Good As Gone: Frustrated managers are ready to bolt if the economy heats up.

Information Week ^ | Sept 8, 2003 | Marianne Kolbasuk McGee with Chris Murphy

[oceanview]

this field is never going to "heat up" again, so there is no place to go. the only sane thing is to keep the job you have for as long as you can, while trying to find a way to go into something totally different. A very tall order, depending on your age, etc.

lots of new tech layoffs this quarter, I am hearing about them from people we work with.

[newgeezer]

Managers are particularly at risk of bolting. Almost half, 48%, across all business functions say they're looking for new jobs or plan to do so once the economy picks up, according to an Accenture survey.

If the state of our IT dept. is any indication of the norm, Managers are the ones whose skills are either outdated or nonexistent. So, being glorified paper pushers, they add little value.

If they're looking to bolt, it could be that they fear their days are numbered in this age of Lean Electronics^SM and Life Cycle Value Stream Management.

(For some reason, I'm having a Dilbert^TM moment.)

[The KG9 Kid]

Please don't be in California. I hope that you're oceanview is the Atlantic.

[The KG9 Kid]

you're = 'your'

Gak. I never make that rookie mistake.

[biblewonk]

You dint mention our dozens of VPs. What is it that they actually do to earn that 500K per year anyway? That one foot out the door thing for us lowly people sure is true. I want to quit engineering and drive a beer truck.

[Poohbah]

Which, in turn, will lead to MASSIVE sabotage. 1 or 2 pissed-off sysadmins can wreck a company in a matter of hours. . . .

Followed by permanent blacklisting, a civil judgement (that will NOT be dischargeable in bankruptcy) in the millions, and a possible stretch in prison being Bubba's "wench."

Some people would say, "Not that there's anything WRONG with that..."

[Joe Hadenuf]

THE NEW WORK PLACE STRATEGY

1. Make employees think the company is constantly losing money and profits are down, they will not be as quick to ask for more benefits or raises, and will refrain from complaining about working conditions and long hours. Remind them constantly that there are lay offs on the horizon.

2. Make the employees compete against each other by developing incentive programs that are really disguised and designed to make them compete against each other.

3. In lieu of regular deserved raises, offer prizes and small bonuses and developed programs that make employees compete against each other and call them incentive programs. Continue to warn them if they don't work harder and longer, the company or their position will be eliminated.

[StatesEnemy]

The well-being of workers is not a high priority of union leadership.

Which is why I didn't mention the "U" word. Collective bargaining only involves a loose collection of like-minded folk that recognize a common goal - and then forge a powerbase to reach that end.

Funny thing is, the very network that is their jobsite facilitates this action.

[oceanview]

it is. but i have friends who work at a fair number of prominent tech companies in 4 states, including CA.

[The KG9 Kid]

Okay... That's good. I was hoping you weren't in CA, because that's not quite how it's trending out here.

There does seem to be noticeable recovery. Nothing to write home about, but maybe decent enough to mention in passing in an anonymous FR thread.

[holdmuhbeer]

I know the Hyper Capitalists will rail about this being "socialism"

They are stupid, socialism is when the govt owns the means of distributing and producing goods, unions don't fall in that category. there are alot of people that don't really know the meaning of socialism, they just call something socialism because they don't particularly agree with it.

[Belial]

this field is never going to "heat up" again

Hopefully it will never go back to the days when any dogcatcher with DreamWeaver installed could pass themselves off as a C++ expert.

That aside, there has been a good market for programmers for decades, and it isn't go away. Not everyone can or wants to hire Indian programmers.

[Prof Engineer]

Gak. I never make that rookie mistake.

Rookie? It's the mark of a true FReeper.

[netmilsmom]

>>Which, in turn, will lead to MASSIVE sabotage. 1 or 2 pissed-off sysadmins can wreck a company in a matter of hours. . . .

You don't really want to get into a war with your techies: you WILL lose. . .<<

You bet and since anyone who knows what he is doing, can cover his tracks, they will never know who did it.

[Who dat?]

Followed by permanent blacklisting, a civil judgement (that will NOT be dischargeable in bankruptcy) in the millions, and a possible stretch in prison being Bubba's "wench."

We had something similar that happened. An administrator caused a problem right before (last day) he left for a new job. They went after him in a big way. I believe that they pursued criminal and civil charges. I know he was arrested for something or other related to it.

I know the CEO, CIO and COO and a couple of managers were back and forth to court every couple of weeks for almost two years. He’s been unemployed since probably mid 1999. Well, as far as IT goes. I think he does landscaping from time to time.

They were pretty hush-hush about the goings-on, but anytime his name was mentioned they’d sort of smile and snicker. It led me to believe that he was in the process of getting vigorously screwed.

[LTCJ]

The incentive to remain with a company used to grow with the amount of time you've been with the company. As someone in my mid-40s, I passed up several opportunities to go elsewhere over the last few years because I was looking to build on 15+ years invested in my pension plan.

On Monday, our company started mass meetings to announce drastic cuts in retirement benefits, including what amounts to a total loss of medical coverage.

They've basically removed most of the obsticals now to me (and legions of my fellow employees) walking out the door with the "critical skills" experience they cannot replace. The good news is that when the next chance comes along, I'll no longer be bound by 'Golden handcuffs'.

[expatpat]

Just hope you don't get polled.

[Texas_Dawg]

I think you need to go learn what "capitalism" is. Monopolies are not capitalist.

[StatesEnemy]

I hope those CEO, CIO, and COO's have state of thew art security systems... I hope they've warned their immediate families to be on guard.

Mess with a man's living, and who knows what can happen....

[dfrussell]

The *MANAGERS*..????

One can only HOPE they're ready to go... the worker bees have been ready for them to go for at least a year.