Memo to French on Job Security: N'est Existe Pas
My Letters to the editors for Time Magazine, Chicago Tribune and International Herald Tribune. Some said it was bold to write from Paris. To me, it was just an honest personal opinion. Trust me, a lot of French businesss people agree with my overall sentiments. They just don't express it in public.
Dear Editor,
I am responding the piece this week’s Time International edition entitled, “Advance and Retreat” by James Graff. My only words of advice to the young students demonstrating and rioting throughout Paris are, “Get over it. Job security no longer exists.”
As an American woman in her late 30s currently living and running a business in France, I can say this with utter confidence because I come from that first generation of new workers in America, who graduated from college during the early 90s when our country was in a serious economic recession. There were no jobs for anyone let alone recent graduates. Imagine our frustration when so many of us had worked our way through college, paying expensive tuition, only to discover that temporary positions or low-paying jobs at coffee shops and copy stores were the only jobs awaiting us. Many of my friends returned to school to attain masters’ degrees. I myself spent the first two years out of college working unpaid internships. Actually to me, that’s exactly what the CPE would be for young people in France except better – at least they would be “paid” internships.
Despite the Prime Minister Dominque de Villepin’s motives, what he is initiating will actually help not hurt France. The world markets are changing rapidly. France needs employment flexibility. Without it France, Italy and Spain – all countries within the European Union with some of the highest unemployment rates among youth – would not be able to compete in the global marketplace. The youth are trying to hold on to the past, and they want their cake and eat it too. However, if France doesn’t move with the times by reforming antiquated employment and work policies, they will end up “taking part in that race to the bottom.”
At end of the day my generation learned that we’re the only ones who can secure our future. That would be a good lesson for French students to start learning today.
I am responding the piece this week’s Time International edition entitled, “Advance and Retreat” by James Graff. My only words of advice to the young students demonstrating and rioting throughout Paris are, “Get over it. Job security no longer exists.”
As an American woman in her late 30s currently living and running a business in France, I can say this with utter confidence because I come from that first generation of new workers in America, who graduated from college during the early 90s when our country was in a serious economic recession. There were no jobs for anyone let alone recent graduates. Imagine our frustration when so many of us had worked our way through college, paying expensive tuition, only to discover that temporary positions or low-paying jobs at coffee shops and copy stores were the only jobs awaiting us. Many of my friends returned to school to attain masters’ degrees. I myself spent the first two years out of college working unpaid internships. Actually to me, that’s exactly what the CPE would be for young people in France except better – at least they would be “paid” internships.
Despite the Prime Minister Dominque de Villepin’s motives, what he is initiating will actually help not hurt France. The world markets are changing rapidly. France needs employment flexibility. Without it France, Italy and Spain – all countries within the European Union with some of the highest unemployment rates among youth – would not be able to compete in the global marketplace. The youth are trying to hold on to the past, and they want their cake and eat it too. However, if France doesn’t move with the times by reforming antiquated employment and work policies, they will end up “taking part in that race to the bottom.”
At end of the day my generation learned that we’re the only ones who can secure our future. That would be a good lesson for French students to start learning today.
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