au revoir prospérité: ennui conquers france

corinne maier, an employee of a french public utilities company (edf), has just published a manifesto on how to be as lazy as possible at work. she's only half-joking. after reading about the work (entitled hello laziness), in which she details "why it's in your interest to work as little as possible and how to screw the system from within without anyone noticing," i'm amazed edf is taking it so calmly. i can't imagine an american company standing for it. although she's scheduled for "disciplinary hearings" in august, she says publicly she won't show because she'll be on holiday with the rest of france. talk about having confidence in your job security.

french unions are up in arms that edf is trying to oust her:

An umbrella body representing the six main unions at EDF has issued a statement defending Ms Maier's freedom of speech, saying she had "not revealed any secrets, jeopardized any business or even mentioned EDF by name once in the book."

had she explained this strategy to her boss in person, or handed out copies to her coworkers, would she still have a job? the issue is complex because she may have published the book in personal time, but it's not surprising the french economy is poor if a company cannot fire an employee for showing such an acutely poor work ethic. ah, unions! i wonder what sabine herold would say.

just desserts: i guess maier and her french followers are in for an early case of alzheimer's disease (according to Neurology).

this is not to say i'm unsympathetic to the woes of mindless office work, i've avoided private companies or government offices for precisely that reason.