(55) Small steps, small mistakes …

I still have my website running (https://www.cheesefromage.com/), it is dedicated to help catering professional with the service of cheese. You will find other information as well, all relative to cheese, like taste, cheese serving, and descriptions of different products of high quality readily available throughout the world (or at least it should be). Obviously, I still live in this world, and many things catches my attention, so I make comments on things that I deem noteworthy of attention. Even though sometimes it is more economical not to notice!

I have been back in France for some time now. The last time I was here, it was when President Mitterand was the president of the Republic, I even served him in one of the best restaurants of the World in Roanne, the town where I was born. I was young then; I did not really understand economics. Still, I thought that it was wrong to pay people a good amount of money if they did not work, I understood that they could get some if they had worked and been sacked or their contract terminated but this is not what I meant.

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Nowadays, people comment on the deficit of the country, and yes it is good to have an honest discussion about the major topics of the moment. And one thing that have kept my attention is that a gross salary is composed of two parts from the employer to diverse taxes for one part to the employee. The social burden is huge. An employee can decide to stop his contract and he will be paid for another year at least (you can research the details if you want, I find the idea baffling anyway) with the old employer having to pay him with a reduced tax burden, equivalent to one part only, whereas the old employee will be able to stay home and do whatever he pleases. If you have a small business, it is easier to not employ, it is obviously more attractive to do everything yourself than to employ. To have employees is then a risk.

The other side of the coin, is the attitude of people presenting themselves to get a job. Most of them would come with a mentality that the employer would be lucky to have them. They do not ask or are interested in the quality of the company, they want to know their salary, their benefits, what they can get out of the job before they want to know what they should do. So, yes, to please some of my old esteemed English customers, some Frenchmen are arrogant!

It is difficult to speak to people who do not realise that with a social burden so high, it benefits only the deficit. People would readily tax people with great means, the people who accumulated wealth by creating companies and jobs. This will not work for the obvious reason that when you have eliminated the wealth, there is nothing left. How can you hope to get people spending their earnings when there is no bright future? They would spend only if they must and the economy will slow down.

The European Union gives grants for many things as well, but this is not an excuse to have a whole country living on subsidies. I like some books by many American authors, and one recurrent idea is that lobbyists made the US tax system very complicated. It seems to me that French politicians managed to do exactly that just by themselves, and to please the electorate of course, for the French tax system. One idea that is mentioned very often on television during news bulletins commenting on societal events is that the fifth republic should be transformed and a sixth created. To all of these comments I say that we should simplify the French tax code, this would definitely improve a lot of lives, boost spending and create growth. And please, please, please, make it easier to employ people; lighten up and brighten up the future, you will make life interesting…

As for my personal work experience since I arrived back in France, I have to pointer, which means that I have to clock my working time. This is the first time in my life that I am doing this, I have always had a job where I had a set of tasks to accomplish and was paid to a fix salary per week or per month. But as I was saying before, I only asked for a job and was not specific, I was looking forward to having a job in France. The result is that I am at the bottom of the pile now, this is a strange feeling. I have never ever worked in an atmosphere like that before. People are very rural French, they look at what you wear (even though you are supposed to wear work cloths), they look at what car you have (and I did not have much choice coming from London I had to get a car and chose a new car – to last was my choice for that), and knowing the big bosses was not pleading in my case I think. The team is very small, another person arrived one year before me and knows the job, the other person is the expedition manager. The training is ad hoc, meaning look at what I do and try to do the same. When the two other colleagues speak about work, I do not have the necessary references, and this is a bit troubling. The other aspect of the character of my work mates is that they comment on their colleagues on their back, and then when alone with them they go and talk with them, not to gossip mind you, just to look good; this makes no sense to me.

There is no team spirit, no cohesion, no exchange of ideas or idle chat, life is kind of boring with people like that. They mostly are hypocrites and personal. I know that humans are supposed to be personal, but this is pushing it a bit far. Anyway, as I was saying before this is a job, so I will have to make the best of it if I can.

Nonetheless, I am working in a cheese factory with two impressive cellars. Yesterday was a very lucky day, we had a selection of cheeses from another maker at the canteen, and I managed to enjoy some. This brought back to mind the question of quality and diversity of products that can be encountered when you deal with cheese. There was a blue cheese, a goat, a washed rind product, and a tome; all of them were quite young, except for the goat which was a bit dry, and the quality was correct but with introspection not fantastic. Still, I enjoyed a little goat cheese, I meant to find one like that even though I would have preferred something of a better quality.

So, life is full of surprises, you meet different people and try to get the best out of your situation. There are some good surprises, like all of the diverse cheeses that you can try and explore, and some other surprises, like all the people who do not open up to you. I guess that for these last ones, you might find difficult to lower your expectations, I know that I do and it is not easy.

You can as well do the same at your cheesemonger, try something new… you might just like it! If you do not enjoy a particular cheese, you will have experienced something different, and you will have learn a different taste. This does not mean that there are no other choice, try something else, and precise what you enjoy the best, may be the cheese was not the best because of temperature or maturation (or even your mood); may be you should go back to it later…

As for everything, if you do not ask, if you do not try, you will not get.

So, open your palate and mind, and let’s celebrate quality cheeses.