Forex fintech companies: Why TransferMate is losing out to TransferWise - and may have even more serious problems coming its way

PARIS 
With most mainstream banks embracing the internet now, even going mobile, one might wonder why one should bother with new financial services startup companies. There are at least two reasons I'd like to call out for the purpose of this piece.

First, the likes of Monzo and Revolut are digital and even mobile natives, meaning everything about them was designed for the internet/mobile experience from the moment you open your account to how you conduct your banking business about them. Traditional banks, on the other hand, when they embraced the internet/mobile did it (some still do) as an afterthought.

Second, when it comes to transferring funds from an account held in one currency to another held in a different currency, most traditional banks would charge you obscenely high fees and commissions for what is now a purely automated process. Hence, the arrival of fintech companies dedicated to this niche market: Painless, fast, reasonably priced wiring of funds from, say, a dollar-denominated bank account into a euro-denominated account.

Where these forex fintechs markedly differ from traditional banks is that where the latter provide forex (foreign exchange) transactions somewhat as an ancillary service and bleed you for the privilege, for forex fintechs it is their bread and butter. Because of that they developed everything about the way they work (technology, processes, manpower, location) to make the process as efficient as possible. 

Two of the best-known forex fintechs are TransferWise and TransferMate which I have been using for several years now for both my business and personal finances. As the following examples show I have found TransferWise better attuned to my business and personal needs, while TransferMate has gone from bad to worse.

The most shocking thing about TransferMate is how clunky and user-unfriendly the platform is. As an HR technologist I'm used to systems: It is therefore baffling that after so many years of using TransferMate every time I want to initiate a transaction I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out where to enter the source account, the recipient account, the type of transaction and sundry required fields. Any combination that the capricious system is not happy about will result in your moving to the next screen with an abstruse error message. Try to move back to the previous screen and everything is gone, so you'll have to start all over again with no guarantee of what field/sequence of data needs to be corrected. 

Of course, you can always try to contact the support team but if  you happen to be launching this transaction in the evening or over the weekend it may well be a couple of days before anybody gets back to you (see below on quality of TransferMate support staff) which negates the whole purpose of a forex operation where you want to block the current rate on offer. Wait/waste an hour and the operation may no longer be worth your while. Wait a couple of days as TransferMate often does and if you carry on you may actually be losing money. 

Compare this maddening system with TransferWise (see below screenshot). On the landing page they start with the most important piece you need: How much you want to change in your currency and how much you get. From here you may decide if you want to proceed or not. Very efficient. Fat chance of getting that with TransferMate where you have to go through the whole rigmarole explained in the previous paragraph before getting a sense of whether the rate is interesting enough that you want to log in and book the trade. 

And then once you decide you want to book with TransferWise (which in most cases you'd want to because their rates are systematically better than TransferMate) the next screen is simplicity personified: Select the account you're sending funds from, the beneficiary account and click SUBMIT. Et voilà! In a couple of minutes and as many clicks your transfer is on its way. Nothing like the horror story that TransferMate can easily turn into. 

Some typical examples of TransferMate nightmares:

- If the amount is above a certain amount you need to contact them by phone. Meaning that as explained earlier forget about booking the rate you want.

- TransferMate may ask you to provide a proof of wire of the funds, which can become a completely absurd request when the request is made after the funds have arrived. If the funds have arrived in their account, they must have been wired in the first place, mustn't they? And if TransferMate wants to make sure that the funds have indeed been wired from your listed bank account, can't their bank tell them?

-Worse, I've seen cases where TransferMate would not even accept the standard wire notice document delivered by your bank because of some weird reason like the logo or color scheme or other fanciful reasons. Yes, you've read right, a small fintech like TransferMate would challenge the payment advice template delivered by a major bank like Société Générale or ING or Bank of America. Welcome to the looney bin known as TransferMate.

-Sometimes, it may catch TransferMate's fancy to require you to send them a screenshot of your bank account whereby they will see all your personal and confidential data. They will justify this in lieu of the payment advice request mentioned earlier on. Of course, this is not only a violation of your confidential data but you and I understand why they would do that: Get more information on your spending and income patterns to serve what can only be sinister aims.

-All of these tricks serve a single purpose: During all this time, the money you wire into their account is being used to shore up their cashflow for free. Something that I NEVER saw being done by TransferWise.

-Don't try to reason with TransferMate's staff: Their incompetence is so obvious at the first call (what do you expect from people paid peanuts?) that talking to them is akin to trying to have a chat with a brick wall. You'll go nowhere, which is exactly what TransferMate wants: Remember that during all this time YOUR money sits in THEIR bank account for free.

-For Spanish, French and other non-Dublin-based Europeans speaking a non-English language, TransferMate's sales practices are so questionable that they verge on the illegal in some jurisdictions. For one, their Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) are only available in English so to a French user, sure, the platform is in French so they can conduct the transaction in a familiar language, but as soon as they want to check some specific T&Cs, sorry, only English is available. In addition, their French-speaking support person will have in their email signature a French phone number to give French customers the impression s/he is based in France when s/he is based in Dublin, Ireland. Even the company's French office is an empty shell: It refers to InterPay (address: 18 rue Pasquier, 75008 Paris) but this company  was deregistered in...2019! Yes, you read right: In September 2020,  TransferMate is using as their French address a company whose legal existence was terminated more than a year ago. If you run into a legal issue with them, fat chance of getting redress through your country's court system.  

Misleading customers in such a way is more than borderline: Regulatory agencies in both Ireland and Europe are currently scrutinizing TransferMate's practices. Another Wirecard scandal in the offing? 

 

In summary, not only does TransferWise deliver superior user experience, but TransferMate's current legal situation prompted by its sales practices is scary: As the Wirecard scandal showed, your funds can be blocked overnight following an investigation by regulatory agencies. I don't know about you, but I am not willing to take that risk. 

"Lawrence of Arabia": Sheer cinematic perfection

PARIS 

The 7 Academy Award winner
has never looked so good

Steven Spielberg was in his mid teens when Lawrence of Arabia opened and he saw it for the first time. Until then he had planned to go to medical school. After watching the movie and becoming "pulverized" by it as he said in this video, Spielberg decided to embrace a movie career. 

Watching David Lean's masterpiece for probably the 10th time last weekend on a giant screen at the Grand Rex in Paris, an Art deco marvel of a movie palace, just a 20-minute walk from my apartment, once again I fell spellbound by the magic of this  movie, whose showing is part of a series of festivities to celebrate the reopening of movie theatres after the three-month Covid-19 lockdown. 

The movie buff I am stopped going to movies a decade ago, preferring the intimacy, comfort and efficiency of watching them at home. But when I saw that "Lawrence" was going to be shown on that gigantic screen, the best way to admire the full sweep of this epic, I knew I had to go.

The lights dimmed, the curtain closed on the smaller screen, the giant screen was lowered while the music from the soundtrack played for several minutes before the famous Columbia logo appeared to wild applause from the audience. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the majority of the crowd were people in their twenties and thirties. I would have expected an older crowd as befits  a movie made almost six decades ago. 

From that matchstick-in-Cairo-to-sunrise in Arabia transition (maybe the greatest cut in movie history, with the bone-to-spaceship cut in 2001: A Space Odyssey a close second) to the battle scenes, the constant left-to-right movement to  reflect a journey, everything in this film is superlative. (Here's a video clip of the cut which includes a piece of the score )

The intelligent script and brilliant dialogues is brought to life by the tour-de-force performance by Peter O'Toole (considered by many as one of the top 3 performances in movie history - the other two being Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront and Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice) ably supported by flawless Omar Sharif As Sharif Ali and Anthony Quinn as tribal chief  Auda Abu Tayi and an astonishing Alec Guinness whose resemblance with the real Prince Feisal had locals on the set in Jordan believe they were meeting the real one. 

Often copied by later directors (George Lucas, Ridley Scott, Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone) but never surpassed is the legendary photography. The majestic shots of the desert (which I can relate to having spent several summers in my childhood in the Mauritanian desert) are by now seared into viewers' retina and further enhanced by Maurice Jarre's soaring music. If you're watching it at home, watch the scene with Lawrence on the captured Turkish train without the music and then with it - you'll see the difference. David Lean's movies fuse sights and music like no other director until then or after. With Maurice Jarre he found a soulmate - and although Jarre would go on to compose scores for many movies by other directors, he only won Oscars for the ones he made with Lean. 

The conquest of Aqaba is hard to surpass and remains unforgettable: from the moment the   Arab troops leave their camps and are seen through a beautifully shot mountain pass to the moment they enter the town, gallop through its streets, pass the giant cannon which Lawrence had rightly predicted couldn't be turned and end in the Red Sea. From one immense area (desert) to another endless one (sea).

The long-shot floating mirage of Omar Sharif is unequalled and repeated viewings of the movie can't dim its power.

What makes it an even more amazing experience is that anything you see on the screen is "real", inasmuch as anything in cinema is real. No computer gimmickry, no fake twisters or background shot added to live animation. What you see and hear is real: towns, cities, camps, oases,a cast of thousand real humans, even the soldiers are real, as they were lent by King Hussein of Jordan from his own army since most of the movie was shot on location where the action took place several decades ago. 

The giant screen at the Grand Rex. 
Do NOT think for a second to watch this
movie on any smaller screen 

 Interesting piece of trivia: King Hussein (a grand-  nephew of Prince Feisal) was a constant visitor on the set where he met a young Englishwoman who became his wife. Their son is now Jordan's King Abdullah II.

When the movie ended after 3hrs45 (including intermission) it was to rapturous applause. I looked around and felt that there is hope if the younger generation can see what true cinema is about and enjoy it. 

The Wadi Rum desert in all its splendor

I could continue to wax lyrical on this movie but I think you got the gist of it: Simply put, this is the best movie ever made, a "miracle" as Spielberg called it, a film which you can watch again and again and always appreciate and discover new things. Through the decades as you become more mature you'll appreciate different aspects of it.  But at least once in your life, do yourself a favor and watch it on a giant screen to fully appreciate the Super Panavision 70 scope: I guarantee that you'll be blown away by the experience.

This is the latest in a series of  the blogger's posts dedicated to movies. Previous blog posts include:

-Feb. 2020: Time for the Academy to honor non-English-speaking films with Korea's "Parasites"

-Dec. 2014, Happy 75th Anniversary, "Gone with the Wind"

-Nov. 2012, Woody Allen or the Vanishing of a Once-Great Filmmaker

-Feb. 2012, Meryl Streep, or how to be the world's greatest actress for three decades - and counting

-March 2011, The Unbearable Dullness of the Academy Awards 
 

Silver Lining, or How I Got to Love the Virus

PARIS

With half of mankind under house arrest and the global economy in a tailspin, not mentioning tens of thousand of deaths, it is hard to feel anything good about the invisible enemy which we are told should go by the politically correct Covid-19 or Coronavirus name, rather than by what everybody would instinctively call it: the Chinese virus, just like a century ago we referred to the Spanish flu - although back then the flu had nothing to do  with Spain whereas this one clearly originates from China.

And yet, there are quite a few unexpected positive developments from the global pandemic.

Finally, pollution is down 

With millions of cars off the roads and plants shut down in many countries, it is hardly surprising that air pollution has come down, as the two below shots reveal. Some might even think that the current pandemic is nature's way to get revenge against man's constant abuse for decades. Can't blame it, to tell you the truth.

From bad to better

Drug traffic and crime down
As some police have been forced to recognize, it is humiliating that an invisible virus, by keeping dealers and customers off the streets, has drastically  reduced the illegal drug trade, thus succeeding where governments all over the world have failed consistently for decades. Home burglaries have basically disappeared for obvious reasons. In my beloved Rio de Janeiro, street mugging, a common occurrence, has been reduced by more than 60% this month versus March 2019. 

The Wonder City is getting even more
wonderful...if a bit empty

Digital Transformation is here to stay
Your IT team? Not yet. Your Agile coach? Not really. Your HR department? Yeah, right. Your Change Management team? Who are these people, anyway? Never seen them. 

And suddenly Covid-19 lands on us and we are all working from homing, using technology at full throttle to communicate/engage/get things done. As someone whose professional life entails helping corporate clients' digital transformation, this pan(da)demic is a godsend.

Migration and tourism are halted

Now, some of you might think that the endless waves of migrants landing on Europe's shore is a blessing but many might beg to differ, and now that the EU has closed its borders to all non-Europeans and residents, the flow of millions of illegal immigrants has come to an abrupt end. Hss it? 

Another category of migrants, short-term and illegal, a.k.a. tourists, are also being rebuffed and considering the damage these hordes inflict on sites and places like long-suffering Venice, Covid-19 is definitely a blessing in that respect. Maybe we'll go back to the 1950s where mass tourism was unknown and traveling the globe was truly a unique, sometimes once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Market volatility offers great opportunities
Stock gyrations can offer great overnight gains. Some stocks go up and down several times in the same trading day. If you have some money saved which you don't need in the short term, pick a couple of stocks at the lower end of what they have been trading and a quick buck is almost a sure thing. One piece of advice: pick dividend-paying stocks so that in the unlikely case all the stocks you bought suddenly go south and stay there at least you get a steady income stream.

All that goes down ends up going back up...and vice versa!

Some jobs are coming under strong demand
 Last December's general strike in France which lasted a good month and a half (no metro, no bus, no trains) , saw some unemployed people suddenly sign up for Uber and with ride fares tripling many of them became a rags-to-riches story. Even people with a  day job took to using their car for additional income, proving the old adage that one should never let a good crisis go to waste. Now, that restaurants are closed, and many people are scared to go to crowded supermarkets UberEats, and Deliveroo delivery men are enjoying brisk business. Macy's may be shedding gallons of tears along with rivers of red ink, but Amazon is on a roll.

Quality time with your family
Those of you whose rat-race lifestyle meant spending too little time with your spouse and/or children, here's your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make things right. That is, if spending so much time at work wasn't a way to get away from your  family in the first place...

Extra reading and movie-watching time
Great time to (re)read all  those books and watch (again) those movies you always wanted to and never had time for

BOOKS

History: If you think the current pandemic is bad, read Barbara Tuchman's Distant Mirror on the Black Death, or how the plague pandemic in the Middle Ages was called: Some countries like England lost half of their population. Feels almost like a relief, doesn't it?

Literature: You may have heard of, but never read, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. This is the perfect time to read this picaresque novel whose counter-hero Ignatius Reilly's adventures are simply hilarious. If you read French, Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the Night), L'élegance du hérisson (The Elegance of the Hedgehog), the full 6-volume set of  Les rois maudits (The Accursed King)  are a must. In Spanish, I highly recommend Mario Vargas Llosa's La tia Julia y el escribidor (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter) and  political page-turner La fiesta del chivo (The Feast of the Goat).

For sheer comic relief, anything by P.G. Wodehouse, especially the Bertie series, is a must read. In the same vein, Frasier sitcom writer Joe Keenan's Blue Heaven and Putting on the Ritz will have you laugh uproariously.

P.G. Wodehouse at his best

If you have a soft spot for thriller/crime/spy stories: John Le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is the mother of all spy novels (I'm not crazy about most other Le Carré novels that I find a bit on the dull side). France's Pierre Lemaitre's Robe de marié and Alex are excellent, as is the unique dual-story line La caverna de las ideas, a virtuoso Spanish-language historical mystery novel published in English as The Athenian Murders. Another even more unique whodunit is perfectly titled The Daughter of Time aiming at discovering whether Richard III was the real murderer of his nephews five centuries ago. Of course, you can't say "whodunit" without mentioning the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie herself: Curtain, published posthumously, will shock you. Of course she spawned many spoofs, my favorite being The Act of Roger Murgatroyd, written in the vein of the grand dame's novels including idioms and contemporary references.

MOVIES
I'll avoid some obvious classics and focus on lesser-known films that will enchant, shock, surprise and amuse you. Starting  with the film noir genre, Laura  is as brilliant now as it was 75 years ago. Hitchcock's 1964 The Birds will still amaze you with special effects that will put current computer wizardy to shame. No Way Out's ending will shock you. French-language L'assassin habite au 21 (1942) is sheer brilliance (interestingly, I discovered in a Rio de Janeiro second-hand bookstore, or sebo, Hotel Brasil which seems to be inspired by the Clouzot film.)

Don't get distracted or you might miss
a dialogue gem

For wit, brilliant dialogue, great story line and flawless performances by the full cast, Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway is a joy to watch again and again (I must have done so close to 20 times.) Little Miss Sunshine and A Fish Called Wanda are two other brilliant comedies. Mockumentary Thank You for Smoking may not make you kick the habit, but it will have you convulsed with laughter, as will the Coen Brothers' Intolerable Cruelty.

If you're into musicals, Victor Victoria is a gem with its fine performances, brilliant script and great score. Almost 90 years old, The Most Dangerous Game hasn't aged a bit (and no, it's not a musical, just had to wedge it somewhere.)

Feeling like a Roman epic of yore? I have little doubt you'll enjoy Quo Vadis with an amazing Peter Ustinov as the Emperor Nero, as well as Samson and Delilah starring Hedy Lamarr, the most beautiful woman ever to have graced the silver screen.

The citizen of the world I am cannot but mention great movies from Brazil (Central Station, City of God), India (Salaam Bombay), the Arab World (The Yacoubian Building which also doubles as a great novel by Egypt's best writer, Alaa Al Aswany), Germany (Goodbye Lenin, The Downfall with its companion reading piece, Hugh Trevor-Roper's The Last Days of Hitler, one of the best historical works ever written), Italy (Rocco and his brothers, I soli ignoti, Lo scopone scientifico), Japan (Spirited Away) and in Spanish little-known thriller The Hidden Face and Almodóvar's farce Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

The Yacoubian Building: Succeeding

in the jump from great literature to

great moviemaking

With this last title, I cheated on my promise to go with little-known movies, so in for a penny, in for a pound, let me add two more in the same vein: Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (picture me taking a bow, as I do every time I mention the master's name) and Mankiewicz's All About Eve: If the former is the best movie made by Hollywood on Hollywood, the latter is a sui generis tribute to Broadway


So, now that you can breathe a cleaner air, see bluer skies, made a quick buck playing Wall Street, feel safer that crime is down, enjoyed (re)discovering great reads and movies, be honest: Aren't you going to miss the big bad virus?

Time for the Academy to honor non-English-speaking films with Korea's "Parasite"

BARCELONA

I had planned to end the weekend by going to the theatre but had forgotten that in Spain's second-largest city theatres have only one show on Sunday and it tends to be in the afternoon. Having missed it, I decided, instead, to watch one of the most talked about movies of the year, "Parasite" by Korean director Bong Joon-ho.

To say I was mesmerized wouldn't do justice to this exceptional movie: part comedy, part thriller, part drama, it brings a very subtle take on the class struggle.  When I was done, I was lost in my thoughts for several minutes, usually a sign I have just been watching a masterpiece.

As luck would have it, in several hour's 'time the pompously-named Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will hand out its annual awards and "Parasite" is nominated in several categories, including Best Director and, quite unusually,  both as Best Picture and Best Foreign-Language Film (they call the latter a silly name now, so I'll just ignore it and continue with BFLF.)

It's a rare event that a foreign movie is nominated in both categories, and when it has happened (last year's "Roma", or two decades ago Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon",) Academy voters couldn't bring themselves to give a foreign movie top honors so they inevitably gave  it BFLF. Last year there was hope that with "Roma" history would be made - and it almost did as it won Best Director, a first for a foreign-language movie, but the top prize still remained elusive.

Time has come to finally shatter the glass ceiling and acknowledge "Parasite" for what it is: the year's best movie. I have seen all the other contenders, enjoyed most of them, especially "1917" and "Once upon a Time...in Hollywood" but "Parasite" is so far ahead, in a category of its own, that it would be absurd, even by Hollywood's standards, to ignore it.

It is noteworthy, that, if in its 92-year-long history, the Academy has never awarded the  top prize to a foreign-language movie, it did pick a foreign movie when Best Picture (along with Director and Actor) went to 2011's The Artist", a French film. The only reason it did and felt good about it is the story is set in...Hollywood and the movie is...silent! In other words, for Hollywood the best foreign language is the one we don't hear. 

Keeping my fingers crossed that in a few hours' time an injustice as old as cinema itself would finally be redressed. And, repeating myself, what better way to do it than picking this amazing filmmaking achievement?


The blogger, a film buff since he was tall enough to reach for the box-office and hand over his admission money, has written several blog posts on movies.

-Dec. 2014, Happy 75th Anniversary, "Gone with the Wind"

-Nov. 2012, Woody Allen or the Vanishing of a Once-Great Filmmaker

-Feb. 2012, Meryl Streep, or how to be the world's greatest actress for three decades - and counting

-March 2011, The Unbearable Dullness of the Academy Awards (yes, already writing about this topic)

Learning Management: 3 years on and Cornerstone still beats Workday

PARIS
It was exactly three years ago, almost to the day, that Workday launched its long-awaited Learning module in an attempt to plug the last hole in its integrated HRIS offering.

At that time I was advising a Swiss-based company in their selection of a new global HRIS tool and as part of that exercize I was regaled with a first peek at Workday Learning. At the end of the demo, my client, the global VP of HR, whispered into my ear, "That's all they offer? Why pay so much for so little?" I whispered back, "Agree. You can get much more from YouTube...for free!"

A great admirer of Workday's since its inception, I was underwhelmed by what I saw. Basically, it wasn't much more than  the ability to post videos, index them based on a limited set of criteria such as recommendations or availability. The enrollment  process was very basic. Nothing on a full training  or budget management process without which no decent multinational would even consider changing its LMS (Learning Management System.) Considering how strong the other Workday modules are, especially Core HR and Compensation and even the recent addition then of Recruiting, there was nothing Cornerstone, the undisputed Learning leader, had to worry about, I told myself.

Three years later, have things improved markedly? Has Workday narrowed the gap with Cornerstone? Not even by a nano-inch. Workday Learning far from reaching maturity is nowhere to be seen: Apart from the odd customer, you never come across anybody willing to use it. You never hear of consultants trained on Workday Learning or on companies looking for Workday Learning resources. Why would they since there is no interest on implementing what for all intents and purposes is an empty shell? Better spend time, resources and effort interfacing Workday Core HR with Cornerstone whose offering can reach into every single nook and cranny of an LMS project.

Even Workday itself uses for its own learning...Cornerstone! If they can't even drink their own champagne (or eat their own dog food - have your pick of what metaphor is more appropriate) this  clearly signals a resounding failure on the part of a vendor that has gone from strength to strength since it was founded almost 15 years ago.

Hasn't time come to reach the logical consequence: Pull the plug on a dud and...make a bid to merge with or acquire Cornerstone. The two companies share a similar culture, are both based in California (although Santa Monica and Pleasanton are not exactly next-door neighbors), are similarly acknowledged as the leader in their core offering and enjoy enthusiastic loyalty from their customers. Definitely the best of both worlds. Should it happen, you heard about it here first!

Hell on Earth: How mankind will be wiped out

PARIS

Flying from Barcelona, I landed in Paris  at 4 pm last Thursday, on time to be apprised that the city I've known since my birth had broken a record: 42°C. Half an hour later this record was itself broken when we reached 42.6°C. France’s crumbling infrastructure was in full display on the RER line linking the two city airports as service was interrupted for several hours, and when it resumed the absence of air conditioning and Saharan temperatures meant several people fainted. 

A taste of things to come.

Like most, I always wondered how civilization would come to its end.

You read it here first.This is how mankind will be wiped out: steadily rising temperatures until life becomes untenable on Earth. Our only hope is to find another planet we can move to and screw up in turn. 

Hopefully, by then I would have "shuffled off this mortal coil", to quote the immortal Bard's words. 

Carpe planetam, one feels like adding. While it lasts. 


The blogger is a great admirer of Hieronymus Bosch, whose works in Madrid's Prado Museum have delighted him for the past three decades 

#StopBullying: Naming and shaming companies that use bullying as a management technique

PARIS
How ironic that it it was on May Day, International Labor Day (except in some exotic countries such as the U.S. of A.) that an article was published in French satirical weekly, Le canard enchaîné, denounging bullying by employers. This is a great piece of investigation as it provides concrete examples of how a French multinational, banking giant BNP Paribas (BNPP), sets about mentally torturing the employees it wants to get rid of on the cheap (a screnshot of the French-language article is provided below.)

For non-French readers, here's a recap of the most egregious acts of such a lovely management practice:

• Stopping inviting the employee to key meetings 
• Demoting employees and erasing them from the organizational chart
• Whereas other same-rank employees have their own office, sending the bullied employee on "open-space exile" 
• If the employee happens to belong to a minority, let them know in no uncertain terms diversity (at least of their kind) is not welcome
• For those who still don't "get it",  cutting the variable compensation they were entitled to: when you realize that, without your annual bonus, your compensation has been reduced by half, you usually start packing.

Nothing new under the sun, you might say. Nine years ago, almost to the day, I published High-Tech Planets: Secrets of an IT Road Warrior, where I denounced  such corporate shenanigans by the French subsidiary of an IT multinational. Actually I even dedicated my book to the vicitms of such corporeate behavior. How sad to see that such a practice continues unabated.

Does it?

In the case of BNPP, it is unclear that the bank reached its objectives of saving on layoffs. Unlike a decade ago, employees can now initiate legal action with greater chance of winning and some BNPP employes did just that quite successfully. After taking his case to court, the employee whose bonus was refused ended up getting €150,000. The one who was demoted was compensated to the tume of €351,000. As for the employee who was let go because of his sexual orientation the court awarded him a  whopping €600,000.

Which beggars the following thought: Wouldn't it have been better for BNPP to do the decent thing? There is nothing intrinsically wrong about reductions in force if current business circumstances so dictate: have an honest communication with affected employees and, if they have to be let go, pay them what they are owed. Same thing for low performers. Don't wait until the end of the year and the start of the appraisal process to "discover"somebody has been performing poorly throughou the year. If you do, it's the manager than who should take  the rap, not the employee. Find out why the employee is unable to reach their objectives (maybe those are unrealistic) and, if push comes to shove, and it becomes impossible to  retrain them/get them another position in consonance with their abilities, then sure let them go...compensating them as the law dictates.

Before this virtuous behavior becomes ingrained in corporate life, I'm afraid many more employees will go through hell, some even committing suicide (I had such a case in my book - a star in the company who was left no choice but to take their own life), many more court cases and newspaper articles will emerge, more naming and shaming will be necessary. 

Yes, name 'em and shame 'em. 

Last year it was #MeToo denouncing sexual harassment. This year it's #StopBullying.

Fighting political corruption - Brazil vs France

PARIS

I recently came back from one of my regular stays in my home away from home in Brazil. On the very day that I arrived in Rio de Janeiro there was only one headline news topic: Former president Michel Temer had been arrested on corruption charges. (During my last stay in December my Copacabana neighborhood only gossiped about another fallen leader, former Renault-Nissan head Carlos Ghosn, whose swanky Nissan-owned penthouses, just a couple of blocks away from mine, was being searched and confiscated.)

I couldn't help compare the situation in Brazil with the one I left behind me in France.
As the below diagram shows, Brazil isn't shy about firing its leaders or putting them behind bars when caught rend-handed. There is little doubt that there is more corruption in Brazil than in France but then why is there more tolerance in France? Back in 2011 I wrote a blog post denouncing France's Real crimes, Fake justice when former President Chirac was condemned to 2 years in jail but...never set foot in one!

Like Lagarde, Juppé was rewarded for committing crimes: President Macron just nominated him
to the highest court in the land, the Constitutional Court. Yes, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you:
he who is going to ensure people uphold the country's top law is himself a convicted felon. 

Could it be that this old, wealthy "democracy"'s political system is so rotten at the core and despises its citizens to such an extent that it doesn't even pretend to have a clean justice system? I am more and more inclined to think along those lines based on facts such as those summarized below. Actually, if you wonder why I put "democracy" between quotation marks it is because i stopped  a long time ago to believe in representative democracy and, 7 years before the Yellow Vests movement took France by storm calling, among other things, for direct democracy I advocated the exact same thing in my blog post on DirDem vs RepDem as I called the old and new political system.

The lesson one can draw from this situation is that, contrary to appearances, a young, chaotic, developing country such as Brazil can teach those most established so-called democracies a lot. It always makes me laugh to hear "First" World leaders pontificate and give advice to their "Third" World counterparts, oblivious to the Biblical injunction that before seeing the mote in others' eyes, they should remove the beam in their own eyes.


(Other blog posts exposing the shortcomings of the French political system include, in addition to the ones mentioned above, the following:
- October, 2018: The Increasingly Undemocratic French Constitution
- May 2017: Thoughts on the French presidential election
-May 2012: Good riddance, Sarkozy!)