Brandon - 11:09pm Mar 2, 2006 (#1 of 7)

This topic relates closely to the "good job" topic. certainly, A good boss must perform well and help the company, as well as encourage and build ties with the employees. I think a slight disparity exists between the way the Americans and French value these qualities. The MIT responses placed a greater emphasis on the productive and successful qualities of an employer, while the Polytechnique placed much value on the role of relationships and the partnership that a boss shares with the employees. Seriously, every boss has his faults, but as for me, I would much rather have an unsuccessful boss who cares than an efficient boss who is very angry.

~~Brandon

Josephine - 02:18am Mar 3, 2006 (#2 of 7)

I agree with Brandon. One response I noticed in the responses from MIT is vacation time. The idea of vacation probably does not even come to mind because in France, from what I know, working people also have a lot of vacation time. Hence, because bosses don't really make decisions about vacation time, the association does not appear in the responses. Am I correct?

BEN - 07:29am Mar 3, 2006 (#3 of 7)

Salut,

Tu as tout à fait raison, Josephine. En terme de vacances, les français sont assez gâtés, et ce grâce au système de 35 heures. Là aussi, les français travaillemnt moins que les autres en terme de durée, il n'empêche que la productivité est parmi les meilleures. Mais le patron maintient une légère marge d'autorités au niveau de la répartition des vacances.

Ceci dit, on voit bien qu'il y a eu une quasi-symétrie entre les deux conceptions. Il y a un seul point de différence (autre que celui des vacances), c'est le fait que, pour nous, un bon patron c'est aussi un bon communicateur. Est-ce que c'est tellement évident chez vous que cela ne ressort pas dans vos réponses?

JinSuk - 08:03am Mar 3, 2006 (#4 of 7)

It has been very interesting to see the differences between the responses here at MIT and X.

One word in particular that struck me was the word challenging. I think that Americans love a challenge and use it in our vocabulary quite often. We want a boss, a teacher, parents and others to challenge us to succeed, surpass the limit, and go beyond what is necessary. This could me at times facing tasks and projects that are unpleasant but get us to the next level. It might entail working over 90 hours a week or physically training until we puke. I am not saying all of us are that hardcore, but it's a concept that I think embodies the American notion of success.

Thanks

Ana - 06:14pm Mar 5, 2006 (#5 of 7)

Salut JinSuk

Je pense que tu touche du doit un des points important. Râler, faire des grèves est une habitude en France, mais ça ne veut pas dire que les personnes sont malheureuses, elles sont juste mecontentes. Dans cette perspective et par des raisonnes historiques la compétition n’est pas toujours encourager, l’égalité étant plus « politically correct ». Il est donc rare d’entendre un français dire qu’il cherche un emploi demandant. En France la passion pour son boulot se manifeste, dans mon opinion, par la qualité du travail et même quand on se plaigne.

JinSuk - 08:34pm Mar 5, 2006 (#6 of 7)

Interesting response!

I was wondering what the French these days thinks about the rest of world especially China and India catching up and surpassing us economically in the near future. These days there is much talk about in the newspapers about the future in India and China might become the next superpowers. Do you think that makes French companies want to work harder and compete? and does it flow down to the employees themselves? Here we are direly afraid of outsourcing. (I actually think it's great though because I study economics, but the people who are losing their jobs aren't)

What's the situation like in France?

Frances - 04:21am Mar 6, 2006 (#7 of 7)

haha...the India and China issue...

I personally seem to go with the viewpoint that we will not have "superpowers" as we have defined them in the past. Rather, we will have the globe section itself as it is already beginning to do, with each of these separate entities becoming blocks of political and economic influence. As far as I understand, however, French reception to the European Union is not as friendly as desired by other nations (please correct me if I'm wrong...the last time I read news on the EU constitution was during the summer). Does France see itself as being able to stand on its own? or do you see an inevitable need to take a highly active role within the EU to maintain a strong and influential French presence?