Posted by
CmdrTaco
on from the stuff-to-think-about-it dept.
richnut writes "Here's an interesting LA Times article on the negative side of being a well-paid techie in today's industry. "
Talks about burnout, stress, boredom, restlessness, and all
the other things that so many of us get used to before quitting
and moving on. Been through that twice...
Re:This is exactly why I got an MS in CS
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 3
A CS degree is NOT about employment skills precisely *because* the field moves so quickly. It's about the ability to process heaps of complicated logic.
Imagine knowledge as a hierarchy of categories and concepts. At first glance, you might say, why not only learn the bottom of the hierarchy, in other words, a disorganized mound of methods and ideas. It's sufficent, right?
I suppose it is. But it's much easier to operate on concepts and metaphors that will last a lifetime than on ideas on the bottom level that will quickly fall through the floor anyway.
Here's an illustration: you could spend hours and hours memorizing the areas of differently dimensioned right triangles. If you memorized enough of them to precision, you could be as talented as this computation as the guy who understands base x height / 2. But I think we all realize whose knowledge and understanding is more valuable.
Another important differce between computer scientists and technicians in general is that computer scientists are guaranteed to be capable of dealing with massive changes in their daily thinking. Many of them have to deal with as many as 15 languages through their years in college.
Companies don't ask for Computer Scientists because every company in the world is ignorant. That's the beauty of a fluid capitalist economy. The best idea tends to win. They ask for CS students because they tend to have extremely strong conceptual ability that goes beyond having memorized syntax or having entry level programming experience.
Re:This is exactly why I got an MS in CS
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 5
The "real meat of a CS degree"? That is funny! I hear this from folks all the time, yet, those same folks tend to be the ones who talk but cannot do. I do not question your skill or your acheivements, but a degree in CS has VERY little to do with skill these days. Everything moves too fast. Teach yourself or die. I don't argue that theory has its place, but in most schools a degree in CS is a good way to waste 4 years and spend lots of $$ drawing flow charts and state diagrams for useless code.
Did you ever notice how those that value the diploma more than all others generally are those who have no clue? (Usually ending up as managers because they are not capable of perfoming technically.) And, they are the ones that assume that everyone should waste their life away at work. I know plenty of folks that live for their meaningless job, and most have a degree. It is not weather you have a degree or not, it is what you will put up with that shapes your quality of life.
I am a college drop out, yet my life is great. I work about 40 hours a week as a network engineer/programmer, and spend most of my time with my wife and son. Yet, I am a highly skilled and respected employee. How did I pull it off? Priorities. Nobody seems to have them in ANY field these days. Those that are willing to put up with the garbage-life culture make things harder and harder on those who won't. So people jump from job to job, companies treat them like interchangeable cogs, life comes last and cash comes first, and in the end most people burn their life away without ever questioning what is hapening, or why the average quality of life today is so poor compared to that of only a few decades ago, or why kids are increasingly less human, or why they had everything and yet were never fulfilled. Religion is not what is missing, plain old value for human life is what is missing. People don't understand that life without quality is worse than death.
The general trend of a younger workforce that is not necessarily tied down to a spounce or particular area is common in all the engineering and scientific fields (I know that chemical engineers are looking at the lack of family time due to extended hours; however, this is being snipped in the bud as it goes along here; IT still has it tough.
One possible suggestion: in this article, it claims that e-commerce is 24/7, which I don't argue with. However, most chemical plants also run 24/7, and if something fails, it's usually more than just money that can be lost. So why is there a difference between this and IT? Mainly, it's because there are shifts, with 3 people that are sufficiently familiar with the equipment to monitor it and watch for problems, while one or more people up the chain are well-skilled in the plant design that can be called it when things are beyond control. The shift workers need to know various details, but don't need to be able to design and debug a plant as well.
The same concept can be used towards IT, I think. You still need the webmaster/server/whatever expert that can do all the design and such, but his time should not be spent monitoring the system from day-to-day. Instead, hiring some proficient IT workers that can monitor the status of the server, and know how to restart the web server process or shut it down, or various other details, and can then contact the higher-up in case of a major problem. Then, you'd just need to put the 3 workers on a shift rotation. (Mind you, this scheme's not perfect, but I think it might be something to consider).
--
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
This is exactly why I got an MS in CS
by
timur
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· Score: 3
Network administrators and web site maintainers really are the janitors of the computer industry. This article validates some beliefs I've had for a long time. You keep hearing about people who leave college early for $40K+ jobs, and this is exactly where they end up. I have no sympathy for them at all, because they thought they could make easy money by ignoring the real meat of a computer science degree.
My salary is also "up there", but I don't have to work these ungodly hours. I don't work on the weekends, I don't work late into the night. I have a beeper, but I only wear it when I go to lunch, and no one's every beeped me anyway. How did I manage this? I got a real education in computer science, and now I work as a BIOS programmer for Dell. I do real CS work - very few people can program in this environment, and the courses on microprocessor and microsystems design I took in grad school were valuable.
Oh sure, there are exceptions. One of my colleagues here never got his college degree, and he's at least as good as I am at this stuff.
-- Timur Tabi Remove "nospam_" from email address
First comment? Why Open Source...
by
Frank+Sullivan
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· Score: 4
Why is Open Source doing so well? Because software SHOULD be emotionally as well as financially rewarding. Programming can be a high art form, in the right environment. Writing free software is a chance to care about our code, not our paychecks.
-- Hand me that airplane glue and I'll tell you another story.
Yeah, it seems like there's a lot of identification with this story, and I'm no different -- at least in terms of environmental stress. But how I react is, I think, a little different and a little more constructive.
I've been in the professional ranks for ~10 years, and just ended a four-year salaried stint at a big telecom monolith, back to consulting (hourly). The new place is the most politicised, disorganized, ugly environment I've seen since I left my short stint at MS, but I'm more positive and upbeat. Why? Because I'm in control of my situation.
I'm in control even when I should be powerless. I keep reminding myself that 10 years ago I was jobless and homeless, living in the back of my van in the woods near where my girlfriend was going to school. So, even if I'm fired, I quit, and every other support structure in my life falls to pieces, I have faith that I can get back on my feet.
With this bit of knowledge in my back pocket, I can walk into my place of work every day and say to myself "If they genuinely want the work done, I will do my best effort, consistently and creativly. If they want to fuck with me and use me, I'll roll with it and use it to my advantage -- consistently and creatively." Call it flexible ethics, but I will do unto others as they do unto me. At the previously mentioned telecom monolith, I put in three years of solid, dedicated, hard work. Then they started to jerk me around, promise promotions and then fail to deliver when the prerequisites were reached, yank my projects, and use me as a political pawn. I turned around and made a conscious effort to make my boss (and his boss) look *very* good. That made me valuable, which enabled me to request and receive training "to try harder for that promotion" (read: "to make me more valuable"). Every time they jerked me around, I smiled and used it to my advantage. When I walked out the door, they lost a significant resource, and I added another major digit to my yearly salary.
Why do I have no problem with this seemingly amoral behavior? Because I know that my soul belongs to me, not to any company. The adage is true -- what doesn't kill you makes you stronger as long as you are conscious of it. Noone can take knowledge, skills, dedication, achievement, or experience away from you. However, you can certainly surrender any of these, and you are often encouraged to do so. Some of the best companies try to instill a sense of teamwork or community without realizing that what they're really trying to do is convince individuals that they can only truly achieve in a company-sponsored group or community. Somehow you're supposed to believe that great things can be achieved by collective use of mediocre skills. (And of course, your skills are mediocre by definition, because they are not yet associated with the power of teamwork... feh.) It's bullshit, and most of them don't even know why.
The real power is in the strength, knowledge, and leadership of the individual. The structure of most IT and development organizations is designed to squash/coopt that. You have to resist it with all your might, or you will find yourself just as this article describes -- overworked, undercompensated, lonely, and stressed out. Maybe you can't change the reality of your job requirements, but you can change everything about yourself: Use every opportunity to educate yourself. Use every task as an opportunity to learn. Study and remember everything you can, even if it's just whatever is visible on the boss' rolodex today. Register for whatever classes your employer will pay for or you can afford (even if they have nothing to do with your job). Take a foreign language. Sign up for vocational tech classes (I am a decent cabinetmaker and blacksmith, among other things). Paint. Sing. Write kernel code. Help your coworkers; get them to think of you as a resource. Don't play paintball, hit a punching bag, let loose primal screams, drive fast on the way home, or take things out on your mate, even if it makes you feel better. These things are temporary at best, and you could use that time to develop something in yourself that is lasting.
Focus on the strength, and the worst you can do is make yourself happier and more self-confident.
Granted, I didn't have much of a job, but I had a pretty decent job as a temp, and I didn't have a college degree. I figured it was cool doing tech support for Windows 95, since I had figured out the ins and outs of it. And it was actually rather simple. There are quite a few tricks you can use to avoid re-installing Windows 95.
But the company I worked for (First Data) "right-sized" and laid me off. I was one of their best workers, and was just about to become permanent. Unfortunately, there was nothing my boss or his immediate higher ups could do. Or at least nothing they did do.
I was also pushing Linux to certain of the IT folks, and they were interested after seeing that Linux had a GUI and they could also use it for certain server tasks.
At any rate, I took getting laid off as a cue to go back to school, and I've learned a lot more about Linux since then and would much rather work with it or Open Source when I get out of school. At least with a college degree I can pick and choose from jobs I'll enjoy more. Besides, I'm finding computer science quite interesting. It's funny, I hated math until I realized that computers and math go together. Now I like math.
But anyway, anyone have any experiences where you got pissed of at the job market and decided to go back to school?
You know what got me the most? There were people with college degrees that knew less than I did and were incompetent. But they had the higher paying jobs without the glass ceiling. And _that_ is what bothered me the most.
I suppose I should have tried working for a more forward-thinking company. The company drug tests and from what I remember it reminds me of typical corporate drudgery. Maybe I would have done better in another job.
I figure school is a better bet anyway, since I will have plenty of time to work for the rest of my life. I should give myself a better base set of skills to build on and a better job to start with.
Granted, a degree doesn't make you brilliant, but it can give you a better salary and better benefits/conditions to start off with.
Ben
techies who hate their jobs...
by
mazeone
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· Score: 3
I have to wonder how many of the people who were surveyed got into computers in college because they were told it was such a lucrative field. My programming classes were full of these people, who knew nothing about computers and couldn't have given a crap about them, they just wanted the big bucks when they got out of school. Where I work now I'm surrounded by these people...so I got a new job at a place where the people seem interested in computers and what they're working on. It seems like the people who got into the tech industry because they liked computers already do fine, it's just the people who got into to make the big $$$ who get burntout. Or something.
-- When in danger or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout.
Re:It all depends on the company
by
jshare
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· Score: 3
The company I used to work for started out really good. I came in as a summer-intern. I worked there for 3 summers and winter breaks. Then I decided to leave school, and go to work full-time.
At first, it was basically the same job (end user support, which I really love. Yeah, they are dumb, but it's not their job to be smart about it. I just like helping people.) as when I was an intern. I had no real responsibility, other than to fix the problems that came up, roll out new machines, and some basic administration stuff. I didn't "own" any projects.
I also was given a pretty good raise when that time rolled around (not much really, but good compared to the others).
Then, the upper management changed. They basically became very focused on tracking every minute of our time. I resented this.
I'm pretty smart (if I do say so myself), and I was good at my job. You would have been hard pressed to find a user who didn't have something nice to say about me. Definitely in comparison to other people there. So, when they started expecting me to work at full-tilt for the same pay (basically getting more work from me for free), I got a little pissed. I could easily do as much work in 4 hours as most of the others did in 8. Also, new hires, (who were less skilled/experienced than me) were coming on at my salary. So, the raise that I got ended up really just being a cost-of-living type increase.
Then they started requiring that we carry our Nextel phones at all times. 24-7. We didn't get paid for this, but we had to be available at all times. Not to mention the actual "on-call" pager that we passed around 1 week at a time.
Anyway, I realized they were treating all of us as components in a machine. Basically they put a lot of checks in place so they could see how much time the "components" were working. I can see this being an effective management strategy. You could definitely min-max your salary-paid for work-done. But it doesn't account for varying people's skills, and it doesn't treat people as people.
So, I left. If they replaced me, they probably got someone who wasn't as good, who they are probably paying the same salary. Their loss.
In a way, it was kind of good that it turned to shit, because I didn't feel bad about leaving (since they gave me a job w/o a college degree, and the summer job).
(Rant mode off)
Jordan
Other Professions... (and 2nd careers)
by
trims
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· Score: 3
So HiTech catches up with other professions. Alot of the nasty problems people seem to be encountering in hitech are the same for other "glamorous" and attractive professions: lawyering, doctors, investment bankers. Many professions these days are long hours, incredible stress, and low status. The upside of course is the pay.
Unfortunately, people outside the profession in question seldom take the time to consider all the angles before choosing to go into it, and then, WHOA! Big surprise! It's not all gravy! Part of the problem with hi-tech is that it's not old enough to have gotten the slow messsage out (as have lawyers and doctors and other high wage/high stress jobs) that there are downsides to things.
I still don't see this as necessarily bad. I'm 28, been in the business since 22, and plan to bail out before I'm 40. I suspect alot of folks are in the same situation - they'll put up with the downside to make the cash while they're young, then move on to another field which caters to their more "personal" needs later in life. Hell, my earning potential for the 15 or so years I'll be in IT should average out to be at least $100k/year - if I save correctly (or pehaps pay for the big ticket items (can we say house?)) while I'm doing IT, well, then, I can move into a $40k/year jobs that I enjoy (and has much less stress) afterwards and not have to worry about financing.
It's a possible change in the "work-lifecycle" - it used to be:
Start at entry-level, low-paying job
Slowly move up food chain, maximizing your earnings at 45-55 or so
Retire at 60ish to live on your IRA.
Perhaps now, we get:
Start at high-paying job
maximize earnings at 30-40
Switch careers and work at a much lower pace for 40-60
Retire
I for one are more than willing to put up with 15 years of doing a job I like, but that is severely stressful. I figure that about 40 I should have all the cash I want, my kids will be 5-7 or so, and I can be a park ranger (or whatever) and not worry about finances, and still have time for my kids. Fine By Me. You just need to have all the facts going into the equation.
IT - it's not for wimps.:-)
-Erik
(Oh, I'm a SysAdmin/MIS type)
-- There are always four sides to every story: your side, their side, the truth, and what really happened.
I am currently enrolled at the University of Illinois, going for a BA in computer engineering. When applying for college, I found it very hard to choose what I wanted to do... and I finally decided that I would be most interested in either psychology or computers. I finally chose computers because I had always been interested in them, and spent a good deal of my free time in high school fooling around with my pc.
I love my course material, and find it all very interesting, but one of the hardest things to deal with is that my hobby will become my job. It sounds like a dream come true at first... doing what you love every day and getting paid. But after meeting many fellow students here and going on a co-op last fall, I've become very frustrated because so many in the industry don't have any passion. I work on computers, and I love it. But so many work on them because they did well in math in science in high school and knew it would be a hot job market. They're just in it for the money, and don't hold any real interest in computers.
To quote JWZ, "You can divide our industry into two kinds of people: those who want to go work for a company and make it successful, and those who want to go work for a successful company." I'm definitely in the former group, and I wish more people in the industry were. It's hard to work on something when other's don't have the same passion. -------------------------------------------
-- He said, "You'll be able to tell your grandchildren that you helped assemble the first NT supercomputer," and I cringed.
Some of my experiences...
by
grappler
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· Score: 3
You know what my favorite windows trick is (short of trashing it of course)? I tell this to anybody that isn't literate enough to point toward linux. When you install it, you can pretty much count on having to reinstall it later, so just make at least 2 partitions on the hard disk. Install the OS on one of them. On the other, make directories like "downloads", "installations", "programs", "documents" etc. The programs that don't install by spreading themselves all over the place go on the second partition. The ones that do get the actual installation file in the "installs" directory so they can be easily be put back on. That way, when windows is to the point where the only thing to do is wipe 'er clean (and it will get there) reinstalling becomes a 3 hour job, tops. Plus, if you use tape backup, just backup the second partition.
My experience with the low end of the corporate world began with the (idiotic) idea of getting a job at the local radio shack. I easily passed their stupid test of tech proficiency (better than anyone else at the store could I suspect) but then I had to go to the local office and watch a long video that made the point again and again and again thta this was, in fact, an equal opportunity employer. Then I met my boss-to-be. He was a short, round little guy with a sallow complexion and beady eyes that gave the impression that all his spirit, pride in his work, sense of humor, and interest in life had been beaten out of him long ago. Then I had to fill out a huge (HUGE- it took over an hour and a half) packet with questions about drugs and stealing from your employer and crap like that. I felt insulted.
Anyhow, I was supposed to meet him one more time before it would be decided whether I would get the job. I decided then to screw it and go somewhere else. I'm glad I did. It would have been hell.
I still go in there sometimes when I'm passing by (It's inside the local mall) and pepper them with questions that they couldn't possibly know the answer to. Don't ask me why, I just feel like it. Their stuff is too overpriced anyway.
It doesn't make sense to me... The only times I burn out at companies are when the companies themselves are screwed up, and can't provide me with interesting work to do for the 60-80hrs/week I *LIKE* to spend there.
I program at home, I program at work, hell I write code on napkins, notebooks, and book-margins while sitting at a restaurant eating dinner.
The absolute best companies I've worked for were ones where I spent 80+ hrs/week for months on end doing amazingly cool development.
Burnout is only a factor for programmers if you work for a company that can't keep your mind occupied.
I can't STAND most large companies, as they're always ass-backward, and the developers are parceled out little tiny tasks to complete, and then micromanaged all to hell for those parcels. In small companies, you do EVERYTHING.
My first job out of college (10 years ago, dropped out to take a $35K/year job (I make well more than 2x that now) on the other coast), I developed two commercial products from scratch, convinced the company to set up an internal network, specced and hand-built the network (including running cable), did technical support, did sales, reverse-engineered software, and wrote probably a thousand small tools to automate tasks. I *LOVED* it there, and I only burned out when they got big and corporate, and wanted me to only do a single task or so.
Boredom kills.
If you have a passion for what you do, find a company that needs someone who has a passion for it. Not a company that just needs another body to clock in and out. You won't burn out until the company does.
Cyberfox!
It's all about priorities
by
bobdehnhardt
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· Score: 5
I've been doing sysadmin-type work for almost 20 years now, and I've nearly burned out a couple times (like when I was the only PC support tech for 240 users). But I have very clear priorities in my life, and I made them clear to my bosses when I was hired. I put my family first, then God, then country (okay, I'm a patriot, so sue me), and then career. I would be flexible, working weekends and evenings when it didn't conflict with other plans, but I would not sacrifice my Life for my Job.
Sure, it's caused problems sometimes. I had one boss that constantly rode me because I wouldn't stay late - I had to leave in time to pick up my kids from daycare. I eventually left that job for one closer to home. I probably have missed out on some promotions and raises along the way because I wasn't putting in the extra hours.
But, it's all worked out just fine. I'm currently employed at a company that is thrilled with the amount and quality of work I've been doing. They are paying me well, providing me with excellent career opportunities, and giving me interesting and challenging projects to work on. And they totally agree with and support my priorities in life.
As an example: My Dad was going in for some minor surgery, and I had wanted to be with Mom during the procedure. As I was getting ready to leave, we had a major server crash. I pitched in to provide some services on other servers while we ressurrected the original system. My boss noticed I was still there, stopped me from what I was doing, and said "We can handle this. Get out of here." Now at the time, her staff was a contractor that had been on-site for about a week, and a junior admin that had been hired two days earlier. It took them twice as long to get things back up and running without me. But she respected my priorities, as did her boss (the V.P. of I.S., who was in the server room when she kicked me out).
The Times article is true in many cases. But it doesn't have to be. It's all about establishing your priorities, amking them clear to your employer, and accepting that there may be consequences.
I'm interested every time I see an article claiming that restlessness is particular to the tech industry; it implies that there are people out there who aren't restless... an idea which to me is incomprehensible.
Restlessness is simply a fact of life. I'm relatively lucky; I have a strong emotional commitment to the product I work on, and I check in while on vacation not because I'm required to, but because I _care_... but there is still always a restlessness in the background, a thought that there must be more to life than this. I quit my job and travelled for six months, and that luzlled the restlessness into a sort of quiescence, but it's still there, lingering, building pressure, waiting to come out and reassert itself in the future.
Is this because I'm a tech industry worker? Am I a tech industry worker because of this restlessness? Or is there something about life in our culture, the modern consumer culture, which encourages restlessness and angst?
What is important in life? What truly leads to happiness? My parents didn't know; I've never learned it in school and my friends and colleagues don't know... and i live in a fast-paced world where the entire universe can literally change overnight, where I feel like I am always responding to events not driving them, even when I'm making the decisions. When do I have time to sit back and learn the things i've never learned?
I love my job. I love my friends. I live in a city that seems like paradise whenever I describe it while I'm travelling. I'm more or less content. But I'm not happy, and the worst of it is, I don't know why.
I've been playing with computers for money since 1977. I've never had a job longer than 3.5 years, and I actually had three fairly different jobs at that company. Usually I quit because I got burned out, not because I had a better offer. I always ended up making more money at the next job, though.
My dad worked at Rockwell for over twenty years. My father-in-law worked for TWA for 38 years. I just can't imagine that. I need the challenge of learning something completely new every couple years. And being around different people has helped me to see more ways of thinking about problems and their solutions.
I've been stressed in good ways and bad. I've learned how to detect BS without hardly listening. I've developed a cynical but very accurate way of rating executives, and predicting the success or failure of their pet projects. That's stressful because while I'm not underpaid, they are pulling down 2x-3x what I make, and often producing nothing but poor morale and economic losses.
But the other side of it all is that I have enough money to travel, to live in a nice house, to drive a fun car, to spend time with my friends and family. I can even make time to go to the gym once in a while.
The people who really burn out are the ones who can't find enough balance in their lives. Even the deepest wirehead needs to be social in a real-time 3D tactile environment sometimes (i.e. the real world, with real people). The ones who don't acknowledge that and MAKE TIME for it are the ones who have daydreams about moving to a teepee in northern Idaho.
It all depends on the company
by
JatTDB
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· Score: 3
I used to work at a technical support call center sweatshop, working long and odd hours with pay that paid the bills but not much else. Employees were treated like doggie doo on the bottom of the boss' shoe. Management was flaky, bad techs were seldom punished for making the rest of our jobs harder, and repeated promises of raises and benefits took forever to be implemented, if they ever did. I worked there for approximately 3 years, mostly because I felt tied to the place since I helped get it off the ground (I was the first employee). I went through several "burnout" periods at that place. I also didn't think there was much better out there, as the previous jobs I'd had were often similar.
Back in June of last year, I finally got tired of it and quit the hellhole. Before too long, I was hired by the company I work for now. Wonderful benefits package, great pay, intelligent and hard working coworkers, etc. Also, burnout doesn't seem to be nearly as much of a threat with what I do now. Sure, fixing user problems gets mundane now and then, but it's sprinkled with a nice mix of server administration, network planning and implementation, a little programming now and then, and other things that I genuinely like to do. For the first time in my life, I can see myself being with the same company for a long, long time to come. And it feels good.
After 18 years at this, I've figured out that it has nothing to do with where you work, but everything to do with the attitude you bring to work. I used to put in 100+ hour weeks, saving the company. I got burned out and left several companies, and you know what, the companies somehow survived!;-)
Now I don't carry a pager, work 9-5 M-F and make 3 times what I did when I was killing myself. I speak up when schedules are unreasonable or when designs and specifications are flawed. As a result, I meet deadlines with well designed products, rather than some of the 'night before the ship date' builds I used to send out.
Lots of techies seem to have problems dealing with management, but do little to improve the situation. The suits don't want to lose their staff, or be known as the manager of a failed project, so unless they are complete idiots, I've found most will listen to reason. It's up to us to speak up though!
I work for one of the Big Three telcos (AT&T, MCI-WorldCom, or Sprint -- won't say which, for reasons which I hope are obvious). I'm currently doing QA work on mainframes, analyzing and approving software written in COBOL and JCL designed to run under TSO.
Nevermind the fact that my background is in UNIX, C/C++, Java, networking and security. This is where the corporation "needs me", so here is where I am.
On the next floor there are eight openings for C developers in an AIX environment. I applied for a transfer, only to have the project lead up there tell me that although he had openings, he had no budget with which to pay me. There goes that opportunity to escape from the hell of IBM Big Iron.
When I first started here, the work week was 37.5 hours. The policy was that "we work hard all week, so everyone gets Friday afternoon off." On top of that, there was a liberal flextime policy. I accepted a $38,000/yr job here over some mid-$40K jobs elsewhere due to the great corporate policies and benefits.
After six months, policies changed.
It's now become a 48-hour-a-week-minimum shop. We've been told that, due to the upcoming Y2K bug, that no vacations will be approved for the rest of the year. (And what if, like me, you were planning on using your vacation for your honeymoon? Forget it. You get married, you show up at work the next day or else your job won't be here when you get back. And if you don't use up your vacation by the end of the year? Sorry -- no carryover.)
There's increasing pressure on us to put in more and more hours. 60-hour weeks are now standard in my division. We've been told that come the end of June it'll revert back to a 40-hour week; we don't know whether or not it's true. I imagine it's not.
We're losing people due to the awful work conditions. A friend who's a couple of cubes over has accepted employment elsewhere. He's trying to convince me to jump ship, too. I'm giving it a lot of thought.
After all, layoffs are on the horizon, too.
60-hour weeks, no vacations, reduced benefits, and the threat of impending layoffs just do wonders for employee morale.
Slashdot Mirror
A CS degree is NOT about employment skills precisely *because* the field moves so quickly. It's about the ability to process heaps of complicated logic.
Imagine knowledge as a hierarchy of categories and concepts. At first glance, you might say, why not only learn the bottom of the hierarchy, in other words, a disorganized mound of methods and ideas. It's sufficent, right?
I suppose it is. But it's much easier to operate on concepts and metaphors that will last a lifetime than on ideas on the bottom level that will quickly fall through the floor anyway.
Here's an illustration: you could spend hours and hours memorizing the areas of differently dimensioned right triangles. If you memorized enough of them to precision, you could be as talented as this computation as the guy who understands base x height / 2. But I think we all realize whose knowledge and understanding is more valuable.
Another important differce between computer scientists and technicians in general is that computer scientists are guaranteed to be capable of dealing with massive changes in their daily thinking. Many of them have to deal with as many as 15 languages through their years in college.
Companies don't ask for Computer Scientists because every company in the world is ignorant. That's the beauty of a fluid capitalist economy. The best idea tends to win. They ask for CS students because they tend to have extremely strong conceptual ability that goes beyond having memorized syntax or having entry level programming experience.
The "real meat of a CS degree"? That is funny! I hear this from folks all the time, yet, those same folks tend to be the ones who talk but cannot do.
I do not question your skill or your acheivements, but a degree in CS has VERY little to do with skill these days. Everything moves too fast. Teach yourself or die. I don't argue that theory has its place, but in most schools a degree in CS is a good way to waste 4 years and spend lots of $$ drawing flow charts and state diagrams for useless code.
Did you ever notice how those that value the diploma more than all others generally are those who have no clue? (Usually ending up as managers because they are not capable of perfoming technically.) And, they are the ones that assume that everyone should waste their life away at work. I know plenty of folks that live for their meaningless job, and most have a degree. It is not weather you have a degree or not, it is what you will put up with that shapes your quality of life.
I am a college drop out, yet my life is great. I work about 40 hours a week as a network engineer/programmer, and spend most of my time with my wife and son. Yet, I am a highly skilled and respected employee. How did I pull it off? Priorities. Nobody seems to have them in ANY field these days. Those that are willing to put up with the garbage-life culture make things harder and harder on those who won't. So people jump from job to job, companies treat them like interchangeable cogs, life comes last and cash comes first, and in the end most people burn their life away without ever questioning what is hapening, or why the average quality of life today is so poor compared to that of only a few decades ago, or why kids are increasingly less human, or why they had everything and yet were never fulfilled. Religion is not what is missing, plain old value for human life is what is missing. People don't understand that life without quality is worse than death.
-Paul "Rant-O-Matic" Hirsch
The general trend of a younger workforce that
is not necessarily tied down to a spounce
or particular area is common in all the engineering and scientific fields (I know
that chemical engineers are looking at the
lack of family time due to extended hours;
however, this is being snipped in the bud as
it goes along here; IT still has it tough.
One possible suggestion: in this article,
it claims that e-commerce is 24/7, which I
don't argue with. However, most chemical
plants also run 24/7, and if something
fails, it's usually more than just money that
can be lost. So why is there a difference
between this and IT? Mainly, it's because
there are shifts, with 3 people that are
sufficiently familiar with the equipment
to monitor it and watch for problems, while
one or more people up the chain are well-skilled
in the plant design that can be called it
when things are beyond control. The
shift workers need to know various details,
but don't need to be able to design and debug
a plant as well.
The same concept can be used towards IT, I think.
You still need the webmaster/server/whatever
expert that can do all the design and such, but
his time should not be spent monitoring the
system from day-to-day. Instead, hiring
some proficient IT workers that can monitor
the status of the server, and know how to
restart the web server process or shut it
down, or various other details, and can then
contact the higher-up in case of a major problem.
Then, you'd just need to put the 3 workers on
a shift rotation. (Mind you, this scheme's not
perfect, but I think it might be something to consider).
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
My salary is also "up there", but I don't have to work these ungodly hours. I don't work on the weekends, I don't work late into the night. I have a beeper, but I only wear it when I go to lunch, and no one's every beeped me anyway. How did I manage this? I got a real education in computer science, and now I work as a BIOS programmer for Dell. I do real CS work - very few people can program in this environment, and the courses on microprocessor and microsystems design I took in grad school were valuable.
Oh sure, there are exceptions. One of my colleagues here never got his college degree, and he's at least as good as I am at this stuff.
--
Timur Tabi
Remove "nospam_" from email address
Why is Open Source doing so well? Because software SHOULD be emotionally as well as financially rewarding. Programming can be a high art form, in the right environment. Writing free software is a chance to care about our code, not our paychecks.
Hand me that airplane glue and I'll tell you another story.
Yeah, it seems like there's a lot of identification with this story, and I'm no different -- at least in terms of environmental stress. But how I react is, I think, a little different and a little more constructive.
I've been in the professional ranks for ~10 years, and just ended a four-year salaried stint at a big telecom monolith, back to consulting (hourly). The new place is the most politicised, disorganized, ugly environment I've seen since I left my short stint at MS, but I'm more positive and upbeat. Why? Because I'm in control of my situation.
I'm in control even when I should be powerless. I keep reminding myself that 10 years ago I was jobless and homeless, living in the back of my van in the woods near where my girlfriend was going to school. So, even if I'm fired, I quit, and every other support structure in my life falls to pieces, I have faith that I can get back on my feet.
With this bit of knowledge in my back pocket, I can walk into my place of work every day and say to myself "If they genuinely want the work done, I will do my best effort, consistently and creativly. If they want to fuck with me and use me, I'll roll with it and use it to my advantage -- consistently and creatively." Call it flexible ethics, but I will do unto others as they do unto me. At the previously mentioned telecom monolith, I put in three years of solid, dedicated, hard work. Then they started to jerk me around, promise promotions and then fail to deliver when the prerequisites were reached, yank my projects, and use me as a political pawn. I turned around and made a conscious effort to make my boss (and his boss) look *very* good. That made me valuable, which enabled me to request and receive training "to try harder for that promotion" (read: "to make me more valuable"). Every time they jerked me around, I smiled and used it to my advantage. When I walked out the door, they lost a significant resource, and I added another major digit to my yearly salary.
Why do I have no problem with this seemingly amoral behavior? Because I know that my soul belongs to me, not to any company. The adage is true -- what doesn't kill you makes you stronger as long as you are conscious of it. Noone can take knowledge, skills, dedication, achievement, or experience away from you. However, you can certainly surrender any of these, and you are often encouraged to do so. Some of the best companies try to instill a sense of teamwork or community without realizing that what they're really trying to do is convince individuals that they can only truly achieve in a company-sponsored group or community. Somehow you're supposed to believe that great things can be achieved by collective use of mediocre skills. (And of course, your skills are mediocre by definition, because they are not yet associated with the power of teamwork... feh.) It's bullshit, and most of them don't even know why.
The real power is in the strength, knowledge, and leadership of the individual. The structure of most IT and development organizations is designed to squash/coopt that. You have to resist it with all your might, or you will find yourself just as this article describes -- overworked, undercompensated, lonely, and stressed out. Maybe you can't change the reality of your job requirements, but you can change everything about yourself: Use every opportunity to educate yourself. Use every task as an opportunity to learn. Study and remember everything you can, even if it's just whatever is visible on the boss' rolodex today. Register for whatever classes your employer will pay for or you can afford (even if they have nothing to do with your job). Take a foreign language. Sign up for vocational tech classes (I am a decent cabinetmaker and blacksmith, among other things). Paint. Sing. Write kernel code. Help your coworkers; get them to think of you as a resource. Don't play paintball, hit a punching bag, let loose primal screams, drive fast on the way home, or take things out on your mate, even if it makes you feel better. These things are temporary at best, and you could use that time to develop something in yourself that is lasting.
Focus on the strength, and the worst you can do is make yourself happier and more self-confident.
Jon xeno@wolfenet.com
I think not...(*poof*)
Granted, I didn't have much of a job, but I had a pretty decent job as a temp, and I didn't have a college degree. I figured it was cool doing tech support for Windows 95, since I had figured out the ins and outs of it. And it was actually rather simple. There are quite a few tricks you can use to avoid re-installing Windows 95.
But the company I worked for (First Data) "right-sized" and laid me off. I was one of their best workers, and was just about to become permanent. Unfortunately, there was nothing my boss or his immediate higher ups could do. Or at least nothing they did do.
I was also pushing Linux to certain of the IT folks, and they were interested after seeing that Linux had a GUI and they could also use it for certain server tasks.
At any rate, I took getting laid off as a cue to go back to school, and I've learned a lot more about Linux since then and would much rather work with it or Open Source when I get out of school. At least with a college degree I can pick and choose from jobs I'll enjoy more. Besides, I'm finding computer science quite interesting. It's funny, I hated math until I realized that computers and math go together. Now I like math.
But anyway, anyone have any experiences where you got pissed of at the job market and decided to go back to school?
You know what got me the most? There were people with college degrees that knew less than I did and were incompetent. But they had the higher paying jobs without the glass ceiling. And _that_ is what bothered me the most.
I suppose I should have tried working for a more forward-thinking company. The company drug tests and from what I remember it reminds me of typical corporate drudgery. Maybe I would have done better in another job.
I figure school is a better bet anyway, since I will have plenty of time to work for the rest of my life. I should give myself a better base set of skills to build on and a better job to start with.
Granted, a degree doesn't make you brilliant, but it can give you a better salary and better benefits/conditions to start off with.
Ben
I have to wonder how many of the people who were surveyed got into computers in college because they were told it was such a lucrative field. My programming classes were full of these people, who knew nothing about computers and couldn't have given a crap about them, they just wanted the big bucks when they got out of school. Where I work now I'm surrounded by these people...so I got a new job at a place where the people seem interested in computers and what they're working on. It seems like the people who got into the tech industry because they liked computers already do fine, it's just the people who got into to make the big $$$ who get burntout. Or something.
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout.
The company I used to work for started out really good. I came in as a summer-intern. I worked there for 3 summers and winter breaks. Then I decided to leave school, and go to work full-time.
At first, it was basically the same job (end user support, which I really love. Yeah, they are dumb, but it's not their job to be smart about it. I just like helping people.) as when I was an intern. I had no real responsibility, other than to fix the problems that came up, roll out new machines, and some basic administration stuff. I didn't "own" any projects.
I also was given a pretty good raise when that time rolled around (not much really, but good compared to the others).
Then, the upper management changed. They basically became very focused on tracking every minute of our time. I resented this.
I'm pretty smart (if I do say so myself), and I was good at my job. You would have been hard pressed to find a user who didn't have something nice to say about me. Definitely in comparison to other people there. So, when they started expecting me to work at full-tilt for the same pay (basically getting more work from me for free), I got a little pissed. I could easily do as much work in 4 hours as most of the others did in 8. Also, new hires, (who were less skilled/experienced than me) were coming on at my salary. So, the raise that I got ended up really just being a cost-of-living type increase.
Then they started requiring that we carry our Nextel phones at all times. 24-7. We didn't get paid for this, but we had to be available at all times. Not to mention the actual "on-call" pager that we passed around 1 week at a time.
Anyway, I realized they were treating all of us as components in a machine. Basically they put a lot of checks in place so they could see how much time the "components" were working. I can see this being an effective management strategy. You could definitely min-max your salary-paid for work-done. But it doesn't account for varying people's skills, and it doesn't treat people as people.
So, I left. If they replaced me, they probably got someone who wasn't as good, who they are probably paying the same salary. Their loss.
In a way, it was kind of good that it turned to shit, because I didn't feel bad about leaving (since they gave me a job w/o a college degree, and the summer job).
(Rant mode off)
Jordan
So HiTech catches up with other professions. Alot of the nasty problems people seem to be encountering in hitech are the same for other "glamorous" and attractive professions: lawyering, doctors, investment bankers. Many professions these days are long hours, incredible stress, and low status. The upside of course is the pay.
Unfortunately, people outside the profession in question seldom take the time to consider all the angles before choosing to go into it, and then, WHOA! Big surprise! It's not all gravy! Part of the problem with hi-tech is that it's not old enough to have gotten the slow messsage out (as have lawyers and doctors and other high wage/high stress jobs) that there are downsides to things.
I still don't see this as necessarily bad. I'm 28, been in the business since 22, and plan to bail out before I'm 40. I suspect alot of folks are in the same situation - they'll put up with the downside to make the cash while they're young, then move on to another field which caters to their more "personal" needs later in life. Hell, my earning potential for the 15 or so years I'll be in IT should average out to be at least $100k/year - if I save correctly (or pehaps pay for the big ticket items (can we say house?)) while I'm doing IT, well, then, I can move into a $40k/year jobs that I enjoy (and has much less stress) afterwards and not have to worry about financing.
It's a possible change in the "work-lifecycle" - it used to be:
Perhaps now, we get:
I for one are more than willing to put up with 15 years of doing a job I like, but that is severely stressful. I figure that about 40 I should have all the cash I want, my kids will be 5-7 or so, and I can be a park ranger (or whatever) and not worry about finances, and still have time for my kids. Fine By Me. You just need to have all the facts going into the equation.
IT - it's not for wimps. :-)
-Erik
(Oh, I'm a SysAdmin/MIS type)
There are always four sides to every story: your side, their side, the truth, and what really happened.
I am currently enrolled at the University of Illinois, going for a BA in computer engineering. When applying for college, I found it very hard to choose what I wanted to do... and I finally decided that I would be most interested in either psychology or computers. I finally chose computers because I had always been interested in them, and spent a good deal of my free time in high school fooling around with my pc.
I love my course material, and find it all very interesting, but one of the hardest things to deal with is that my hobby will become my job. It sounds like a dream come true at first... doing what you love every day and getting paid. But after meeting many fellow students here and going on a co-op last fall, I've become very frustrated because so many in the industry don't have any passion. I work on computers, and I love it. But so many work on them because they did well in math in science in high school and knew it would be a hot job market. They're just in it for the money, and don't hold any real interest in computers.
To quote JWZ, "You can divide our industry into two kinds of people: those who want to go work for a company and make it successful, and those who want to go work for a successful company." I'm definitely in the former group, and I wish more people in the industry were. It's hard to work on something when other's don't have the same passion.
-------------------------------------------
He said, "You'll be able to tell your grandchildren that you helped assemble the first NT supercomputer," and I cringed.
You know what my favorite windows trick is (short of trashing it of course)? I tell this to anybody that isn't literate enough to point toward linux. When you install it, you can pretty much count on having to reinstall it later, so just make at least 2 partitions on the hard disk. Install the OS on one of them. On the other, make directories like "downloads", "installations", "programs", "documents" etc. The programs that don't install by spreading themselves all over the place go on the second partition. The ones that do get the actual installation file in the "installs" directory so they can be easily be put back on. That way, when windows is to the point where the only thing to do is wipe 'er clean (and it will get there) reinstalling becomes a 3 hour job, tops. Plus, if you use tape backup, just backup the second partition.
My experience with the low end of the corporate world began with the (idiotic) idea of getting a job at the local radio shack. I easily passed their stupid test of tech proficiency (better than anyone else at the store could I suspect) but then I had to go to the local office and watch a long video that made the point again and again and again thta this was, in fact, an equal opportunity employer. Then I met my boss-to-be. He was a short, round little guy with a sallow complexion and beady eyes that gave the impression that all his spirit, pride in his work, sense of humor, and interest in life had been beaten out of him long ago. Then I had to fill out a huge (HUGE- it took over an hour and a half) packet with questions about drugs and stealing from your employer and crap like that. I felt insulted.
Anyhow, I was supposed to meet him one more time before it would be decided whether I would get the job. I decided then to screw it and go somewhere else. I'm glad I did. It would have been hell.
I still go in there sometimes when I'm passing by (It's inside the local mall) and pepper them with questions that they couldn't possibly know the answer to. Don't ask me why, I just feel like it. Their stuff is too overpriced anyway.
Vidi, Vici, Veni
Graduating this year, and I see all this talk from friends and /. about burn out...
I approach the work force with trepidation; any hints, suggestions?
Follow passion over paycheck? That's my initial reaction at least.
-AS
-AS
*Pikachu*
Greetings,
It doesn't make sense to me... The only times I burn out at companies are when the companies themselves are screwed up, and can't provide me with interesting work to do for the 60-80hrs/week I *LIKE* to spend there.
I program at home, I program at work, hell I write code on napkins, notebooks, and book-margins while sitting at a restaurant eating dinner.
The absolute best companies I've worked for were ones where I spent 80+ hrs/week for months on end doing amazingly cool development.
Burnout is only a factor for programmers if you work for a company that can't keep your mind occupied.
I can't STAND most large companies, as they're always ass-backward, and the developers are parceled out little tiny tasks to complete, and then micromanaged all to hell for those parcels. In small companies, you do EVERYTHING.
My first job out of college (10 years ago, dropped out to take a $35K/year job (I make well more than 2x that now) on the other coast), I developed two commercial products from scratch, convinced the company to set up an internal network, specced and hand-built the network (including running cable), did technical support, did sales, reverse-engineered software, and wrote probably a thousand small tools to automate tasks. I *LOVED* it there, and I only burned out when they got big and corporate, and wanted me to only do a single task or so.
Boredom kills.
If you have a passion for what you do, find a company that needs someone who has a passion for it. Not a company that just needs another body to clock in and out. You won't burn out until the company does.
Cyberfox!
I've been doing sysadmin-type work for almost 20 years now, and I've nearly burned out a couple times (like when I was the only PC support tech for 240 users). But I have very clear priorities in my life, and I made them clear to my bosses when I was hired. I put my family first, then God, then country (okay, I'm a patriot, so sue me), and then career. I would be flexible, working weekends and evenings when it didn't conflict with other plans, but I would not sacrifice my Life for my Job.
Sure, it's caused problems sometimes. I had one boss that constantly rode me because I wouldn't stay late - I had to leave in time to pick up my kids from daycare. I eventually left that job for one closer to home. I probably have missed out on some promotions and raises along the way because I wasn't putting in the extra hours.
But, it's all worked out just fine. I'm currently employed at a company that is thrilled with the amount and quality of work I've been doing. They are paying me well, providing me with excellent career opportunities, and giving me interesting and challenging projects to work on. And they totally agree with and support my priorities in life.
As an example: My Dad was going in for some minor surgery, and I had wanted to be with Mom during the procedure. As I was getting ready to leave, we had a major server crash. I pitched in to provide some services on other servers while we ressurrected the original system. My boss noticed I was still there, stopped me from what I was doing, and said "We can handle this. Get out of here." Now at the time, her staff was a contractor that had been on-site for about a week, and a junior admin that had been hired two days earlier. It took them twice as long to get things back up and running without me. But she respected my priorities, as did her boss (the V.P. of I.S., who was in the server room when she kicked me out).
The Times article is true in many cases. But it doesn't have to be. It's all about establishing your priorities, amking them clear to your employer, and accepting that there may be consequences.
I'm interested every time I see an article claiming that restlessness is particular to the tech industry; it implies that there are people out there who aren't restless ... an idea which to me is incomprehensible.
... but there is still always a restlessness in the background, a thought that there must be more to life than this. I quit my job and travelled for six months, and that luzlled the restlessness into a sort of quiescence, but it's still there, lingering, building pressure, waiting to come out and reassert itself in the future.
... and i live in a fast-paced world where the entire universe can literally change overnight, where I feel like I am always responding to events not driving them, even when I'm making the decisions. When do I have time to sit back and learn the things i've never learned?
Restlessness is simply a fact of life. I'm relatively lucky; I have a strong emotional commitment to the product I work on, and I check in while on vacation not because I'm required to, but because I _care_
Is this because I'm a tech industry worker? Am I a tech industry worker because of this restlessness? Or is there something about life in our culture, the modern consumer culture, which encourages restlessness and angst?
What is important in life? What truly leads to happiness? My parents didn't know; I've never learned it in school and my friends and colleagues don't know
I love my job. I love my friends. I live in a city that seems like paradise whenever I describe it while I'm travelling. I'm more or less content. But I'm not happy, and the worst of it is, I don't know why.
I've been playing with computers for money since 1977. I've never had a job longer than 3.5 years, and I actually had three fairly different jobs at that company. Usually I quit because I got burned out, not because I had a better offer. I always ended up making more money at the next job, though.
My dad worked at Rockwell for over twenty years. My father-in-law worked for TWA for 38 years. I just can't imagine that. I need the challenge of learning something completely new every couple years. And being around different people has helped me to see more ways of thinking about problems and their solutions.
I've been stressed in good ways and bad. I've learned how to detect BS without hardly listening. I've developed a cynical but very accurate way of rating executives, and predicting the success or failure of their pet projects. That's stressful because while I'm not underpaid, they are pulling down 2x-3x what I make, and often producing nothing but poor morale and economic losses.
But the other side of it all is that I have enough money to travel, to live in a nice house, to drive a fun car, to spend time with my friends and family. I can even make time to go to the gym once in a while.
The people who really burn out are the ones who can't find enough balance in their lives. Even the deepest wirehead needs to be social in a real-time 3D tactile environment sometimes (i.e. the real world, with real people). The ones who don't acknowledge that and MAKE TIME for it are the ones who have daydreams about moving to a teepee in northern Idaho.
I used to work at a technical support call center sweatshop, working long and odd hours with pay that paid the bills but not much else. Employees were treated like doggie doo on the bottom of the boss' shoe. Management was flaky, bad techs were seldom punished for making the rest of our jobs harder, and repeated promises of raises and benefits took forever to be implemented, if they ever did. I worked there for approximately 3 years, mostly because I felt tied to the place since I helped get it off the ground (I was the first employee). I went through several "burnout" periods at that place. I also didn't think there was much better out there, as the previous jobs I'd had were often similar.
Back in June of last year, I finally got tired of it and quit the hellhole. Before too long, I was hired by the company I work for now. Wonderful benefits package, great pay, intelligent and hard working coworkers, etc. Also, burnout doesn't seem to be nearly as much of a threat with what I do now. Sure, fixing user problems gets mundane now and then, but it's sprinkled with a nice mix of server administration, network planning and implementation, a little programming now and then, and other things that I genuinely like to do. For the first time in my life, I can see myself being with the same company for a long, long time to come. And it feels good.
"That's Tron. He fights for the Users."
After 18 years at this, I've figured out that it has nothing to do with where you work, but everything to do with the attitude you bring to work. I used to put in 100+ hour weeks, saving the company. I got burned out and left several companies, and you know what, the companies somehow survived! ;-)
Now I don't carry a pager, work 9-5 M-F and make 3 times what I did when I was killing myself. I speak up when schedules are unreasonable or when designs and specifications are flawed. As a result, I meet deadlines with well designed products, rather than some of the 'night before the ship date' builds I used to send out.
Lots of techies seem to have problems dealing with management, but do little to improve the situation. The suits don't want to lose their staff, or be known as the manager of a failed project, so unless they are complete idiots, I've found most will listen to reason. It's up to us to speak up though!
I work for one of the Big Three telcos (AT&T, MCI-WorldCom, or Sprint -- won't say which, for reasons which I hope are obvious). I'm currently doing QA work on mainframes, analyzing and approving software written in COBOL and JCL designed to run under TSO.
Nevermind the fact that my background is in UNIX, C/C++, Java, networking and security. This is where the corporation "needs me", so here is where I am.
On the next floor there are eight openings for C developers in an AIX environment. I applied for a transfer, only to have the project lead up there tell me that although he had openings, he had no budget with which to pay me. There goes that opportunity to escape from the hell of IBM Big Iron.
When I first started here, the work week was 37.5 hours. The policy was that "we work hard all week, so everyone gets Friday afternoon off." On top of that, there was a liberal flextime policy. I accepted a $38,000/yr job here over some mid-$40K jobs elsewhere due to the great corporate policies and benefits.
After six months, policies changed.
It's now become a 48-hour-a-week-minimum shop. We've been told that, due to the upcoming Y2K bug, that no vacations will be approved for the rest of the year. (And what if, like me, you were planning on using your vacation for your honeymoon? Forget it. You get married, you show up at work the next day or else your job won't be here when you get back. And if you don't use up your vacation by the end of the year? Sorry -- no carryover.)
There's increasing pressure on us to put in more and more hours. 60-hour weeks are now standard in my division. We've been told that come the end of June it'll revert back to a 40-hour week; we don't know whether or not it's true. I imagine it's not.
We're losing people due to the awful work conditions. A friend who's a couple of cubes over has accepted employment elsewhere. He's trying to convince me to jump ship, too. I'm giving it a lot of thought.
After all, layoffs are on the horizon, too.
60-hour weeks, no vacations, reduced benefits, and the threat of impending layoffs just do wonders for employee morale.