Word: demanding
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...chronic complainer is another category. You know the type: if a lightbulb blows in his hotel room, he wants to be comped for a three-day stay. If the cable is down for a minute, the demand is a month's refund. Some people just love to play the game hard. I remember standing behind one of these chronics while on line at an airline counter. He wouldn't give up demanding compensation for something ridiculous, and the agent wouldn't give in, until he finally got to the usual ultimatum: "I'm never flying this airline again." I found...
...energy-efficient light-bulbs sold as a result, but by whether it motivates concertgoers to make climate-change their generation's political priority, and press their leaders to act on it. Al Gore and company deserve credit for putting forth a 7-point pledge for concertgoers that includes a demand that countries join an international treaty mandating a 90% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. That will only happen if voters reward politicians who fight to cut carbon gas emissions, and punish those who don't. "It's not what we do today that matters," says Live Earth Tokyo...
...flexibility also extends to the rhythm of work: BMW has struck deals with its heavily unionized workforce that enable it to run its factories more or less as demand dictates. Its newest plant in Leipzig, where the 3-series and new 1-series hatchback cars are built, runs anywhere from 60 to 140 hours per week. Instead of classic two- or three-shift rosters, the company juggles some 300 working-time permutations to determine optimal use of its teams of workers, some of whom are contract "permatemps" more common...
...1980s, when it opened a new plant in Regensburg to produce the 3-series. Its goal even then was to decouple the union-regulated workweek from the amount of time its factory was in operation. Management made flexible working hours a condition of its investment in the plant. The demand infuriated the powerful German autoworkers union, IG Metall, but the syndicate had little choice. "Without these restrictions we wouldn't have come up with these solutions. We had to be creative," says Ernst Baumann, the board member responsible for personnel...
...Alinghi to victory in Auckland four years ago, New Zealanders weren't impressed. But they may be starting to accept the realities of international sailing, where huge money tends to override national loyalties. "We've got 100 or so sailors on the scene and they're all in demand for America's Cup yachting," says Monk, who is confident New Zealand will mount an even stronger challenge in 2009. The key, he says, will be retaining a core of the current crew-maybe 12 of the 17. "Racing is all about combinations-about how people work together," Monk explains...