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0 pointstejohnso8y ago0 comments

> "Do you think a Swedish employee group at Crédit Agricole is a problem?"

For the employees, I would think it strange that they group themselves as such within the company since their common interest in Swedish culture has nothing to do with Crédit Agricole. If they want to organize events around midsummer I would expect them to conduct all of that organizing outside of the business.

I don't think it's a problem for them, but I guess I just find it somewhat inappropriate.

For the company, yes, I think it's closer to being a problem. I would think there's a near 100% chance that there would be some kind of HR related issue that comes about because of the existence of this group. Doesn't matter how innocent it is. Someone, at some point, is going to have an issue, and there's just no good reason for the company to allow it. Employees can gather for their special coffee meetups and plan holiday events outside of the business.

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eesmith8y ago· 2 in thread

Could you explain more what "nothing to do with Crédit Agricole" means?

I assume a company is interested in the physical and mental health of its employees. Every large company I have visited has internal employee groups for all matter of topics; sports, movies, gardening, art, jogging, and more.

An expat organization can help people get over the culture shock of working in a French company.

Surely "there's a near 100% chance that there would be some kind of HR related issue that comes about because of the existence of" any of these groups, yes?

Yet we see that most companies have such groups.

Could it be that there are benefits which outweigh the possible negatives? Because that's my impression of why companies allow these groups to use company resources.

tejohnsoOP8y ago

> Every large company I have visited has internal employee groups for all matter of topics; sports, movies, gardening, art, jogging, and more.

> Yet we see that most companies have such groups.

There's a significant culture difference between us then. My experience is the opposite. I've never seen that. Not saying it doesn't exist, but it's strange to me. I don't doubt that a group can be useful or interesting. In fact I've joined expat groups through meetup.com when I was traveling abroad for months at a time and completely understand the benefits. It's just the idea of having it associated with the corporation I find odd.

Next up: Employees for Palestinian Freedom. At Netflix!

eesmith8y ago

It's very hard to find public facing information about internal organizations, but here are some examples:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/jcalev/2009/09/30/a-great-b... shows there is/was a Microsoft Photography Club. They produced the book at http://www.blurb.com/b/833258-photographers-microsoft-2009 .

But that's in the US, so what about Sweden? https://www.fsy.se/azfotoklubb/digitala.asp (via Google Translate) shows that AstraZeneca's photo club has a room at AstraZeneca for their equipment.

Or the Accenture in the Philippines; quoting from https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Accenture-... "They have several clubs for hobbies like Photography Club, Move for dancers, Accenture Pool Band for musicians, Gamers for people who love sports, Run for runners, Working Moms for women/mothers and many other more. Each club have fun activities that saves us breathers from work. You'll get to connect with the others that has the same interest as you."

Or Accenture in Ireland - https://www.accenture.com/ie-en/Careers/team-culture-club-so... . "Joining one of Accenture’s many clubs and societies is a great way to relax whilst expanding your network within Accenture.

One of the Accenture clubs in Ireland "aims to promote the use of the Irish language and members engage with fellow Irish speakers within Accenture." - a club based on national/cultural identity, yes?

The companies involved with the Ariane rocket have a yearly shared sports event, with teams from the different companies. Eg, http://www.arianecross2015.com/ , http://arianecross2016.com/ , and http://arianecross2017.com/ . The last two show that it was organized with the involvement of the companies, and not all done on personal time.

I can well believe that we may have difference experiences.

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