workers

All rise and sing a song of praise to your employer

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Look, I worked for the BBC and we didn’t sing about it. We came close: we were so enthralled by the idea and the ideal of the corporation that we took lower pay and kept higher hopes, but still, there are limits. We used to get very, very sarcastic about the motivational signs around the offices. I can’t imagine how we would’ve reacted to having to sing songs about the Beeb.

But I’d like to. I’d like to imagine it. I’d like to have seen what we made of being asked to sing lyrics like this:

Thomas Watson is our inspiration,
Head and soul of our splendid I.B.M.
We are pledged to him in every nation,
Our President and most beloved man.
His wisdom has guided each division
In service to all humanity
We have grown and broadened with his vision,
None can match him or our great company.
T. J. Watson, we all honor you,
You’re so big and so square and so true,
We will follow and serve with you forever,
All the world must know what I. B. M. can do.

—from “To Thos. J. Watson, President, I.B.M. Our Inspiration”

Altogether now.

That’s from a book called Songs of the IBM – and if the phrase “the IBM” doesn’t pin this down to a certain time for you, I will. It’s 1937. ‘Square’ was a compliment and workers were willing to compliment their bosses in 4/4 time.

Go take a look at Ars Technica’s coverage of this historical gem. No, don’t look, take a gawp.

Germany looking at banning work emails after office hours

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That would be similar to the moves in France where workers could carry on getting all the emails they liked but managers should get a rest.

The following quote comes via Google Translate so I’m sorry for its quality but it is at least a thousand times better than I would’ve managed with a dictionary. This is Germany’s labour minister Andrea Nahles responding to a question this week about whether employees could be protected from emails while on holiday:

Yes. That is my goal. I have made sure that the test of an anti-stress regulation comes into the coalition agreement. There is an undeniable relationship between availability and duration of the increase of mental illness, now the have also recognized the employer. We have to also scientific evidence. Nevertheless, it is a challenge to implement this law quite sure. Therefore, we have the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health commissioned work up sound, whether and how it is possible to set load thresholds. We need universal and legally binding criteria before we prescribe the establishments something. 2015 to present first results.

RP Online translated to English by Google

Good luck with that. But if France is going this way and Germany’s looking at it, you can bet it’s going to come up in the UK. I don’t think it’ll be the deciding issue in the next general election, but stranger things have been.