Trouble in Paris

I’ve been reading about these riots in Paris, and the rest of France, and the reason behind them.

Evidently, there is a proposed law that will make it so basically employers can “fire at will” any employee 26 or younger.

Imagine, getting out of college at 21, and then having to deal with 5 years of uncertainty that you could be fired at any moment during the first 5 years of your professional life. Imagine, being 18, and not going to college, but instead working a dignified job in some sort of service industry, and dealing with the uncertainty that you could be fired at any moment during the first 8 years of your professional life. That makes it very hard to plan for your future, not to mention just to plan for a week ahead.

History shows that a company really doesn’t give a shit about its employees. They are disposable and are only a tool to be used by those in power, and the shareholders, to make them money. An employer doesn’t care if you have bills to pay. They don’t care that you have a family. To them, you are a number in a large accounting spreadsheet that equates to a cost justification to keep you around. If this wasn’t the case, employers wouldn’t make stupid management mistakes that can’t possibly affect them and their lifestyle. Their mistakes always affect the little guy, the employee. When things get rough, people get fired. It doesn’t matter that it’s not their fault that things are rough.

The French youth have every right to be concerned, and I would be to. If they can fire you they will.

It will be interesting to see how this goes.

-O