Vieux amis

This is an old colleague of mine who lives in Paris and works for Michelin. Gregoire is a lovely chap and we used to have some great fun at our last company and have stayed in contact via Facebook ever since he left for pastures new. It was so nice to catch up on things and hear how different France was compared to the UK job wise.

His new company really does promote the importance of keeping their employees happy and ensuring they know how to respect each other while undertaking their work. He said it was an important part of their ethos. Gregoire added it was similar in the French office of his former company, it was a really good place to work.

My thoughts... Sometimes I wonder how the same company can be so different between respective countries. It is difficult to understand how this can happen, I can only put it down to the people and culture, not the company, but I suppose it can be all three. I think some people are stronger and kinder than others, they have the strength of character and believe that treating people in the right manner is the best way to ensure that a company is successful, no matter how much pressure is put upon them. Let's face it, it comes down to common sense, employees perform better at work when they are happy and the happier they are, the more successful the company is. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that!

If you think about it, when you have decent people to run a company, no matter how hard it is to implement a negative decision, it will always go down better and be understood much more easily if compassion and honesty is used. And, who knows, the problem may even be resolved with that honesty, as in my opinion, most people want to be successful and want to contribute to the success of a team or a company in which they work. That is something which cuts across many aspects of life.

So why do some misguided people think its ok to treat people like rubbish because they have something negative to say. Why do they scheme and lie behind their backs and pretend to be nice one minute and dish them the next. Why can’t they just try and understand why this person is this and this person is that?

I can only put it down to the fact they are uncaring idiots that feel the world is a place where they can treat people like rubbish for their own gains. But if you believe in Karma, you can smugly say that one day it will catch up on those types of people.

For some I have in mind, that day can’t come soon enough.

It was great to see my old friend again.