Lists, Employee | featured news

Companies often tout their workplaces as an inviting environment for employees. Yet many are far from it, and workers at many of the largest corporations dislike, or even hate, their jobs.

Amid so much downsizing, it's risky and unnecessary for managers to let feelings confuse what ought to be a clean transaction when firing an employee.

Residents of Swiss financial center Zurich know that their country has more to offer than world-class chocolate and precision watches. They can now brag that, on the whole, they earn more than anyone in the world. Zurich-dwellers rake in $22.60 per hour in average net pay, according to a wage survey released August 19. The runner-up city is less than 200 miles southwest: Geneva, where jobs pay $20.40 per hour.