I work for a multi-national company and is already considered very privileged at my 350 EU monthly salary. Let me share the working conditions in my country:

- Most of the women are working either here or abroad. Men are also working but most of them stay home to look after the children. (This used to be other other way around but turns out women workers are favored more).

- We only have an hour for lunch break – which means eating at your desk while working – and 15 mins. morning and afternoon breaks.

- People get paid depending on their type of work though this doesn’t necessarily mean that women are paid less/more than men.

- If you are paid overtime here in the Philippines then most likely you are a non-exempt employee and you earn less than those who are not paid overtime.

- People who are paid high have bigger responsibilities but get to leave work on time. They say, it’s just a matter of delegating tasks.

- Surfing the web for non-business related content is a violation of company policy and would often times result to dismissal

*which reminds me, I need to get back to work*

iHasta Luego!

It seems that the Spanish government objective in economic terms include for the next tenure to surpass France and Germany.

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/01/14/espana/1200273258.html

http://www.elperiodicodearagon.com/noticias/noticia.asp?pkid=277205

As for all the commercial crap that goes with it Greg Lake summed it up:

… They sold me a dream of Christmas,
They sold me a Silent Night…

….I believed in Father Christmas
And I looked at the sky with excited eyes
‘Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise….

… Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell
The Christmas you get you deserve.

“What I say is that working in Spain can be good or bad, or just ok. In terms of GDP per capita, and according to the International Monetary Fund, Spain is at the same level of countries like Italy and Japan. And very close (and closing the gap) with Germany and France”

AMEN to this, it couldn’t be said in a better way….

ValenciaSon, I can take criticism, but the question is, can you?

I’m not antiamerican, or pro-american for that matter, I’m anti-nothing and basically pro-me (yes, I’m selfish, nodody is perfect). And I don’t believe the Spaniards are by default anti-american.

I think we should not compare the USA and Spain, the USA are not a model for Spain, for many reasons.. This doesn’t mean that I think there’s anything wrong with America, it is just….the two countries are very different. : Maybe you are confusing not being a USA enthusiast with being Anti-American? I think each country has to find its own way to success. We can all learn form what others have done right. America has done a lot of things very right, but that doesn’t mean that we should be american-clones.

I’m sorry if I was a little too harsh to you, but honestly, vey often you come across as Franco-obsessed and a bit pesimistic about everything Spanish. I’m sure you didn’t know many of the of the things about the Spanish economy commented here. Furthermore, I bet you find them hard to believe. I’m just guessing, but, that’s my impression. I suppose you are right when you say Spain, the Spanish products and the Spanish companies are alomost irrelevant in the USA. But there are places where the brand “Spain” is getting recognition, and that’s what I wanted you to understand.

Let’s take Zara, one of the world biggest fashion retailers, as an example. Are they widely known in the USA? Probably not. Are they widely known in the UK, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Mexico, etc,etc,etc,ets? Yes.
So….

I’m an optimistic, I can’t help it. And I hate that “pesimismo iberico”, that lack of self-esteem, so typical Spanish in the past. I really hate it. It’s very negative.

Yes, there’s room for improvement, but I think Spain is going in the right direction.

I could be wrong, but I prefer to believe I’m not.

Salu2.

@Valenciason : Come visit Spain, is just a short trip from where you live!!. And then come back again. You know you’ll love it, you’ll see with your own eyes a country that is not black & white anymore.

@Jonk : I was comparing Spain with Italy because we were talking about Spain’s suppousedly inability to market its products, and you have to agree that Italians are true masters in the fine art of selling. Anyway, Spain just made the news for surpassing Italy in purchasing power and Gross Domestic Product per capita. So if Spanish companies don’t know how to sell and are so bad, maybe we are doing other things not so bad.

Some more insight about Spanish companies : Since people are generalizing and making one piece of example the norm as a whole, I’m going to give another piece of example of Spanish companies Vs. companies abroad.

I work in Spain for a Spanish bank. One of the biggest retail banks both in Spain and Europe, with presence in over 40 countries. Few years ago (about 4 years ago), the bank I work in, purchased the majority of the shares of one of Britain’s top 5 banks, at that time that was the biggest transnational coporate adquisition in the banking industry in the world (or maybe it was only the biggest in Euroland, I don’t remember). That British bank had undergone serious losses in the last few years prior to the Spanish takeover, but still was (and is) one of the biggest of that country in number of clients, turnover and employees. As of today, only four years under Spanish management it is one of Britain’s most profitable companies in the industry. When the Spanish shareholders bought the British bank thought that despite of recent losses the investment had great potential because a number of reasons which I’ll try to briefly explain :

-> The average branch in that British bank had no less that 30 employees. Most of them working in back-office routines.
-> The average branch in the Spanish bank has about 3-6 employees. All of them working towards clients and potential clients.
-> Despite this difference in personnel size, the average Spanish branch yielded bigger turnover (not to mention profits).
-> The working mentality in the British bank was completely passive. Everyone sitting in their desks waiting for a client to come to the bank only attending to their specific demmands without having the ability to cross-sale or turn all situations into business opportunities.
-> The technology platform in the British bank was obsolete and had to be removed, because it didn’t allow for easy tasks such as client segmentation, profit measure, etc…
-> Etc, etc, etc…

I imagine that from an English point of view this looks like the other way around, but its not. Spanish companies are very dynamic abroad. In banking, in telecommunication, in the media industry, in construction and engineering, etc. etc. etc.

For instance, very recently (this year 2007) a huge transnational takeover ocurred in the european banking industry (bigger than the one I mentioned before, the biggest ever bank takeover in history). A consortium leaded by the same Spanish bank and a very big Scottish bank bought 86% of the shares of Hollands top bank, one of the 20 biggest in the world.
What I say is that working in Spain can be good or bad, or just ok. In terms of GDP per capita, and according to the International Monetary Fund, Spain is at the same level of countries like Italy and Japan. And very close (and closing the gap) with Germany and France.