Trading Places 1983 - Laurence J Peter - Gary Hamel - Barbara Ehrenreich - Aravind Adiga - The Office US TV - Robert Tressell - John L Lewis - Trailer Park Boys 2001-2018 -
Mortimer: We seem to be paying some of our employees an awful lot of money.
Winthorpe: You can’t get around the minimum wage, Mortimer. Trading Places 1983 starring Dan Aykroyd & Eddie Murphy & Ralph Bellamy & Don Ameche & Denholm Elliott & Jamie Lee Curtis & Kristin Holby & Paul Gleason & Robert Curtis-Brown & James Belushi & Kelly Curtis & Frank Oz & Bo Diddley , director John Landis
In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence. Laurence J Peter, The Peter Principle, 1969
The real damper on employee engagement is the soggy, cold blanket of centralized authority. In most companies, power cascades downwards from the CEO. Not only are employees disenfranchised from most policy decisions, they lack even the power to rebel against egocentric and tyrannical supervisors. Gary Hamel
An employee who’s one of hundreds, rather than one of a few, is unlikely to feel personally responsible for helping the organization adapt and change. Gary Hamel
Employers have gone away from the idea that an employee is a long-term asset to the company, someone to be nurtured and developed, to a new notion that they are disposable. Barbara Ehrenreich
I don’t treat them like servants – I don’t slap, or bully, or mock anyone. I don’t insult any of them by calling them my ‘family’, either. They’re my employees, I’m their boss, that’s all. I make them sign a contract and I sign it too, and both of us must honour that contract. That’s all. If they notice the way I talk, the way I dress, the way I keep things clean, they’ll go up in life. If they don’t, they’ll be drivers all their lives. I leave the choice up to them. When the work is done I kick them out of the office: no chitchat, no cups of coffee. A White Tiger keeps no friends. It’s too dangerous. Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger p302
Hazing is a fun way to show a new employee that she is not welcome or liked. The Office US s4e18: Goodbye Toby I, Dwight, NBC 2008
I just don’t want my employees thinking that their jobs depend on performance. What sort of place is that to call home? The Office US s5e3: Business Ethics, Michael to Holly
8Employee of the Month. Every awesome place I’ve worked had one: Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, my summer at Enron. The Office US s6e12: Scott’s Tots, Michael to Jim
He employed a great number of girls and young women who were supposed to be learning dressmaking, mantle-making or millinery. These were all indentured apprentices, some of whom had paid premiums of from five to ten pounds. They were ‘bound’ for three years. For the first two they received no wages: the third year they got a shilling or eighteenpence a week. At the end of the third year they usually got the sack, unless they were willing to stay on as improvers at from three shillings to four and sixpence per week.
They worked from half-past eight in the morning till eight at night, with an interval of an hour for dinner, and at half-past four they ceased work for fifteen minutes for tea. This was provided by the firm – half a pint for each girl, but they had to bring their own milk and sugar and bread and butter.
Few of these girls ever learned their trades properly. Robert Tressell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
If there is to be peace in our industrial life let the employer recognize his obligation to his employees – at least to the degree set forth in existing statutes. John L Lewis
This seems like an honest gig. Trailer Park Boys s7e2: I Banged Lucy & Knocked Her Up … No Big Deal, Lucy working for J-Roc