After the first paragraph I was already thinking "Wow, I don't want to work for E760 per month, that's basically on the poverty line!"... then I checked where the guy was from; Hungary is a backwater, and absolutely NOT representative of the EU, probably not even of the old eastern bloc.
Three-years maternity leave? That's unheard of in western Europe, most countries allow for less than a year (my wife got 6 months in the UK); men only recently started to enjoy some rights in that sense (in the UK it's two weeks).
He talks about a post-50 "protected age" where you can't fire people. That doesn't exist in the UK, where we have the opposite problem (firms firing people near pension age, and then hiring youngsters at 1/3rd of salary). I know in other countries laws are tighter (in Italy it's fairly hard to fire people, for example), but as people say over there, "Facta lex inventa fraus" (as soon as a law is written, a way around it will be found"): in countries with rigid laws, firms now hire almost exclusively on a temporary basis, i.e. they hire people as contractors for years or even decades, abusing the relationship.
The high taxes and pension contributions are also a factor in Italy and in France, but not elsewhere.
What this post is representative of, is the general douchebaggery of European "entrepreneurs"; they usually come from "old money" (banks are very conservative with their lending, favouring entrenched players) and bring a terrible mindset to the workplace, i.e. "screw the employees, they're just idiots anyway". This obviously doesn't motivate workers, keeping productivity low.
Arhh yes, the open source VPN software that LogMeIn decided to buy that they essentially broke the app with a software update to then force everyone to pay (I don't have the exact figure) something like $200+ a year to use.
Hungary is a backwater, and absolutely NOT representative of the EU, probably not even of the old eastern bloc.
Unfortunately, it is. For example, the median salary in the Czech republic (the western-most "eastern Europe" country, also in the EU) in 2011 was around 630 Euro (net), which is about $10k per year (net).
I also cheer for the lofty let's-share-the-social-burden ideals that people present in this thread. But I fear these folks are just blissfully oblivious of how their money is redistributed and where it really ends.
> Three-years maternity leave? That's unheard of in western Europe, most countries allow for less than a year (my wife got 6 months in the UK);
9 months is the "baseline" maternity leave in Finland. My sister had a baby and ended up being away from work for almost two years. She just started working again this week, and the same company was legally obligated to take her back.
If you have someone gone for a year in a small company, that's a huge problem. It's not that they're remote for the year, they're gone. They don't know the new staff, work, projects, etc.
One of the favorite words around here is "pivot" and ponder how a company can pivot successfully with some of these considerations. Sometimes a pivot will completely change a product, business model, industry, etc and the company has to hire or layoff people accordingly.
It sucks by all measures (I've been on the wrong end of that), but ponder how much more difficult that gets when some of your staff is untouchable.
Even if it's not a problem, it changes your mindset and gives you yet another thing to worry about.
Not all the ex-socialist block have 3 years maternity leave. Here in Bulgaria it is 9 months and it is payed by the state (from social security fund).
Also the taxes are a lot lower. You have medical insurance (cost of having non-payed health care system: 8%) + social insurance (pension, unemployment compensation, maternity leave: 22%). This insurances are calculated on base up to 1000 euro - so your insurance taxes are max 30% of 1000 euro even if you get more than this level. Over the rest of the money you have 20% flat state tax. On every purchase you have 20% VAT.
Being an entrepreneur is like that: high risk, high stakes, high stress, (hopefully) high rewards. That's how it works. If you want to reduce risk/stress, then you would have to accept less rewards. No employer will ever accept that, so i don't see why workers should accept to suffer in order to make his life easier.
As an entrepreneur, it doesn't make sense to accept no profitability though, and that's what the original article was all about. Trying to maintain profitability in the face of all the obstacles he mentioned.
Yes this is the same sort of individual in the UK that pops up from the CBI crying wolf when ever anything changes in employment law - claiming that its hard to fire people.
Actually its not, employers always have the whip hand - what they are complaining abotu is that its harder to act in grossly bad ways in the UK.
I'm an entrepreneur from the UK living in NYC on an E-2 investor visa. The key factor in employing people in NYC is the 'at-will' employment : Just as I only have to give people one day's notice, so they are only obliged to give me the same. The reduced 'friction' in the system means that I can grow a company much more quickly - and not have a trailing obligation if an employee doesn't work out. This is a huge benefit compared to the UK. You may point out that this gives me incredible power over my employees : But it works both ways - somehow wages for those employees are higher than they would be in the UK...
As for maternity leave, the same issue exists in the USA, to the extent that any firing of an employee has to be non-discriminatory. As for health-care : That's a very expensive nightmare in the USA, and it would be far more efficient IMHO for it to be wrapped into a % tax levy, rather than flat monthly rates (but that's a rather political statement in the US).
Three-years maternity leave? That's unheard of in western Europe, most countries allow for less than a year (my wife got 6 months in the UK); men only recently started to enjoy some rights in that sense (in the UK it's two weeks).
He talks about a post-50 "protected age" where you can't fire people. That doesn't exist in the UK, where we have the opposite problem (firms firing people near pension age, and then hiring youngsters at 1/3rd of salary). I know in other countries laws are tighter (in Italy it's fairly hard to fire people, for example), but as people say over there, "Facta lex inventa fraus" (as soon as a law is written, a way around it will be found"): in countries with rigid laws, firms now hire almost exclusively on a temporary basis, i.e. they hire people as contractors for years or even decades, abusing the relationship.
The high taxes and pension contributions are also a factor in Italy and in France, but not elsewhere.
What this post is representative of, is the general douchebaggery of European "entrepreneurs"; they usually come from "old money" (banks are very conservative with their lending, favouring entrenched players) and bring a terrible mindset to the workplace, i.e. "screw the employees, they're just idiots anyway". This obviously doesn't motivate workers, keeping productivity low.