Life in a Corporation

For most university graduates in Romania, a job in a multinational corporation is the best alternative to emigrating.

România Internațional, 07.08.2013, 11:57

Some 42 of the world’s biggest corporations have opened branch offices in Romania over the past 20 years, most of which deal in the import and distribution of goods and services. Usually, these companies’ local branches are headed by people from the shareholders’ countries of origin.

Nevertheless, for most university graduates, finding a job in a multinational corporation is the best alternative to emigrating. Multinationals pay better than small or state-owned companies and they also offer other types of advantages such as company cars, access to continuous education, private health insurance and bonuses for extra-hours. The private sector covers 14% of the Romanian labor market, according to data provided by an organization that promotes the interests of small and medium sized companies, the National Council of the Private Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. What young people don’t know when they fantasize about working in a big corporation is that advantages match the efforts only in theory. Reality is a lot tougher, according to Ioana Popescu, a 38-year old woman who works in the banking field.

“After graduating from university, we all saw multinational companies as places abounding in opportunities. I wanted find a job in a corporation. I didn’t know what that involved, it was tough at the beginning but little by little I got where I wanted. The level of professionalism is high. We all dreamed of being promoted, of learning many new things. A multinational was a sort of a Holy Grail to us. Reality is a little bit different though. It’s true, you have access to state-of-the-art software, you can learn a lot and have access to various courses. On the other hand, there is no time left for you to do anything else. So you find yourself in a situation where you have to give up your hobbies, your family life, the joy of going out and so on. This is something you don’t know from the beginning. You find that out when you’re already in the system.”

When you enter a corporatist environment you are told you have become part of a big family where everybody has his or her responsibilities but also the duty to help the others finish their job on time. Metaphorically speaking, people turn into bees that work for the good of the beehive. No one tells you from the beginning how many extra hours that entails. Ioana Popescu again:

“In time, you learn that there is no such thing as an 8-hour shift and that working hours extend until the job is done. And very often the job gets done long after an 8-hour shift is complete. No one forces you to work extra hours, you are free to decide for yourself. It depends on what you want. But if it’s a career you want, than this is what you have to do. If you want to be one of the two parents who makes sacrifices for the child’s sake, then you can say ‘yes, I’m doing this for my child.’ The price is quite high and in the best case you end up being a weekend mom. It’s very hard to give your job up because, if you know how to sell your work, if you work hard and reach a certain professional level, you can earn a lot of money in a multinational. So in terms of professional knowledge you’re high rated on the market. Perhaps that’s why it’s so hard to make tough decisions.”

After years of hard work, at a fast pace and almost uninterruptedly, people get tired and lose their motivation. Some of them even get depressed.

“There comes a time when you change as a person, but you only realize that when you go on a three week vacation and then you get back to this environment and see that it is not ok. You see other people leave home at 4 or 5 in the afternoon and you don’t think there is something wrong with you, but that there is something wrong with them, that they do not know what they want and how to grow as professionals. You need a moment to change, to make you understand the path you’ve taken is not the right one. In my case, there were some family problems that made me understood I needed to change something.”

Companies constantly promote career development opportunities and provide personal development training – professional training courses that are extremely expensive – and also, quite importantly, high-level medical care services. However, many of these companies’ employees end up on the shrink’s couch, as psychiatrist Gabriel Diaconu told us:

“When we start talking, I see that these people who come to me are angry with themselves. When they open their eyes they start asking themselves: How did I end up here?, Why did I allow this to happen to me? It’s a pretty nasty reality. As compared to the general population, with these people the risk of chronic insomnia is 3 to 4 times bigger, just like anxiety disorders. Talking about substance addiction, the risk is 6-7 times bigger for this category than for the rest of the population. They have to somehow support this fatigue generating enterprise, and I’m not talking about coffee or cigarettes, I’m talking about energy drinks, about cocktails that in the morning are based on taurine, and in the evening on alcohol. These cocktails are not just drinks, they keep the brain restless all the time.”

Still, what is it that motivates so many people into accepting this life, no matter how well paid it may be? Psychiatrist Gabriel Diaconu explains:

“They buy a standard of living. They actually live 2-3 weeks per year, when they go on holiday to Greece or Thailand, or go from work home driving a good car, or their house is in a better neighbourhood, it’s 30 square meter larger the regular ones and in that house they sleep in sheets they’ve bought for double the normal price. All these details give them the feeling that their life, as they’ve chosen it to be, is legitimate and well-ordered.”

Paradoxically, doctor Diaconu also says, many of the employees of multinationals that have seen him dream of gathering several hundreds thousands Euros and setting up their own business. They want to leave the system before it’s too late. And this is not a typically Romanian problem, Dr. Diaconu says:

“Romania is just now starting to wake up and understand. We only have a 20 year long corporate tradition. If we look across the ocean, we can see that a corporatist’s pathology is much more cynical.”

Ioana Popescu filed her resignation 45 days ago. Once the notice period is over, as stipulated in her employment contract, she just wants to live for a while. Ioana is 38, unmarried with no children.