French politics

[Jim Thompson]

Yep, Japanese manufacturers sure know how to build quality products.
Even my wife's Corolla has a very clean engine compartment.


And for those whom the insurance agent told "Now if you get one more of
these ticket we can no longer..." I've met one at a client. She said
ticket number seven made her de-facto uninsurable (she drove a souped-up
Camaro).

I'm averaging one every 13 years... I'm illusive ;-)

...Jim Thompson

 

[Jeff L]

Yep, Japanese manufacturers sure know how to build quality products.
Even my wife's Corolla has a very clean engine compartment.


http://sense.bc.ca/research.htm



And for those whom the insurance agent told "Now if you get one more of
these ticket we can no longer..." I've met one at a client. She said
ticket number seven made her de-facto uninsurable (she drove a souped-up
Camaro).

Here they start giving demerit points, several at a time - ten points and
your out (you may be able to get a special license to go to and from work).

I had a 3rd generation 6cyl MPFI 5 speed Camaro with T tops, and miss it a
lot. Contrary to popular belief, it could comfortably sit 4, and if you
could possibly resist the temptation to have a lead foot, it got really good
gas mileage (record was just over 800 highway km on almost 60L of gas, but I
could have done better) - much better then the Accord I drive right now. I
could even fit a sheet of plywood cut in half in the hatch. The car would do
0 - 100 kmh in 6 seconds, sometimes 5.5 seconds if conditions were good (I
did tweak the ign timing and fuel injection a bit). Top speed - lets just
say many cars are incapable of going that fast.

Tough as nails to, although I did manage to blow a syncro in the
transmission from really bad abuse, which meant I broke the shift fork
trying to jam it into 2nd gear. This meant 1st gear was also lost a little
while later. It took me two nights to rebuild that and reinstall it. The
syncro was stripped, and the tangs on the shift fork that fit in the gear to
shift it were smashed off!

 

[Jeff L]

If I discovered that a great employee has faked his/her resume, I
wouldn't care at all.

Same here.

 

[John Larkin]

Same here.

I might even admire the quality of the job.

John

 

[Jeff L]

Ouch! I definitely don't want to live there, let alone start a business.

It's not all bad - the reason it's there is so people can't just start
firing people at will. Someone must have abused the system badly years ago.

It just makes it hard to get rid of unproductive/bad employees fast. An easy
way to avoid problems is to hire on contracts. If the employee is no good,
then don't renew the contract. If after several years of working on a
contract basis and are proven good, they get hired on permanently.
Unfortunately a lot of people don't want to work under contract, as they see
it as a tempory job.

Laying people off also has another downside of not getting subsidized wages
(new grads/students (we'll likely use this a bit), people with disabilities
but are very employable for some things, etc), which is a help see below.
This is because people will let the new person go once they are off of the
subsidy, or get rid of someone else, so that someone with a subsidy program
can take their place.

You can lay people off at any time, but there are many negative aspects to
it (as mentioned above and in other posts in this thread), and a lot of
people associate it to the business is not doing well and has a need to
downsize.

Makes me wonder why people in your area don't move their business ideas
to a more entrepreneur-friendly region. Or maybe they already do...

It's actually not too bad for the most part. The really not so friendly
thing here is the huge taxes on just about everything.

[...]

 

[Jeff L]

Close to a year, as I recall. He was a marketing manager, and it's
really hard to tell, at least in any decent time frame, how good they
are doing. The time constants are insane.


Our current marketing guy is a college dropout who started part-time
setting up and fixing pc's. After a couple of years, his hours
gradually increased as we discovered that he has an instinct for
marketing and especially sales; he *loves* to get purchase orders.
Best marketing guy we ever had.

Usually people with an instinct for the job are hard to beat.

I started messing around with electronics when I was 3.

I look on employment just line most human relationships: people make
voluntary deals that are mutually advantageous. And either can walk
away at any time.

Yes, it has to be a win win situation - too many (hopefully only potential)
employees are all about themselves.

Yes. Unions are evil, especially in the electronics biz.

We had one guy talking about unions when there was only I think 2 other
employees! He didn't last long for many reasons.

Where's that?

NS Canada

Same ratio here, roughly. It's hard to find good people anywhere, I
think.

Perhaps that is the case.

We currently been having a bit of luck with reputable recomendations from
current staff.

 

[Eeyore]

One of my rules is never walk under a hoisted load. If I see a construction
crane working I will try to avoid driving or walking under it. Most people
are oblivious.

Very sensible. I avoid that kind of thing too.

Graham

 

[Eeyore]

I worked on one project, in Battery Park City (of 9/11 fame) where,
every afternoon, all the union workers would gather as a group and let
the crane operator make a pass over their heads. They would all then
file to the clock shack where they would register for the pay premium
for working under a crane.

Only in the USA !

Graham

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Same here.

You wouldn't care that they lied to you?


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[John Larkin]

You wouldn't care that they lied to you?

Not really. At the time they fudged the resume, I was "an employer"
and they were somebody who needed a job. Once I discover that they are
a great employee, that fades to trivia. Being a "great employee" would
inherently mean that I trust them by now. And If I keep them on after
learning about the faked cv, they then would know that they can trust
me.

It would sort of bring us closer together.

John

 

[John Larkin]

Only in the USA !

Graham

You don't have unions where you live?

When we refurbed our building, we use an Iranian contracting company
who used all Mexican labor. They did excellent work with no hassles.

John

 

[Joerg]

I'm averaging one every 13 years... I'm illusive ;-)

Probably because you don't drive a "highway patrol magnet", a.k.a. a red
Corvette, Camaro or Porsche ;-)

 

[Jim Thompson]

Probably because you don't drive a "highway patrol magnet", a.k.a. a red
Corvette, Camaro or Porsche ;-)

"Slate Blue" Q45.

The one I got this year WAS in a RED G35. I was doing ~100 in a 55
zone, but I was polite with the cop and he wrote me up for 79 to keep
it from being felony speed.

...Jim Thompson

 

[Joerg]

it in


that feature > AIUI.


and Lancia). It was


Italian cars though.


contender being the


Interesting...



Here they start giving demerit points, several at a time - ten points and
your out (you may be able to get a special license to go to and from work).

That's how it works in Germany, a point system. They call it "traffic
sinners database" or the "Flensburg file" because that's the town where
it is located.

I had a 3rd generation 6cyl MPFI 5 speed Camaro with T tops, and miss it a
lot. Contrary to popular belief, it could comfortably sit 4, and if you
could possibly resist the temptation to have a lead foot, it got really good
gas mileage (record was just over 800 highway km on almost 60L of gas, but I
could have done better) - much better then the Accord I drive right now. I
could even fit a sheet of plywood cut in half in the hatch. The car would do
0 - 100 kmh in 6 seconds, sometimes 5.5 seconds if conditions were good (I
did tweak the ign timing and fuel injection a bit). Top speed - lets just
say many cars are incapable of going that fast.

Tough as nails to, although I did manage to blow a syncro in the
transmission from really bad abuse, which meant I broke the shift fork
trying to jam it into 2nd gear. This meant 1st gear was also lost a little
while later. It took me two nights to rebuild that and reinstall it. The
syncro was stripped, and the tangs on the shift fork that fit in the gear to
shift it were smashed off!

Ain't it fun to repair a transmission? Done it myself with a friend
after his car's reverse gear lost a tooth, back in college. We had to
hand-carry the whole gearbox across the German-Dutch border (!). While
at it we managed to deplete a crate of Grolsch beer pretty good.
Afterwards a couple parts were still on the table. Hmm... But: It worked
flawlessly and now down-shifting from 3 to 2 worked with ease. It never
did with that Opel/Vauxhall before. So we had improved and cost reduced
it but didn't remember how ;-)

 

[Jim Thompson]

Jim Thompson wrote:
[snip]

I like my Q45


Yep, Japanese manufacturers sure know how to build quality products.
Even my wife's Corolla has a very clean engine compartment.


I just don't know why people buy expensive 900 Turbos when the speed
limit is 65mph in most places.


Speed limits are for pansies

http://sense.bc.ca/research.htm

Interesting...

[snip]

I find that 15-25MPH over the limit is very comfortable for the road.

Sometimes you can even double up... the elevated curved ramp from
Pecos Road to I10W is marked as 45MPH... I don't even lean at 90MPH.

...Jim Thompson

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

Not really. At the time they fudged the resume, I was "an employer"
and they were somebody who needed a job. Once I discover that they are
a great employee, that fades to trivia. Being a "great employee" would
inherently mean that I trust them by now. And If I keep them on after
learning about the faked cv, they then would know that they can trust
me.

It would sort of bring us closer together.

John

Sometimes excessive honesty can get in the way of things.

www.speff.com/bkunicorna.jpg



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

 

[Joerg]

You don't have unions where you live?

In the UK? Back in highschool our economy teacher used their situation
as the perfect example of the level of absurdity it can reach: As in
most other countries locomotives were migrating from steam to electric
and Diesel. That meant that there was no longer a job for boilermen.
After all, if there is no boiler then you don't need a boilerman. Pretty
logical, ain't it? Not so for the union. According to what we learned
back then the union demanded that a boilerman had to be riding along on
every Diesel and electric locomotive. AFAIR this became standard
operating procedure.

 

[Joerg]

Jeff L wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:

[snip]

I like my Q45


Yep, Japanese manufacturers sure know how to build quality products.
Even my wife's Corolla has a very clean engine compartment.



I just don't know why people buy expensive 900 Turbos when the speed
limit is 65mph in most places.


Speed limits are for pansies



http://sense.bc.ca/research.htm

Interesting...

[snip]

I find that 15-25MPH over the limit is very comfortable for the road.

Sometimes you can even double up... the elevated curved ramp from
Pecos Road to I10W is marked as 45MPH... I don't even lean at 90MPH.

That's unusual. Typically the recommended curve speeds in the US are
quite realistic numbers, less conservative than in other countries.

 

[krw]

In the UK? Back in highschool our economy teacher used their situation
as the perfect example of the level of absurdity it can reach: As in
most other countries locomotives were migrating from steam to electric
and Diesel. That meant that there was no longer a job for boilermen.
After all, if there is no boiler then you don't need a boilerman. Pretty
logical, ain't it? Not so for the union. According to what we learned
back then the union demanded that a boilerman had to be riding along on
every Diesel and electric locomotive. AFAIR this became standard
operating procedure.
That happened in the US too.

 

[martin griffith]

We're doing fine here.

Graham

so it says here, taking a broader view.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/28/17/36396820.xls


martin