I've twice tried to set up a business in Argentina.
The first time was when I came down to outsource software development projects from the US to Argentina, the second time was when a buddy and I got a wild hair to set up an upscale cafe with wireless access. I should have known better the second time, but hey. Sometimes you have to be beaten with a stick twice before it really hurts.
I have heard from many on the boards here that they have set up businesses and have been moderately (it seems) successful, but I've also heard the problems associated with these enterprises, many of which I also encountered in my attempts. I've heard of some that have turned out disasterously as well.
I wanted to write about a recent experience my oldest sister-in-law has had with work here. It's what brought all of this to mind again.
My sister-in-law (Lucy, so I don't have to keep repeating that long phrase) went through two years at what seems to have been a good cooking school here in Buenos Aires. They taught French-based concepts and I have had the benefit of eating many of the results of her studies. She graduated about two years ago at the top of her class.
Since then, she has bounced from one place to another as she tries to make a career out of her new education. She has not had much luck.
She has been variously lied to and cheated by the owners of the restaurants where she has worked. She has been treated badly by employees who liked the person she was replacing and those employees have often made life quite difficult for her, causing her to want to find something else. She has been promised wages at a certain level, promised to be put into the white, promised certain job descriptions, and nothing has ever quite panned out.
The latest issues she had, stretching across three different companies in about a few months, has been a bit incredible to me.
Last year she started working at a place in Puerto Madero called "A 222". It was a reclusive restaurant tucked into a tower near Corrientes and Alem. I never actually went there, although I probably should have just to see what it was really like.
According to Lucy, the clientele were upper class people who mostly came to the restaurant through word of mouth. Many of the dinners prepared there were for events put on by people who knew of the place. There was apparently a less formal lunch crowd on business days.
The place was going downhill. The night chef had ruined the place, the recipes were boring and poorly executed. Traffic was lessening. The owners hired Lucy because they tried some of her recipes and enjoyed them very much. They allowed her to change the menu and they actually enjoyed an upsurge in clients last year.
Now, I thought this was a bit odd that she would be given so much control, given that she had never had a job as a head chef and had only been working in the industry for about a year when she landed this job. The job she had before that was at a sandwich/desert place on Reconquista near Alem, where she had raised the quality of deserts available by a significant degree, but she was not paid well and therefore looked for another job. Having said that, I know Lucy can cook and turn out a well-presented meal.
A222 apparently had owners that really didn't give much of a rat's ass about the place overall. Their equipment was breaking down all the time and at one point the employees had to throw out a large amount of refrigerated food because the owners wouldn't pay to get a new refrigerator, about which they had been warned repeatedly. No one ever saw the owners, who were a group of Argentines, which was pretty strange because usually Argentines are pretty hands-on with a business like this. There were even rumors among the employees that the place was actually a money-laundering scheme because of the lack of attention by the owners and the fact that the place didn't seem to be all that profitable. I personally doubt the money laundering aspect of this. I think they were just fools trying to invest in something they didn't know much about.
The only real contact they had with anyone owning the place was the owners' accountant who came once a month to pay everyone.
Anyway, about three months ago the employees arrived to work and the place was closed down. No notice had been given and there was no notice posted on the door to the place, no one there to tell them what happened. It was about in the middle of the month if I recall correctly.
They had only been paid about 2/3 of their wages from the previous month, with promises of full payment to come in the following month. Of course, I mentioned to Lucy that this didn't bode well and I was proved correct when they shut down.
For the next couple of weeks they talked to the accountant and tried to get hold of the owners. They were told first that the place was going to open again, that didn't happen. Then they were told that they would all get paid in full, but that never happened.
Finally, all of the employees filed a formal complaint against the owners, not really expecting to get anything out of it due to lack of money (can't get blood from a turnip), but doing what they could to protect their interests.
All of the above doesn't really have anything to do with labor practices here in particular (everything metnioned could happen just about anywhere I suppose), except to give some background about where Lucy is now and why.
A month and a half or so ago, she went to interview at Tucson at the Buenos Aires Design mall. She worked for a couple of days to prove her skills and was immediately hired. She worked the rest of the week en negro, and the following week they sent her to have her medical exam to put her into the white. At the end of that week they let her go before actually putting her officially into the white.
I must mention here that all of her restaurant job leads had been given to her via her school. They have a good placement program.
She was puzzled, but couldn't get any good information from her contacts at Tucson about why they had let her go. She was given some lame excuse that didn't make any sense (I can't remember now what it was) and they wouldn't comment any further.
About three weeks ago she was hired at another restaurant. She went through the same process she'd gone through at Tucson, was hired, offered a job in the white, etc. Just before they made it official, right after her medical exam, she was let go yet again. This time the excuse was that the person who she replaced wanted to return to her job and Lucy was out.
At the time, I was thinking in these two cases that maybe Lucy just wasn't working out too well and they didn't want to tell her that. It was the only thing that was making sense to me given the actions of both places.
She's been quite depressed. She ended up two weeks ago getting a job working for a clothes retailer as a saleswoman, making pretty poor wages (around $1800 pesos a month). Her lowest starting wage working for various restaurants had been $2500, up to $4300 as A222.
She talked to the placement person at the school to find out what the deal was, and to help her find something more suited to her skills than selling clothes. The person did some digging and found out what the issue was.
At both Tucson and the more recent restaurant, they let her go because of the complaint she and her fellow workers had filed against the owners of A222.
Apparently, as a part of the background check, employers are able to see any outstanding labor complaints issued by their prospective employees in the past. I don't know if that includes complaints that have been resolved or not, but for sure, both of these restaurants were able to see that she was currently in dispute.
She since has contacted her ex-coworkers from A222. Not a one of them has found a job in the cooking industry so far. Not a one has been put into any job working in the white. BTW - Lucy is working for a "China" and is working en negro.
I have heard that workers who file complaints and/or lawsuits against their employers are almost always successful. I have rarely heard of complaints or lawsuits that were justified, but given the society, I am sure a goodly portion of them are probably justified (I probably just haven't heard about them because they don't make good stories), as was the one that Lucy and her coworkers filed against the owners of A222.
But this is ridiculous. To me, given all of the issues that "workers' rights" has caused here in one form or another, it's no wonder there is no real growth in Argentina with industries outside of agriculture, and even that has had enough problems in various manners. I know there are many other issues related to government cotnrols and taxes and corruption, but this is a really big one.
In what fair world would a business have access to complaints filed by employees against other businesses? Of course, in what fair world would an extremely large percentage of frivolous complaints, that were designed only to get anything the worker can get out of an employer, would be successful? No matter which way you go here, you have a great chance of being screwed!
So the lesson here seems to be that if you are an honest employee and get screwed, suck it up and don't complain because you may find that you will not be able to work honestly, at least for some time to come.
If you're dishonest and lazy, have a field day with your complaints because you can get quite a lot out of people until they get wind of what you're doing. You can work in the black so no one looks at your past complaints, then screw the hell out of those who gave you a job by filing a lawsuit or complaint that is almost certain to get you some money to continue paying you just enough to work as little as possible and continue to party...
The first time was when I came down to outsource software development projects from the US to Argentina, the second time was when a buddy and I got a wild hair to set up an upscale cafe with wireless access. I should have known better the second time, but hey. Sometimes you have to be beaten with a stick twice before it really hurts.
I have heard from many on the boards here that they have set up businesses and have been moderately (it seems) successful, but I've also heard the problems associated with these enterprises, many of which I also encountered in my attempts. I've heard of some that have turned out disasterously as well.
I wanted to write about a recent experience my oldest sister-in-law has had with work here. It's what brought all of this to mind again.
My sister-in-law (Lucy, so I don't have to keep repeating that long phrase) went through two years at what seems to have been a good cooking school here in Buenos Aires. They taught French-based concepts and I have had the benefit of eating many of the results of her studies. She graduated about two years ago at the top of her class.
Since then, she has bounced from one place to another as she tries to make a career out of her new education. She has not had much luck.
She has been variously lied to and cheated by the owners of the restaurants where she has worked. She has been treated badly by employees who liked the person she was replacing and those employees have often made life quite difficult for her, causing her to want to find something else. She has been promised wages at a certain level, promised to be put into the white, promised certain job descriptions, and nothing has ever quite panned out.
The latest issues she had, stretching across three different companies in about a few months, has been a bit incredible to me.
Last year she started working at a place in Puerto Madero called "A 222". It was a reclusive restaurant tucked into a tower near Corrientes and Alem. I never actually went there, although I probably should have just to see what it was really like.
According to Lucy, the clientele were upper class people who mostly came to the restaurant through word of mouth. Many of the dinners prepared there were for events put on by people who knew of the place. There was apparently a less formal lunch crowd on business days.
The place was going downhill. The night chef had ruined the place, the recipes were boring and poorly executed. Traffic was lessening. The owners hired Lucy because they tried some of her recipes and enjoyed them very much. They allowed her to change the menu and they actually enjoyed an upsurge in clients last year.
Now, I thought this was a bit odd that she would be given so much control, given that she had never had a job as a head chef and had only been working in the industry for about a year when she landed this job. The job she had before that was at a sandwich/desert place on Reconquista near Alem, where she had raised the quality of deserts available by a significant degree, but she was not paid well and therefore looked for another job. Having said that, I know Lucy can cook and turn out a well-presented meal.
A222 apparently had owners that really didn't give much of a rat's ass about the place overall. Their equipment was breaking down all the time and at one point the employees had to throw out a large amount of refrigerated food because the owners wouldn't pay to get a new refrigerator, about which they had been warned repeatedly. No one ever saw the owners, who were a group of Argentines, which was pretty strange because usually Argentines are pretty hands-on with a business like this. There were even rumors among the employees that the place was actually a money-laundering scheme because of the lack of attention by the owners and the fact that the place didn't seem to be all that profitable. I personally doubt the money laundering aspect of this. I think they were just fools trying to invest in something they didn't know much about.
The only real contact they had with anyone owning the place was the owners' accountant who came once a month to pay everyone.
Anyway, about three months ago the employees arrived to work and the place was closed down. No notice had been given and there was no notice posted on the door to the place, no one there to tell them what happened. It was about in the middle of the month if I recall correctly.
They had only been paid about 2/3 of their wages from the previous month, with promises of full payment to come in the following month. Of course, I mentioned to Lucy that this didn't bode well and I was proved correct when they shut down.
For the next couple of weeks they talked to the accountant and tried to get hold of the owners. They were told first that the place was going to open again, that didn't happen. Then they were told that they would all get paid in full, but that never happened.
Finally, all of the employees filed a formal complaint against the owners, not really expecting to get anything out of it due to lack of money (can't get blood from a turnip), but doing what they could to protect their interests.
All of the above doesn't really have anything to do with labor practices here in particular (everything metnioned could happen just about anywhere I suppose), except to give some background about where Lucy is now and why.
A month and a half or so ago, she went to interview at Tucson at the Buenos Aires Design mall. She worked for a couple of days to prove her skills and was immediately hired. She worked the rest of the week en negro, and the following week they sent her to have her medical exam to put her into the white. At the end of that week they let her go before actually putting her officially into the white.
I must mention here that all of her restaurant job leads had been given to her via her school. They have a good placement program.
She was puzzled, but couldn't get any good information from her contacts at Tucson about why they had let her go. She was given some lame excuse that didn't make any sense (I can't remember now what it was) and they wouldn't comment any further.
About three weeks ago she was hired at another restaurant. She went through the same process she'd gone through at Tucson, was hired, offered a job in the white, etc. Just before they made it official, right after her medical exam, she was let go yet again. This time the excuse was that the person who she replaced wanted to return to her job and Lucy was out.
At the time, I was thinking in these two cases that maybe Lucy just wasn't working out too well and they didn't want to tell her that. It was the only thing that was making sense to me given the actions of both places.
She's been quite depressed. She ended up two weeks ago getting a job working for a clothes retailer as a saleswoman, making pretty poor wages (around $1800 pesos a month). Her lowest starting wage working for various restaurants had been $2500, up to $4300 as A222.
She talked to the placement person at the school to find out what the deal was, and to help her find something more suited to her skills than selling clothes. The person did some digging and found out what the issue was.
At both Tucson and the more recent restaurant, they let her go because of the complaint she and her fellow workers had filed against the owners of A222.
Apparently, as a part of the background check, employers are able to see any outstanding labor complaints issued by their prospective employees in the past. I don't know if that includes complaints that have been resolved or not, but for sure, both of these restaurants were able to see that she was currently in dispute.
She since has contacted her ex-coworkers from A222. Not a one of them has found a job in the cooking industry so far. Not a one has been put into any job working in the white. BTW - Lucy is working for a "China" and is working en negro.
I have heard that workers who file complaints and/or lawsuits against their employers are almost always successful. I have rarely heard of complaints or lawsuits that were justified, but given the society, I am sure a goodly portion of them are probably justified (I probably just haven't heard about them because they don't make good stories), as was the one that Lucy and her coworkers filed against the owners of A222.
But this is ridiculous. To me, given all of the issues that "workers' rights" has caused here in one form or another, it's no wonder there is no real growth in Argentina with industries outside of agriculture, and even that has had enough problems in various manners. I know there are many other issues related to government cotnrols and taxes and corruption, but this is a really big one.
In what fair world would a business have access to complaints filed by employees against other businesses? Of course, in what fair world would an extremely large percentage of frivolous complaints, that were designed only to get anything the worker can get out of an employer, would be successful? No matter which way you go here, you have a great chance of being screwed!
So the lesson here seems to be that if you are an honest employee and get screwed, suck it up and don't complain because you may find that you will not be able to work honestly, at least for some time to come.
If you're dishonest and lazy, have a field day with your complaints because you can get quite a lot out of people until they get wind of what you're doing. You can work in the black so no one looks at your past complaints, then screw the hell out of those who gave you a job by filing a lawsuit or complaint that is almost certain to get you some money to continue paying you just enough to work as little as possible and continue to party...
