She was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight;
A lovely Apparition sent
To be a moment’s ornament. – William Wordsworth
Sometimes there’s a major cultural gap between whores and amateurs; either we say or write things that most amateurs seem completely unable to comprehend, or else they make a big deal about something which seems to us much ado about nothing. The particular story which made me think about this was this one published on the BBC News website on May 20th, which came to my attention via EconJeff on the 24th:
[Munich Re, the world’s biggest re-insurer,] held a party [in 2007] for salesmen where they were rewarded with the services of prostitutes…The gathering was held at a thermal baths in the Hungarian capital Budapest as a reward to particularly successful salesmen. There were about 100 guests and 20 prostitutes were hired…[the women wore] colour-coded arm-bands designating their availability, and…had their arms stamped after each service rendered…guests were able to take the women to four-poster beds at the spa “and do whatever they liked”…”The women wore red and yellow wrist bands. One lot were hostesses, the others would fulfil your every wish. There were also women with white wrist bands. They were reserved for board members and the very best sales reps.” A spokesman for Ergo [a division of Munich Re] told the BBC that the party had happened, but said it was not the usual way of rewarding their employees…”We’ve taken all the right steps to prevent it happening again,” he said. “It was a mistake but we are very sure that it was a unique event. The new people of the sales organisation introduced a very personal commitment that these things should not happen again.”
I’m trying very hard to grasp how a sales reward party held four years ago can be considered news in any way. Companies do this sort of thing all the time as an incentive to salespeople: top producers are flown to some resort, put up in luxury, feted and sometimes showered with gifts and personal services such as massages or (in the case of saleswomen) makeovers. Since prostitution is legal both in Germany and Hungary, what’s the problem? Obviously nobody complained because if he had this would’ve been current non-news in 2007 instead of old non-news in 2011. Did some radical feminists get upset or something, or was the party held without the board’s permission? Did the randy Germans rack up too high a tab, or did the tax men reject the cost as an allowable business expense? Because if it’s the latter, and you agree with the disallowance, maybe you’d better sit down because you’re not going to like what you read next: this happens on a much smaller scale all over the world, all the time.
One of the perks of many executive or sales jobs is a company expense account; the employee is allowed considerable leeway in spending at restaurants, clubs and other entertainment venues because it is recognized that a little wining and dining goes a long way toward winning customers (and that includes politicians being wooed by lobbyists). In other words, a few hundred dollars worth of food and entertainment can result in many thousands or even millions in business. And though prudish accountants might balk at payouts to strip clubs and call girls, they don’t have to know; the racy names of many adult entertainment companies are just DBAs, and the actual names on their business licenses are either neutral (mine was a set of initials) or sound like those of other hospitality industry companies.
Most of the time the girls don’t even directly realize they’re being employed as bribes, but if you are an escort who’s ever been hired by one man for another (outside of bachelor-party arrangements or dads initiating sons) you have served in this capacity, even if the guy who hired you referred to the gift’s recipient as his “friend”. And if you work in a state or national capital, a good percentage of those “friends” were either politicians or bureaucrats. Since I’m reasonably quick on the uptake I generally recognized these situations for what they were, but I remember one instance where I didn’t have to guess because the gentleman who hired me spelled it out: he was the regional sales representative for a large vendor of snack foods, and I was the bribe for the buyer of a large retail grocery chain to switch from his current supplier to that which employed my client. Considering how much money was riding on the deal I couldn’t help but feel incredibly flattered, and I suspect that was exactly what my wily client intended by telling me; the self-confidence boost raised my charisma by several notches over its already-high level, and I had the buyer eating out of my hand as soon as I walked through the door.
But it’s not only high-level employees who get their companies to hire whores for them; even lower-level employees who travel for their jobs can usually manage it even without expense accounts, thanks to the magic of per diem allowances. For those unfamiliar with the term, a per diem is a set amount of money for which employees are reimbursed when travelling on business. Some companies insist on receipts for everything and pay only what the employee actually spends, but others prefer to avoid wasting their accountants’ time with such minutiae and therefore simply pay the full per diem due that employee. A man who prefers fine women to fine food can therefore easily hire an escort and be reimbursed by his company, through the simple expedient of eating much more cheaply than his per diem allows and applying the surplus toward his other appetites. If you’re a corporate accountant and have never considered that your travelling employees might do this, I suggest you look at it philosophically: How can it be right for the company to pay for the satisfaction of one physical need but wrong to pay for another? You’re spending the same amount of money in either case, and a happy, relaxed employee will almost certainly do a better job.
This is a standard aspect of almost all deal-making in Asia. It doesn’t matter where you are – Shanghai, Seoul or Osaka – it’s the same thing.
In Tokyo, it’s particularly structured. Any ideological assault on what’s considered any social norm there (including prostitution) is not welcomed. This means any kind of activism there for ideological grounds is difficult. Try educating people about the environment.
But in Korea, this was standard form. My ex, was almost always paid by a third party – the agency she worked for would send her, and the person she met, often multiple times, was rarely ever the one who had been paying. It was usually a quid-pro-quo from a related corporation, or a corporate gift, or a boss or such thing.
It’s a standard method for rewarding business contacts.
One benefit – as the customer wasn’t paying, if you could entertain client in proper style, and impress them, this is what you got: Referrals, connections into a specific (and usually lucrative) business network, hence more clients who were trustworthy, and repeat customers (she said these were the best); and you also got more money, because the direct client wasn’t the payee.
I’ve found in these situations that keeping the payee and the one being serviced generally makes it easier for sellers. Of anything.
Regarding Japan and its social norms, I remember being charmed to learn that a Japanese Prime Minister was suffering public opprobrium not because he had kept a mistress, but because when it had been time for her to retire he had been a cheap bastard about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sōsuke_Uno
Of course. Lovers who are treated well tend not to do things like go to the press.
As I understand it, in Japan a man who reaches a certain rank in business or government is EXPECTED to have a mistress. Furthermore, since he turns his entire paycheck over to his wife (social norm) and receives an allowance, his wife knows about the mistress because the wife PAYS for the mistress. I very much doubt that the mistress in the Prime Minister’s case went to the press – I think that’s in the class of things that AREN’T DONE – but it was generally known who she was and it became apparent that the Prime minister hadn’t taken care of his ex-mistress properly. THAT was the scandal.
Sounds like a sensible, realistic, mature system for me, both for what was the scandal and for what wasn’t. Getting some on the side is just being a man, but failing to be generous is unmanly.
I think that tangentially this speaks to the unspoken subtext to the Clinton scandal; what made the Republicans so mad, that they couldn’t quite verbalize. Monica wasn’t Presidential calibre. The Leader Of The Free World is supposed to have a top flight mistress. Granted that when JFK was carrying on with Marilyn Monroe he was taking advantage of a woman with the emotional maturity of a six year old, but it LOOKED better. Damnit, the President isn’t supposed to be banging the help.
Schofield,
The President *can* bang the help, he just can’t take the help for a mistress.
And although I don’t like Republicans (or Democrats either), I happen to agree with them in this instance. Lewinski was definitely NOT mistress material.
What was Clinton thinking? I would not have touched Lewinski with a ten foot pole if I had been a heterosexual male like him.
I have to daisagree with you, Susan. Monica was totally hot! What a luscious girl. Most men prefer her hourglass curves to stick skinny models any day of the week.
Imagine the thrill of her climbing under the desk, wedging her hips around his knees, that soft mouth!
Ohh la la! I would have been all over Monica, too, and screw the class differences.
Your post startled me enough that I went and Googled Monica Lewinsky Images to check. I remember her as fat faced and dumpy. Apparently she cleans up nice. I don’t like stick figures (my wife comes up to my chin and weighs more than I do) but the Monica I remembered from news photos didn’t push the “Glamorous” button for me. She still doesn’t (neither do nine tenths of all female movie stars, past or present, for that matter). I thought then and thought now that what Clinton saw in her was what is important in Real Estate; location, location, and location. She was available, she was unlikely to object, and that was it.
Of course if I was married to a leather-lunged bitch like Hillary I might feel the same. And if I was a copper-plated sonofabitch like Bill, anyone I’d married would eventually BECOME a leather-lunged bitch.
Well, Andrea, it’s not her weight. A mistress can have meat on her bones. It’s just that Lewinski might be good for a one-night stand perhaps, but is not mistress material.
But I guess that is just my opinion.
Of course, I agree, Maggie.
In Korea, the issue is being flagrant or stupid enough to get caught. That’s what’s considered insulting: You disrespected your wife sufficiently to not be careful.
The corollary to this: If you’re a wife, don’t look too hard.
That seems to be the general rule.
And lovers are expected to be looked after. A generation ago, a lot of korean men had double families – and if the second family wasn’t cared for, it was deeply humiliating. Such a man was considered trashy.
People generally pitied such abandoned lovers and their children.
@Gorb,
Gotta buddy of mine in Daegu, been there a decade now. He’s got a steady live-in gf and known her for about 8 years. Last year he had a fling with a married Korean woman. Fell in love with her and said she was the hottest chick he’d ever been with. His gf (not live-in at the time) knew about it. Trouble is, fling lady was married. He had to break it off with her. He still loves her. But he also says the consequences of fooling around with a married woman is steep, and may include prison.
True? Exaggeration?
I guess the consequences in the USA are you get to say hello to a 12-gauge shotgun.
What are the consequences in Korea?
I believe that the Koreans go in for knives…….
In Korea, officially, it’s the most sexually conservative and morally uptight country in the world. There, if you cheat, *and are caught in flagrante delectio*, emphasis on that point, then there’s jail time, and you lose literally everything in the divorce.
There are bizarro stories about women setting guys up with prostitutes in hotels with cameras and private detectives hiding in closets. Same for guys: bursting into hotel rooms to get pictures of their wives with other men. These are almost always setups. With laws like these, there are some pretty convoluted and twisted schemes that people come up with to extract the maximum amount of money in a divorce.
That said, people fuck each other outside of marriage at least as much as anywhere else, if not more. That’s a fact.
If you’re banging a married woman, you need to do what I did: Discretion is the better part of valor and survival.
You get points for being discreet in everything in Korea.
My husband worked in Japan for two years at a major engineering firm and of course regularly selected and enjoyed the services of working girls.
And when we both worked in the banking sector in Canada, this was also normal business practice. He worked in the private banking section where there are literally billions of dollars at stake, and working girls were an intrinsic part of the sale.
Personally, I think professionals need a union for these kinds of arrangements to make sure they get a fair cut of the deal. Why should the advisors rake in tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses for every deal they make, while the girls take home a few hundred, maybe a thousand at best? That’s bullshit!
At the bank where I worked, a group of senior female advisors threw a hissy because they didn’t WANT to go to strip bars (cough* jealous fat bitches* cough) and there was a major kerfluffle over it. All these dumb twats achieved was to make certain that they were shut out of the best deals, as the whole practice went underground.
Every year, my husband’s boss makes the whole faculty go on “team-building” exercises and take hokey fucking courses on morale. I think they would all be much happier going to a hot-tub party with a handjob at the end of it. And the women on the team would rather have a massage and a Coach purse.
As far as I’m concerned the only issue is “Did you tip her enough?” Ante up, jackass!
Whores working on a commission basis? Now that is an interesting idea! 🙂
Mina made $7500 in one night working to help smooth over details at a dinner meeting. She was entertainment and was supposed to be a “social facilitator”. She had sex with no-one and wasn’t groped. She’d been with that particular client before, though. The client needed to facilitate a complex deal and they talked all night. She made sure drinks came, egos were stroked, conversation was light. There was no talk of her being an escort; she was a social facilitator. It wasn’t unrelated to her day job.
For her tact, and charm, she got $7500, plus about $10,000 4 months later when a deal went through. It was the only time that happens, but there’s what you get when you link into the right network and you have more than a nice pair of tits.
Amittedly, that’s pretty rare. But it does happen when you link business and sex.
On the other hand, she’d been paid to be with that particular client a number of times before.
Sometimes the fun is in the details.
1)The party took place in 2007. Why did it become public in 2011. Nasty competition?
2) Did the public get exited? Moderately so, but many grumbled about these arrogant insurance companies, which sell their products much too expensive, and here is the proof, why. “What do they do with my hard-earned money….”
3. The whores were stamped. Why? Because they spoke no German, so no fight neccessary about the number of services rendered. Clever accountants.
4. The salesmen are independent contractors. Under German income tax law an bash like this is counted as income, in this case 3000 Euros. Here is a little calculation. If a salesmen is in the 40% income bracket, so the taxman collects 1200 Euros, or 1700 $. Food for thought.
5. A few feminists grumbled about the color-codeded armbands, so the girls were “selected”, a very bad word in German, because it reminds Germans of their terrible past – and a good German feminist has a anti-capitalistic streak in her.
6. Yes, the expenses for this sales-metting were tax-deductible (which came out two weeks later. More complaints about German tax law, which pamperes the big companies and squeezes the little man.
7. Was this sales-meeting successful? An Austrian brothel-owner gave an Interview in “Wirtschaftswoche” (and, by the way, the author of an interesting book “How to run a brothel”). He thinks, that 100 participants are way too many. In order to achieve bonding and motivation the group should not have more than 20 participants, and they should ALL have fun in bed, so nobody could come home and tell his wife: “I did not do it.” Which may answer point 1.
Thanks for the details, Xerxes! IMHO all radical feminists are Marxists at heart; all their talk of two large groups of society at war with one another, and the “oppressed” group revolting against its “oppressors”, is straight out of the Communist Manifesto.
One of the reasons why women must always be victims. It’s past of the worldview.
Victims and victimizers.
I’m not sure all radical feminists are Marxists – I’m not convinced that all of them know the difference between Karl and Groucho. They are, however, all Moral Superiority Drama Queens. At some level they know that if all women AREN’T victims, then THEY are ostentatiously useless, and THAT would be TRUELY DREADFUL. Like most Radicals of any stripe morality is only important in so far as it makes THEM important.
Just stumbled on over here from another blog I read. This whole business-facilitation topic fascinates me because I wonder what the deal is when the top salesperson or top executive or potential client is a woman? Personally, I have a fairly high sex drive and would not mind being provided a hairy-chested bald guyby someone trying to get me to sign on the dotted line. But do businesswomen generally want stuff like shopping sprees and spa weekends instead of gigolos? I don’t know any top businesswomen, so I have no idea how they’re wined-and-dined. I just think it would be fun to be….entertained…by a healthy young buck from time to time 🙂
The most successful saleswoman gets to go to Harlot Fantasy Camp for a day. She isn’t rewarded by whores, she’s rewarded by getting to be a whore.
Or maybe not. But, that would get her the hot young buck (its a fantasy camp so only hot customers are accepted).
Germany has plenty of male prostitutes (professional, amateur and pro-am.) A women with an exceptional level of maennlichkeit could be presented with the archetype male of her choice, from a “host club” level pretty Danish teenager to a rustic east German farmer with magic hands and a balloon payment on his mortgage. Plus, some cities have ethnic brothels (Frankfurt and Cologne have Brazilian-staffed male brothels, Hamburg and dortmund have plenty of Asian tech workers who write code all day and moonlight as anime-style pretty boys, Berlin has at least two defacto brothels that specialize in men of African descent.) And, as if it bears repeating, the average German person has experimented at least once in his or her life. It’s likely that a female prostitute would be seen as acceptable for a night’s dalliance.
(I say “at least two” Berlin brothels because I walked into the wrong establishment on one occasion and was told in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t “African enough” to make any money, then I was given directions to the “continental” and “Caribbean” bars, because “some women like their Africans to be ‘mixed’.”)