ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the temporal transformations that accompany the transition from socialist to multinational corporate work practices. It focuses on high-skilled labour more precisely, on banking sector employees. The new post-privatization time culture came as surprise to many of the former employees. The issue of the differences between socialist-era work-discipline and intensity and that of private/foreign companies came out when someone remembered his experience at his first job, just before the fall of communism. As Amy Todd reminds us, 'time has always been a salient dimension of work culture', but the regime of flexible accumulation brought new temporal structures. Romania ranked again first again and the Czech Republic third of all EU member states. The new forms of corporate work-discipline generated a new, fast-paced time-sense. Employees get a sense of proper behaviour and self-restraint, while the Q Bank's human resources managers get a better sense of their employee's personality.
