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Italian business etiquette:
'One former employee of Telecom Italia describes how, on his first
day at the company, he was told that if he wanted to speak to someone
at the same level in the organisation he should get his secretary to
call the other person's secretary; but to speak to someone more senior
he should call that person's secretary direct.
'Some senior managers did not use e-mail; their secretaries would print
out any important ones for them.'
Blue-colour workers:
'Sergio Marchionne, the Italian-Canadian boss of Fiat and Chrysler,
describes a visit to Mirafiori, a factory in Turin, to speak to the
workers about changes in their contracts.
'At the time about 1 in 3 employees in the company's Italian plants was
absent every day for one reason or another. He was met by thousands of
red flags, there was talk about class struggle and analogies were
being drawn with the fight against fascism in the late 1940s.'
Berlusconi's fanbase:
'Despite all his trials for bribery and fraud, as well as the one
currently in progress for paying an underage prostitute for sex, about
30% of Italy's electorate still support him.
'They are disproportionately old and female and live in small towns,
according to Nando Pagnoncelli of Ipsos MORI, a polling
company. They watch a lot of television but do not read
newspapers. Many of them do not believe there is any truth in the
accusations against the prime minister.'
Academia:
'Raccomandazioni
are everywhere. Roberto Perotti of Bocconi University, which is private,
has been studying this phenomenon and has so far identified 33 cases
where the rectors and presidents of public universities have installed
their children, children-in-law and spouses as professors in their
universities.
'Plenty of degree courses have sprung up that seem designed merely to
create tenured positions; the ministry of education cites courses on the
well-being of dogs and cats and on packaging as examples.
'Applicants for professorships take part in public competitions for
jobs that are neither public nor competitive but designed to lend
credibility to decisions that have already been made.
'Mr Perotti studied 40 such national competitions and found that 70%
of the jobs were filled by people who were at least associate
professors at the university advertising the job. When outsiders do
get jobs, it is often because a deal has been done with another
university, on the understanding that the favour will be returned in
the future.'
(From The Economist, June 11, 2011.)
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Connections (often through families), that rule the labour market.
Tags: quote, italy
Authors: ag