Image source: www.biojobblog.com
Take Japan as an example. This country is known for greatly dedicated employees, who do overtime chronically, which is taken for granted by them and their employers. But the recession causing shutdowns and hour cuts has given Japanese workers more time off. The government also strongly recommends that companies insist that employees take their full-time vacations. As mentioned by the travel website Expedia, almost every Japanese takes only half of their two-week vacations allotted by the law. Now that they will be made to take their full two weeks, that may boost spending on vacations, which will create over 1 million jobs in the country.
In France, for instance, recession has caused a lot of upheaval with unionized workers. This country known for its regular strikes organized by unions all over the place. With recession at the doorstep, international companies attempt to close up factories and reduce working hours. So, as a reply to it, French workers take their bosses hostage. Usually, that means that top managers are isolated in their offices for a number of days without being able to go home. The army of local consultants saw an opportunity in this conflict. Now the most popular consulting service consists of offering expert advice of how to avoid boss-napping. The consulting includes courses of how to initiate a slowdown of production and how to avoid physical interference.
These are just two examples. I guess there will be more…
