German Insurance company rewards its workers with...

[Korgeta]

.. Prostitutes?!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13454160

Well that's one way to recoup the bonuses that were probably handed out beforehand.

[Zed]

Prostitution's legal in Germany and Hungary, so if it happened there, I don't see the problem (although there might be issues of adultery involved).

[Molyneux]

I certainly feel sorry for any (faithful) married businessmen at that party...did they know what was going to occur ahead of time?

[Korgeta]

I think they would had got hints that such a event was going to take place. I would have hated to have gone to that party. Imagine you were the on the lower pay band and the woman you saw you kinda like was one of the ones 'reserved' for the directors or best salesmen. Definitely not for one who feels envy.

[Mr. Coffee]

So the German thirst for efficiency has led them to pussy. Gentlemen, we cannot allow them a pussy gap! Er... Wait... Are those two girls doing.... Oh. My. God.... MIEN FUHRER I CAN WALK! AND FUCK LIKE RETARDED HOWLER MONKEY!

[Mr. Coffee]

Seriously, if I were to offer high class poontang to my employees as a reward for best effort I'd have the hardest working flooring crew in the industry. This is fucking genius and I just wish I lived in a nation where this shit was legal.

[TC27]

I worked for a company here in the UK that was a multiple seller to large supermarkets - I know that the representatives of these supermarkets were taken on nights out by our salesman that included a happy ending all expenses met by our firm. I am sure this goes on everywhere even where prostitution is illegal.

Trust the Germans to organise it so well thoough.....

[someone_else]

It is relatively common here too. The main difference here is that they did it in the open.

But seriously, why do insurance companies need an insurer for them ? (the article says that the company is one of such insurance company for insurance companies)

[Molyneux]

I think they would had got hints that such a event was going to take place. I would have hated to have gone to that party. Imagine you were the on the lower pay band and the woman you saw you kinda like was one of the ones 'reserved' for the directors or best salesmen. Definitely not for one who feels envy.

I certainly hope so.

"Hey, Rick, your team had the highest sale rate in the company last quarter! Congratulations!"
"Thanks, Bob!"
"In fact, we're throwing you a party to celebrate!"
"Wow, thanks, Bob!"
"With free hookers!"
"Uh...I'm...I'm married, Bob."
"Oh...well, that's all right, you still get to watch the other guys in your department go at 'em! Too bad about the whole 'wife' thing, right?"

[Serafina]

It is relatively common here too. The main difference here is that they did it in the open.

But seriously, why do insurance companies need an insurer for them ? (the article says that the company is one of such insurance company for insurance companies)

It's basically an insurance for the REALLY big disasters. Like earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns, hurricanes, large terrorist attacks and whatnot.
In such cases, insurance companies have to pay out a lot of money. And what do you want to have when you have to pay a lot of money due to a catastrophe? That's right, insurance.

It's the same principle as with normal insurance, just on a larger scale: Risk transfer.
Reinsurances profit in the same way that normal insurances do - calculate the risks and the payouts resulting from those, then charge more than you'll have to pay out over a long period of time.

[kaeneth]

Seriously, if I were to offer high class poontang to my employees as a reward for best effort I'd have the hardest working flooring crew in the industry. This is fucking genius and I just wish I lived in a nation where this shit was legal.

Pretty much. Clearly we cannot let this stand. Lets legalise it in the US

In all seriousness, I'm still surprised they did it openly...even in a country where it is legal. Faithful married folk at that kind of party would probably take a morale hit to some degree....unless they got paid cash bonuses instead? XD

[Mr. Coffee]

Pretty much. Clearly we cannot let this stand. Lets legalise it in the US

Why the fuck not? If we legalize it it emans two things, we can standardize the profession (licensing, monthly physicals for STDs, blood testing and psychological evaluation to make sure they're not being abused and mistreated, ect), and we can tax the shit out of it (mo' money, gettin' buisy, mo money, it's my birfday!). Fuck, we might finally shed this prudish obsession with holding the nude human form as a thing to be censored, and instead show it as something to be enjoyed. Goddamn, we've already got a government made up entirely of whores-in-all-but-name, why not let the ones that are honest about it ply their trade openly?

[Skgoa]

I certainly feel sorry for any (faithful) married businessmen at that party...did they know what was going to occur ahead of time?

Um, we have no indication they were forced to accept the services offered...

[Teebs]

I certainly feel sorry for any (faithful) married businessmen at that party...did they know what was going to occur ahead of time?

Um, we have no indication they were forced to accept the services offered...

Just because you're not forced doesn't mean there isn't social pressure. If you turn up to your company's end of year party and are told your bonus is in the form of prostitutes and your colleagues are all heavily at it you're probably not going to be delighted if that's not your thing.

It would be interesting to know what happened with female employees too.

[folti78]

I certainly feel sorry for any (faithful) married businessmen at that party...did they know what was going to occur ahead of time?

Um, we have no indication they were forced to accept the services offered...

Just because you're not forced doesn't mean there isn't social pressure. If you turn up to your company's end of year party and are told your bonus is in the form of prostitutes and your colleagues are all heavily at it you're probably not going to be delighted if that's not your thing.

It would be interesting to know what happened with female employees too.

Organize it as a private part of a normal party? Everyone not into it just gets shitfaced in the usual way.

[kaeneth]

Pretty much. Clearly we cannot let this stand. Lets legalise it in the US

Why the fuck not?

I hope that was rhetorical. 'cause my statement was not sarcasm.

If we legalize it it emans two things, we can standardize the profession (licensing, monthly physicals for STDs, blood testing and psychological evaluation to make sure they're not being abused and mistreated, ect), and we can tax the shit out of it (mo' money, gettin' buisy, mo money, it's my birfday!). Fuck, we might finally shed this prudish obsession with holding the nude human form as a thing to be censored, and instead show it as something to be enjoyed. Goddamn, we've already got a government made up entirely of whores-in-all-but-name, why not let the ones that are honest about it ply their trade openly?

Pretty much. I'd rather have honest whores than corporatist-whores-who-write-laws-and-call-themselves-politicians.

[Molyneux]

I certainly feel sorry for any (faithful) married businessmen at that party...did they know what was going to occur ahead of time?

Um, we have no indication they were forced to accept the services offered...

As others have said, I didn't think that they would be forced to accept it - but it still sucks to be left out. Imagine, say, a full-service bacon (pork?) bar at an event where several of the employees are orthodox Jewish.

[Lusankya]

It's not as though the prostitutes were the only part of the evening's entertainment, though. The event was held at a bathhouse, and there were non-prostituting hostesses, who would possibly give lesser services such as massages in addition to the actual prostitutes. It's not as though the men who weren't interested in sex were completely left out.

I do, however, have a problem with the event in that the choice of venue and entertainment heavily implies that either there is not one woman amongst the 100 employees invited to that event, or the organisers deliberately chose to hold a party that would not create a welcoming environment for those women.

I feel kinda sorry for the gay men as well. It wouldn't have killed the company to hire a couple of male prostitutes along with all the female ones.

[Shroom Man 777]

Now that would've been a real party. Hookers, gigolos, man. That would've been so awesome.

I don't get why they are apologizing for this. It is, after all, completely legal. So there is still prudishness with them.

[Lusankya]

Well, if they were apologising for choosing that sort of party, then I can understand why the apology is necessary. For one thing, the article only mentions salesmen, which leads me to believe that one of the following is true:

a) either this company is so male-dominated that whatever selection process they used (merit, rank, names out of a hat) produced only men;
b) the women in the company were deliberately excluded from the staff party;
c) the article is using "salesmen" in a gender neutral sense, rather than "salespeople", meaning that there were women invited to the party.

The first two possibilities I don't really feel any need to extrapolate much on. Obviously if the first is true, then the company has bigger issues than "they hired prostitutes", while if the second is true, then they should be apologising for basically not inviting a large segment of perfectly qualified individuals. However if the third possibility is correct, then really it was an inappropriate party. A spa is nice and dandy for a single-gender party, but the moment you have two genders attending the party, things get dicey. The spas that I've been to (Asian spas, granted, not European spas) require that mixed gender parties be split - at least when people are using the bathing areas - since these areas are gender segregated, which is terrible planning if the goals of your party include increased workforce cohesion. Now, the spa in question might be 100% mixed gender, however that still leads the issue of the prostitutes, which, going by the article in any case, were hired solely for the benefit of the straight men/lesbians in the party, and not for anyone else. They should have hired prostitutes to serve all gender/sexuality combinations, or none at all.

That's what they should be apologising for.