Keeping with my foreign theme of late,
this is from a German newspaper that is either English language or at least translated into English on the Web:
The German subsidiary of the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has again infuriated employees, this time over policies that workers believe interfere with their private lives and force them to spy on colleagues.
Often mistrusted for its American corporate culture, the German subsidiary of Wal-Mart has once again stuck its foot in it. Employees of the 92-store discount chain received a moral lecture along with their February paychecks: a code of ethics employees must follow or face termination, the Financial Times Deutschland reported Tuesday.
The code forbids Wal-Mart employees from accepting presents from suppliers, dictates that employees may not fall in love with a colleague in a position of influence and requires workers to report colleagues immediately "if they observe that they have broken the rules." Non-compliance of the rules can lead to termination.
[Emphasis in original]
And, by the way, Wal-Mart has been a total bust in Germany. One indication of the cross-cultural problem that Wal-Mart faces is this:
When they tried their well-known obligatory morning cheer - give me a Wal-Mart - employees in Germany hid in the toilets to spare themselves this strange ceremony, saying they are workers and not clowns.
What do German workers know that Americans don't? Or, more likely, what do German workers know that American workers are afraid to say?
JR