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Keeping the Lights On

Posted by Zonk on from the don't-throw-out-the-old-guy-with-the-bathwater dept.

An anonymous reader wrote to mention an IBM article examining the role that older workers, experienced with legacy systems, should play in system maintenance. From the article: "Many enterprises still execute critical business operations ... via older software systems that run on large, mainframe computers rather than individual PCs. To meet changing business needs, these companies continually update, extend, and integrate their systems. Paradoxically, many of these companies also have policies that threaten the single greatest source of knowledge about their older systems: their most senior personnel. Although the aging workforce represents a vast pool of talent and experience, these businesses neither actively recruit senior workers nor provide incentives to retain those on staff.1 Instead, they mistakenly assume that they can hire younger, lower-paid people to perform the same tasks."

1 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Re:3X their former pay by Courageous · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Those that I've spoken with who have gone into consultancy say that once ALL of the benefits are gone, you need 2X your former pay just to break even. That's vacation, health care, dental, sick days, etc. Not to mention that consultants need to provide some sort of office space, communications, etc. Those costs were formerly paid by the employer. That's why the burden rate for you usually ends up looking like somewhere in the realm of 2X your salary.

    Your itemized list does not account for the primary reason to charge at or near a multiplier of 2X: business variance (i.e., the cost of down time between contracts, marketing, finding a new contract, and so forth). If you could count on having the same contract, year in and year out, 2X is generally an overcharge. Alas, one cannot count on that...

    I know business that run on multipliers in the ~1.5X range, and they make a profit, by the way. What they do is send their employees to the employers site, offer no facilities (the faciltiies falls under contract), and the day the employee is not covered by the contract is the day the employee is not paid.

    If I could turn my current job around at 1.6X, with a guarantee of employment, but had to conver all my own SS, medical, vacation, sick leave, etc, I'd take it in a heart beat. I'd incorporate as a California-S and be in $$$ city...

    C//