Thursday afternoon I went to the annual summit of the Danish Confederation of Industries (Dansk Industri). There is nothing elsewhere in the Western world that compares with this organization: It is the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and several other corporate organizations whose names I can’t think of, all rolled into …
Charming Danish customs
This was at the employment ministry Wednesday. I assumed the sign said “take one” rather than, say, “poison,” so I took one and ate it. Pretty good. And I’m still alive.
I’d heard of the Copenhagen city bike system, where you put in a 20 kroner (about $4) coin to get a bike, then get the money back when you return the bike to one of …
Obligatory scenic Copenhagen photo, and more
Yeah, I probably ought to be commenting on the GM-UAW deal. But I’ve been running around interviewing Danes all day everyday for an article I’m going to write on the swell Danish economy, and don’t have many brain cells left over for the American economy. I took this shot Wednesday on the way to a meeting with Knud Romer, author of the …
Guaranteed job security? What’s that?
So the striking workers at General Motors got off the picket line today after their union reps hammered out what some are calling a historic deal with management, says CNNMoney.com. The historic aspect had to do with the agreed-upon creation of a trust fund to be managed by the union and that would assume the costs of retiree health …
A shocking image from a Danish gas station
To translate: That’s $5.98 for exactly one gallon of diesel fuel, which is substantially cheaper than gas. (I was topping off the tank on my rental car before returning it at the Billund Airport Monday afternoon; hence the small amount–although I had no idea it would work out to be a gallon.)
Where I want to work when I grow up
This is part of the newsroom at Politiken, one of the leading Danish dailies (not the one that ran the cartoons, although they’re owned by the same company). I know it’s not much of a photo–I’m way too self-conscious to be any good as a photographer; I just want to take the shot quickly and unobtrusively and move on before anybody …
GM strikers play a dangerous game
Here are two industries I don’t closely follow: automotive and labor unions. That latter is one I should probably watch more carefully, seeing as unions have historically played an important role in American work life. I certainly get a lot of press releases from them announcing new bills in Congress or lawsuits against employers.
The …
Slices of Lego history and soon-to-be history
That’s the view from the room in Billund, Denmark, where Ole Kirk Christiansen founded Lego in 1932. Below is a Lego storage warehouse. Yes, every one of those boxes is full of Legos.
I spent Monday talking to various people at the company, which is in the process of outsourcing most of its production to Eastern Europe and Mexico. …
I just got recruited through LinkedIn
I very rarely get recruited. So rarely that sometimes I wonder what I’m doing wrong. When my colleagues were getting picked off by that new Condé Nast magazine Portfolio–all right, all of two TIME writers defected–I got nary a phone call. Not that I would have gone. If I had, I probably would have regretted it, considering all the …
The Danes are concerned
How solid is Working Mother’s seal of approval?
Tomorrow, Working Mother magazine will release its annual list of 100 best employers for working moms. There’ll be much fanfare as the magazine’s editors blanket the airwaves and employers around the country tout their placement on the list. I myself just got a pitch asking if TIME would care to interview the magazine’s editors, and …
Killer slugs in Denmark
Meet a monstrous byproduct of European integration. The result of the Spanish slug moving north and breeding with the hardy local black slug. They call it a Draebersnegle, or killer slug.
See, this is why the Danes won’t adopt the euro.
