.

So, what does the larger corporation do to fix the problem? They tell the employees that they will no longer be able to travel on business trips…which keeps them from direct contact with their customers, which in turn has caused them to lose more business.

The larger corporation will continue to bleed this smaller company dry and then they will shut them down and the company will go out of business.

The reason they can get away with this is that the employees have no other place to go because there are no jobs available. The employees have no choice but to sit back and watch their careers go down the drain while the big corporate honchos pat themselves on the back for making a profit by cutting pay from their employees.

Just looking at the U.S. unemployment numbers doesn’t even come close to how bad it is in the U.S.

Je suis toujours là. C’est vrai qu’il y a un effet post-élection qui m’a laissé quelque peu sans inspiration, après l’engagement vindicatif des années Bush. Un fondement majeure de ma motivation bloguesque quand même… que pouvais-je dire après 4 ans de lutte acharnée ?

Et puis, j’ai du aussi plus m’investir dans mon taf, j’ai ouvert un compte Facebook qui me prend du temps, tout comme mon iPhone tout beau tout neuf, auquel je consacre des pans entiers de lectures des blogs et de forums.

Mais je suis toujours là, prêt à réagir au moindre événement ;-)

J’aurais du mettre “je me permets d’ajouter et de re-préciser” dans mon commentaire.

Jerome, qu’est-ce qui nous vaut le grand plaisir de ton retour? Pendant un moment, Je pensais que ton blog avait inopinement ferme (un peu comme SuperFrenchie)… Anyway, happy to see you back.

A la différence (de taille) que l’on ne retrouve pas de travail facilement, et que les employeurs ne recrutent pas ou moins facilement.

Du coup, la stratégie est donc désormais de tenter systématiquement de dépasser les prévisions. C’est pourquoi elles licencient même lorsqu’elles ont des comptes très profitables.

Ce genre de comportement s’est généralisé et est difficile à défendre, même pour un libéral (au sens français) entrepreneur de mon genre.

Pas aussi abrupte certes, heureusement, mais plus tendancieux. Regarde ce que se passe chez France Telecom, dont la direction veut dégraisser et obtenir des départs volontaires, avec les suicides en série… Ou le reclassement quasi-impossible pour les seniors.

Sur ce dernier point, je dis “quasi” car je ne tombe pas dans le désespoir, mais il faut bien savoir qu’un profil âgé a très très peu de chances sur le marché de l’emploi en France, la faute à une certaine frilosité des recruteurs. A moins de créer sa propre boite, mais tout le monde ne peut pas le faire non plus, c’est mort. Donc un licenciement à cet âge, même avec des mesures d’accompagnement, c’est “brutal”.

Je me suis investi bénévolement l’an dernier dans une structure de reclassement mise en place par l’ex-ANPE et les pouvoirs publics locaux. Je gérai une personne de profil senior, au chômage depuis 5-6 ans, et pour tous les acteurs, donc des professionnels de l’emploi, c’était un cas entendu, sans aucune chance.