Union IT, a tale of horror....
on
IT Unions?
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· Score: 1
The true tale of a union IT shop, from the perspective of a former Boeing contractor.
Training
At Boeing, training is offered only to the most senior permanent employee of each development group. Only employees that have completed Boeing training on new software packages may be granted a seat license for that software.
In practice this is (obviously), a living nightmare. During my contract, the decision was made to use WISE for the development of deployment packages. Unfortunately, my projects always seemed to miss the production dealines, simply because I could not create WISE packages for my own software.
Establishing standards for software development
What, you don't like Windows? Hate Microsoft products? Free software fanactic, eh?
If you answered 'yes' to any of the above, unions are not for you. When unions say standard, they actually mean 'lowest common denominator'. And that means Microsoft.
At Boeing, only one permanent employee in my team had even the most rudimentary knowledge of the C language. No employee had knowledge of C++, Java, PERL... What they did do, though not very well, was develop VBA applets for Access 97, using OLE for Oracle to link the 'rich client' forms to the databases.
Imagine writing a server with Visual Basic. That is exactly what was suggested by the team when I was assigned the task of writing a new security service. And that wasn't the only thing... I had to code every client that used the service on evry platform used by Boeing, using every development language sanctioned by Boeing. Twelve clients in all, all documentation, all design (No knowledge of UML, either), not to mention the server itself. What fun!
Protecting Benefits
You really don't want the kind of...er...benefits that unions provide. For example, during my contract, I was forced to move to new cubicles twice, due to the fact that someone with seniority wanted the seat. Choosing to take over someone's space (and vacate them on no notice) was a benefit senior personnel enjoyed. It was not one that I enjoyed.
Nor did I enjoy being forced to leave the building for a lunch break. At Boeing, every employee is required to take an off the clock lunch, and you must do it away from your desk. It matters not how busy you are, or how badly you want to finish what you are working on.
Forced overtime and H1-B visas
If you have been following the news lately, Boeing's attitude is pretty clear...any non-permanent employee of any kind is dogmeat. Contractors are treated with the utmost disrepect, and you won't find IT working there on visas of any kind.
As for forced overtime... well, contractors get paid for overtime, period. Not that you will get any; overtime is reserved for senior employees only.
You can expect more attacks on American providers of Internet information in the future, due to a few factors:
There will always be governments and other groups who have..er..problems with content on the net.
Most of the world does not have a robust infrastructure for data transmission, so they know the content is not coming from home. For example, in China, less than ten percent of the population is hooked up to a phone line.
The United States virtually is the Internet. Almost all web content originates from the US, and further, more than 98% of the world's bandwitdh is located in the US. Everyone else is light-years behind, and falling further behind as telecoms cram more fiber and copper, install more D-SLAMs...hell, they just added 2 new area codes to the metro area I live in.
Therefore, the best way to get something you don't care for off of the net is to shut down the American who posted it.
The EU cannot afford to cut the trans-Atlantic cable. But it, and everyone else, will try to remove as much from the net as they can get away with. Don't be surprised if the UN gets involved with this.
(There is, in fact, a series of books by Tad Williams (Otherland), in which the UN has authority over the global data network.)
...is that the best copywrited work available on Napster is not costing the RIAA anything.
Hell, it's not even making them any money.
Let's face it, the average music listener is busy listening to Brittany or N'Sync, and the only reason for downloading that crap is that your folks aren't paying you enough allowance to buy the CD.
What I loved about Napster was the stuff that is copywrited, yet not for sale. Rare tracks, bootlegs, unreleased cuts, out of print EPs... that is the stuff dreams are made of.
The labels aren't going to burn a CD and print a jewel case up so that they can sell you your "I had it but a friend borrowed it and never gave it back so now it's out of print and I can't get it *sob*" music.
But, they could have allied with Napster to provide work that they no longer sell to to audiophiles and hard core fans. Let's face it, if the RIAA made any money off of such a partnership, it would be more than they are making now. I would have paid for the Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails cover of Down in the Park, but it's not for sale.
Not to mention that it would have been an example, something for related industries to emulate. Ever tried to find an out of print book? Wouldn't it be nice if you could download it (even for a small fee), rather than scour used book stores, estate sales, flea markets, etc.?
The labels really fucked up a golden opportunity. For shame.
Actually, it might not be a bad thing if the propsed top-level domains never show up...
Virtually everyone who has registered a domain name understands the 'problems' regarding name availabilty - squatters and pornagraphers own an obscene number of names.
To be perfectly clear, ICAAN has exercised extremely poor judgement in its approach to the new TLDs. Even if the new TLDs are implemented tomorrow, domain name availabilty would not improve because:
There are no TLDs proposed for porn sites - and even if there were, do you think the owners of those sites would simply give up the '.com', '.org'. and '.net' names they already own?
Several variations of my name are owned by squatters. The new TLDs simply give them new hunting grounds. ICAAN has not, after all, proposed enforcing restrictions on the new TLDs, so before long, squatters will be selling people their own '.names'.
Even if TLDs existed for every disparate group currently on the net, ICAAN does not have the spine to divest name holders of 'inappropriate' TLDs. Does anyone think the DNSO would force Rob to give up '.org' in favor of '.geek'?
I say, screw ICAAN. This process is as irrelevant now as it was when they unveiled the new (useless) names.
Actually, Crossgain was not developing a competitor to BizTalk, they were founded to port.NET to another (non Windows) OS.
The problem with this is (as reported in Business 2.0), is that the ex-Microserfs intended to release their version for OS ? before.NET went gold on Windows.
And oh, yeah... they also took every line of.NET source code they could burn onto CDs with them. (One of the 'heavy hitters' was in charge of.NET - can we say 'Vice President'?)
While some might not see this as a big deal (we know who I'm talking about), I don't think Bill and Co. care for the idea of releasing.NET for OS ? before the Windows version hits RTM.
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Training
At Boeing, training is offered only to the most senior permanent employee of each development group. Only employees that have completed Boeing training on new software packages may be granted a seat license for that software.
In practice this is (obviously), a living nightmare. During my contract, the decision was made to use WISE for the development of deployment packages. Unfortunately, my projects always seemed to miss the production dealines, simply because I could not create WISE packages for my own software.
Establishing standards for software development
What, you don't like Windows? Hate Microsoft products? Free software fanactic, eh?
If you answered 'yes' to any of the above, unions are not for you. When unions say standard, they actually mean 'lowest common denominator'. And that means Microsoft.
At Boeing, only one permanent employee in my team had even the most rudimentary knowledge of the C language. No employee had knowledge of C++, Java, PERL... What they did do, though not very well, was develop VBA applets for Access 97, using OLE for Oracle to link the 'rich client' forms to the databases.
Imagine writing a server with Visual Basic. That is exactly what was suggested by the team when I was assigned the task of writing a new security service. And that wasn't the only thing... I had to code every client that used the service on evry platform used by Boeing, using every development language sanctioned by Boeing. Twelve clients in all, all documentation, all design (No knowledge of UML, either), not to mention the server itself. What fun!
Protecting Benefits
You really don't want the kind of...er...benefits that unions provide. For example, during my contract, I was forced to move to new cubicles twice, due to the fact that someone with seniority wanted the seat. Choosing to take over someone's space (and vacate them on no notice) was a benefit senior personnel enjoyed. It was not one that I enjoyed.
Nor did I enjoy being forced to leave the building for a lunch break. At Boeing, every employee is required to take an off the clock lunch, and you must do it away from your desk. It matters not how busy you are, or how badly you want to finish what you are working on.
Forced overtime and H1-B visas
If you have been following the news lately, Boeing's attitude is pretty clear...any non-permanent employee of any kind is dogmeat. Contractors are treated with the utmost disrepect, and you won't find IT working there on visas of any kind.
As for forced overtime... well, contractors get paid for overtime, period. Not that you will get any; overtime is reserved for senior employees only.
- There will always be governments and other groups who have..er..problems with content on the net.
- Most of the world does not have a robust infrastructure for data transmission, so they know the content is not coming from home. For example, in China, less than ten percent of the population is hooked up to a phone line.
- The United States virtually is the Internet. Almost all web content originates from the US, and further, more than 98% of the world's bandwitdh is located in the US. Everyone else is light-years behind, and falling further behind as telecoms cram more fiber and copper, install more D-SLAMs...hell, they just added 2 new area codes to the metro area I live in.
Therefore, the best way to get something you don't care for off of the net is to shut down the American who posted it.The EU cannot afford to cut the trans-Atlantic cable. But it, and everyone else, will try to remove as much from the net as they can get away with. Don't be surprised if the UN gets involved with this.
(There is, in fact, a series of books by Tad Williams (Otherland), in which the UN has authority over the global data network.)
Hell, it's not even making them any money.
Let's face it, the average music listener is busy listening to Brittany or N'Sync, and the only reason for downloading that crap is that your folks aren't paying you enough allowance to buy the CD.
What I loved about Napster was the stuff that is copywrited, yet not for sale. Rare tracks, bootlegs, unreleased cuts, out of print EPs... that is the stuff dreams are made of.
The labels aren't going to burn a CD and print a jewel case up so that they can sell you your "I had it but a friend borrowed it and never gave it back so now it's out of print and I can't get it *sob*" music.
But, they could have allied with Napster to provide work that they no longer sell to to audiophiles and hard core fans. Let's face it, if the RIAA made any money off of such a partnership, it would be more than they are making now. I would have paid for the Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails cover of Down in the Park, but it's not for sale.
Not to mention that it would have been an example, something for related industries to emulate. Ever tried to find an out of print book? Wouldn't it be nice if you could download it (even for a small fee), rather than scour used book stores, estate sales, flea markets, etc.?
The labels really fucked up a golden opportunity. For shame.
Virtually everyone who has registered a domain name understands the 'problems' regarding name availabilty - squatters and pornagraphers own an obscene number of names.
To be perfectly clear, ICAAN has exercised extremely poor judgement in its approach to the new TLDs. Even if the new TLDs are implemented tomorrow, domain name availabilty would not improve because:
- There are no TLDs proposed for porn sites - and even if there were, do you think the owners of those sites would simply give up the '.com', '.org'. and '.net' names they already own?
- Several variations of my name are owned by squatters. The new TLDs simply give them new hunting grounds. ICAAN has not, after all, proposed enforcing restrictions on the new TLDs, so before long, squatters will be selling people their own '.names'.
- Even if TLDs existed for every disparate group currently on the net, ICAAN does not have the spine to divest name holders of 'inappropriate' TLDs. Does anyone think the DNSO would force Rob to give up '.org' in favor of '.geek'?
I say, screw ICAAN. This process is as irrelevant now as it was when they unveiled the new (useless) names.The problem with this is (as reported in Business 2.0), is that the ex-Microserfs intended to release their version for OS ? before .NET went gold on Windows.
And oh, yeah... they also took every line of .NET source code they could burn onto CDs with them. (One of the 'heavy hitters' was in charge of .NET - can we say 'Vice President'?)
While some might not see this as a big deal (we know who I'm talking about), I don't think Bill and Co. care for the idea of releasing .NET for OS ? before the Windows version hits RTM.