There is a rather bizarre lawsuit in France that is likely to reaffirm the view of many that the French labor force is noncompetitive due to long-standing expectations of employees about mandatory work conditions, vacations, and protections. Frederic Desnard wants 360,000 euros (£300,000) under a claim of a “bore out” or boredom’s equivalent of burnout.
Desnard says that he is being “killed professionally through boredom” by his 80,000-euro-a-year job. He is an executive in a perfume business. Frankly, as the grandson of a coal miner on my Italian side and a cooper on my Irish side, I find the notion of a protected right to be engaged and excited by work to be rather precious. We should all strive for such fulfillment and you can quit to secure more engaging employment. However, to sue your employer because you are bored is rather presumptuous in my view. Many people are struggling to find employment today and only dream of a job with this type of compensation.
Yet, experts say that bored employees represent a serious health crisis and one expert,Dr Sandi Mann (referred to as a “Boredom expert” in these articles),says that workers likely die earlier to the boring conditions.
I do not question the health impact of such work, but I cannot imagine a legal basis for such a claim — or a way to rationally distinguish between jobs that are mildly engaging and jobs that are legally boring.
What do you think?
Squeek,
Dein Gedicht ist nicht schlecht – your poem is not bad! =) I rap Deutsch like a native – 19 years of my life spent around Stuttgart.
@DarrenS
I did not know that Kubrick did Barry Lyndon! But you are right, the painting looks like it came from scouting for that. Plus, it reminds me of those British landscapes. My favorite Kubrick movies are Clockwork Orange, and Dr. Strangelove. FWIW, “hare-lipping” is a real Texan phrase! As in, “I don’t care if it harelips everybody on Bear Creek!”
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@Autumn
I am glad you liked it! Maybe a guitar-playing Bernie supporter will put it on youtube!
And you speak German??? What a coincidence, because one of my other personnas is trolling the neo-Nazi Twitter CEO who banned Milo Yianoppoulous after he gave Ghostbusters a bad review! My BFF, Penelope Dreadful, baited me into it trying to #freemilo! I don’t speak German either, so it is easy to pigdin it. But I did write one poem in German! But beware! I used some pretty strong language!
Hot bläst die Luft
Von Milos Mund,
Meine Britische Gör,
Verpissen und sterben!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@Brooklin Bridge
I am hoping for Frexit – if they get their franc back maybe I can afford to visit again.
@Nick
France seems to be like green olives – people either love or hate them. Germans having a saying “so wie Gott im Frankreich leben” – that it is heaven to live in France. I agree =)
@bettykath
Unfortunately I am not linguistically gifted. I am fluent in English and German only. I have studied French and can read it pretty well, but have trouble understanding and speaking it. Maybe if I lived there I could pick it up?
also, just when I think that the DNC can’t get any lower in the sewer there are yet more revelations. Given that his was posted by Alex Jones, prone to conspiracy theories I contacted my friend Will (LTMB) for verification. Yep, it’s true!
http://www.infowars.com/bernie-delegate-dnc-is-replacing-sanders-supporters-with-paid-seat-fillers-to-create-fake-unity/
Squeek,
Yet again you totally amaze me! Such talent. I have shared your song with all of my friends. Bernie/Jill bots love it. Predicatably the Hilbots find it “childish” Nothing to be done for them.
Everybody wants to pick on the French…. Yet people continue to flock there for vacations and to buy villas in the country. In WWII, Hitler ordered his commander in Paris to blow the place up as the Allies approached, but he wouldn’t do it – too great a treasure. The French generally have the month of August off as vacation. Their wines aren’t too bad, either.
So despite all the slams about France, I think they must know something that we don’t.
If only this guy had a doll that peed on him……..
Squeeky,
One of Christiane Kubrick’s paintings caught my eye and I found it to be intriguing.
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0150/1058/products/Rehearsals_in_RainRehearsals_in_RainRehearsals_in_RainRehearsals_in_RainRehearsals_in_RainRehearsals_in_RainRehearsals_in_RainRehearsals_in_RainRehearsals_in_Rain_1024x1024.jpg
Click on the image for a larger format.
The painting is titled “Rehearsals in the Rain”. I haven’t read any artist’s notes on this one but the impression I have is that it depicts her late husband, Stanley Kubrick, and possibly (speculating) one of the cast of his film Barry Lyndon. (perhaps Ryan O’Neill.)
If it was of Barry Lyndon one of the aspects that was truly remarkable of the film is that Stanley Kubrick framed many of the outdoor shots to depict splendid renditions of outdoor settings in such a way to be reminiscent of landscapes contemporaneous to that era. If you’ve seen works by 18th century English landscape artists you can note how this effect merges with the art.
In Mrs. Kubrick’s painting I am reminded of this similarity. Moreover, in understanding Stanley Kubrick’s drive and focus to achieve exactly what he wanted in his films, something as ephemeral as rain would not interrupt him from work. Thus, it is unsurprising that he would hold rehearsal in the rain.
The SUV on the road of the painting reminded me of an interview I watched where Stanley and some others were scoping out areas for some shots. He became so distracted and focused on pointing to the others of where he would like a camera shot that he actually drove off the roadway and rolled the SUV on its side in a ditch. Undaunted, he stepped out and climbed atop the rolled over SUV and continued with describing his vision to his friends.
So for me at least, Rehearsals in the Rain offered an opportunity to reflect on both Stanley’s filmmaking and Christiane’s art.
There were also other convergences between both of their respective artistic talents in at least two of his films. Many of Christiane’s paintings can be seen in his last film “Eyes wide shut” In fact, the two met during the filming of Paths of Glory where Christiane was an actress.
I should have said, ” To conform to that pressure, Hollande had to cram through legislation, which more than 70% of the country is AGAINST, broad siding labor laws by a totally non democratic end run around the French Parliament and any form of Democratic (representative) process or public discussion or input.”
I made it unclear that over 70% of the French population is against reduction in labor rights which is why the French President would never be able to pass such legislation by normal democratic procedure. http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2016-05-10/french-government-uses-special-power-to-pass-labor-reform
Why do you think ISIS is picking on France. They’re lazy, stupid, and weak. Plus, they are mean. 6% of the French population are Muslim but they constitute over 60% of the prison population.
Does this mean that because a school suspends a five year old who forms a gun with his hand and fingers, that all school discipline everywhere is bad?
The French have fought long and hard for what should be considered basic worker rights in the face of rapacious corporate juggernauts that use “competitiveness” endlessly as the excuse/fulcrum to chip away at and ultimately eviscerate labor’s right to defend itself. The increasingly transparant goal seems to be to re-introduce slavery packaged in an economic form. In this case, the real culprit is Belgium and a bunch of nameless, faceless, non elected bureaucrats that are marching to the neo liberal orders of European industry and finance to whittle away at France’s strong labor protection laws. To conform to that pressure, Hollande had to cram through legislation broad siding labor laws (which more than 70% of the country is AGAINST) by a totally non democratic end run around the French Parliament and any form of Democratic (representative) process or public discussion or input.
Confusing a frivolous law-suit with the substance of human rights (in the form of labor protections) is of the same mindless caliber as swallowing the head fake of “The Russians Are Coming” and blindly allowing it to obscure the real story of the recently hacked emails regardless of who hacked them; namely, hard proof of massive corruption in the DNC.
Autumn, You didn’t forget the language because you learned it at 3. You forgot it because you haven’t been using it. If you immersed in French, what you learned at 3 would probably come back quickly. Of course, the grammar and vocabulary of a 3 year old isn’t the same as that of an adult but it would be a start.
I read, some time ago, a similar article regarding someone suing for being bored in France. As it turned out the person had some sort of job security and could not be fired. So, the company gave them next to nothing to do, nothing but mundane jobs that were a conflict with the worker’s abilities and desires for accomplishment, in order to force him to quit.
Regarding frivolous lawsuits, we live in the land of frivolous lawsuits. This one paints the worker as someone admirable if he is indeed fighting for his right to be instrumental in the company.
@Autumn
OK, I finished the song! I sang it several times with the karaoke youtube video to make sure it was singable. And it was. First the lyrics:
The Night They Drove Old Bernie Down
A Parody Song by Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
(To The Tune of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down)
Welded auto fenders, at a Ford plant in Ohio,
Til NAFTA came along, and they moved it to Mexico.
Got a job, at the Wal Mart Store,
Part time work, and nothing more;
Paying rent means a Cash Advance,
For a while there, I thought we had a chance. . .
The Night, they drove Old Bernie down!
And all the people were crying!
The Night, they drove Old Bernie down!
They wanna keep us from trying—
We say, No! No, No, No, No, No! No, No, No, No! No, No! No No!
Coded those computers, in a Valley of Silicon. . .
Til my replacement came, from some place in Pakistan.
They cut my cost, down to the bone,
‘Cause he ain’t paying on a student loan.
All I got was a song and dance,
For a while there, I thought we had a chance. . .
The Night, they drove Old Bernie down!
And all the people were crying!
The Night, they drove Old Bernie down!
They wanna keep us from trying—
We say, No! No, No, No, No, No! No No No No! No, No! No, No!
Been waiting on tables, since the summer of sixty five,
Social security, ain’t enough to keep me alive.
Eight hundred bucks, is how much cash,
For fifty years, of slinging hash.
Work til they call the ambulance,
For a while there, I thought we had a chance. . .
The Night, they drove Old Bernie down!
And all the people were crying!
The Night, they drove Old Bernie down!
They wanna keep us from trying—
We say, No! No, No, No, No, No! No No No No! No, No! No, No!
And here is the video so you can sing along!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jdbgCqCjP0
I will add the guitar chords to the lyrics and put it up later, but now it is time for me to grab 30 or 40 winks. I might just be delirious, but it seems to be a decent enough protest song. If you want to send it to some Greens or Bernie people, please feel free! Gratis!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
He”s a Frog , he’s a Frog.
He’s a Frog all the wtay.
From his first minerette
To his last dying day.
@Autumn and Darren
I will try to photograph some of my purchases and put them up here. I actually have an original Trina! (Bragging!) Here is A Munch Madonna, not mine, but it will give you an idea:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ff/ed/e1/ffede155a273416b57b1d00478d9d9ef.jpg
Plus, I have finished The Night They Drove Old Bernie down. It ended up being more serious, and I am getting the chords now to practice scanning the word-choice and see how it plays. I just drank me some coffee and stayed at it. Let me know if you are still awake and I will post the draft:
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@darren
Art is always subjective — different people respond — or don’t respond to various works. I am an artist – I like to call myself a “submerged artist” in comparison to newly emerging or established artists =) Recently my 9 year nephew came to stay with us and when he entered our apartment which is literally filled with my compositions he turned to my husband with horror and said ” how could you have let her do this”? I got a big kick out of his very honest unfiltered reaction.
I really like the Kubrick painting. As far as Antico’s work – I prefer her nocturnes. But again, it’s what moves YOU!
I think it’s wonderful that you are buying original art!