They have leasing agreements. It is pretty variable in cost apparently, in terms of budget for the employee.

This wouldn’t work, but I can imagine something that would.

For example: “Tori-San expressed his understanding of the request at :10 in and indicated he would not be agree to the change. The meeting continued on for 50 more minutes and ended with the Americans understanding that they could investigate making the change. However, given Tori-San’s rank and that of the other participants there are no actions needed, the request will not be agreed on.”

To me it’s just the government / companies telling you how to spend your money on an item I don’t want.

Cars are depreciating assist though, not investments. I would take a gas card though.

You can see this in Reddit posts too. Very young people who work for multinationals complaining that they cannot get a company car despite quote “having a masters degree and two years experience!” I have no idea where they work of course but I can imagine the Deloitte VP of Accounting who just got her first company car after 15 years and with 40+ people in her reporting structure going “what the hell Belgium, why does this 28yo quant drive a Mercedes E Class paid by us!?”

I’m an American in Belgium.

Curious why you said I wasn’t an American. Did you mean I must be an American?

Company car culture. Taxes are high and compensation is low so people get really fancy company cars as a tax dodge. Even entry level IT and accounting people get cars but … their take home pay is like 2000 euro a month after taxes. My job pays well but without a car and people seem to think it’s some sort of negative statement on my worth but … I am taking home much more in net than them? (And I don’t get the expat tax advantage.)

Every time someone talks about how great AI is for summarizing work meetings, I think of my job at a very Japanese company a few years ago. How will your CoPilot handle someone saying one thing and meaning “No, I’m not going to do that.”

As a Gen Xer, my generation wears shoes indoors much more than our parents, and the next generation even less. Also, in areas with large Asian populations (Southern California) or very dirty / muddy/ sleety weather it is very common to have indoor and outdoor shoes.

What’s weird in the US is that sometimes people think it’s the people who ask you to take off your shoes who are rude and not the ones who are wearing their muddy ass shoes all over the house.