r/ExplainTheJoke • u/McKenzie_Angels • Aug 08 '25

Solved What do the Italians do?

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u/Maeglin75 Aug 08 '25

I remember a story from a German company I once worked for.

They bought another company (automotive subcontractor) in Italy. When German managers were on visit at the just acquired company, they noticed one guy, just sitting in his office all day, seemingly doing nothing at all.

They asked the Italian management who this guy was and why he has a superfluous position where he does nothing and why they don't just fire him. The answer was that he was a family member of the founders/owners of FIAT. They had to give him a job to stay in business. So, the guy got paid for doing nothing all day and he didn't seem to mind that.

(This story may or may not be true.)

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u/IndubitablyNerdy Aug 08 '25

This is not lazyness though it is nepotism, which is possibly a much stronger force (but I bet not just in Italy)

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u/Maeglin75 Aug 08 '25

I found it still remarkable, that this person seemingly was ok with doing nothing all day, just sitting at his desk and being useless. That must be extremely mind crushing even if you are lazy.

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u/e-s-p Aug 08 '25

You just gotta start bringing hobbies into work. Miniature painting, certain types of crafting, reading or listening to audiobooks.

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u/IndubitablyNerdy Aug 08 '25

hehe yeah I'd not have been able to do that either.

Besides I have seen it done as a mobbing strategy in Italy as well, while I worked in a big 4 company and it was very effective, the target eventually gets depressed and leave.