What I don't like in the article is the accent that is put on the advantages of the entrepreneur and little accent on the employee.
It's great that you can fire people when you want, but it sucks if you're the one getting fired.
It's great that you can fire people when you want, but it sucks if you're the one getting fired.
An alternative solution: make firing people easy, but provide some support to those who get fired. That has costs and benefits too, and is a discussion probably best left to another site. Its main benefit is that it moves the provisioning of "social assistance" from companies, who are no longer forced to hold on to unproductive/unneeded workers, to the government.
Firing someone is not the problem, it's the ensuing lawsuit that's the problem. If it's not done in a particular way you may end up paying an entire years salary instead of a few months.
As far as lawsuits go, that is really more about government regulation. Depending on the what the regulations say, getting sued may or may not be a real concern.
Also, it's very hard to evict someone. It takes a few years and the other person lives rent free. So your choices are to either put up an incredibly large deposit (+30,000€) or have your company guarantee the contract. In my case I just started a new job when I got my apartment. So I put down 22,000€ deposit. People are nicer when you write large checks :)
As for lawsuits. It's not the suit companies are worried about. But the lawyers fees. Labor law, here, is very exact and certain things have to be carried out before you can be fired. A lot of companies just settle because it's cheaper than what the lawyer would charge. Actual lawsuits are rare. A person intelligent to bring a lawsuit and have the funds to retain a lawyer usually doesn't have a problem finding work.
The minimal gain opposed to the guaranteed hassle of dealing with American authorities and rules simply isn't worth it for most foreign banks.
In this particular case it might not be a problem since Max can keep an eye on his employees , but as soon as you have a manager - you might be very afraid to get on his bad side (maybe in an argument over something technical or a complaint about your chair) for fear of getting fired.