This has to be a troll, you make it sound like they have a right to do this.
I may not necessarily agree with how the IP laws are being created and enforced (read RIAA here, they really need to get a new bussiness model. Then again, I won't miss them when they crash and burn because someone else beats them to it.) but that does NOT give these people free license to do this.
These "millions" of people need to get out and (for lack of better wording) GET A JOB!
Yes, sometimes working for someone else stinks, but "get rich quick schemes" == "ticket to jail fast" in these cases.
I have learned enough in economics to understand that layoffs are needed in relation to downturns in the area of business a company participates in. These days, however, it's seems to be used for other completely unrelated reasons.
I survived 2 layoffs at a company and voluntarily left on the 3rd (the severance I received was sufficient to keep my family supported until I found another position). They seemed to think that was the best solution to the problem.
Two things I noticed as a result of the layoff sequences:
1.) It never really addresses the problem. (In my opinion of course)
2.) They rehired back to the same quantity of people before the layoff on each occasion. They appear to be doing so again.
Top Level Management always refers to layoffs as a "hard" decision. While I am sure that some of the folks at the top of the corporate food chain, go through tremendous emotional stress, and for them it is, it isn't as hard decision unless it affects you as well. Layoffs are all about saving the corporation moeny, so if management had to take a salary cut in relation to the ratio of people that report to them that are being laid off, that would then be a much "harder" decision. It would also, require fewer people (sometimes substantially fewer) to be cut in order to meet the same monetary goals. Chances are, if you concern is your stock, it would look better to the stock market as well. (Anyone who comes home and brings information about salary cuts, is typically not going have a good day. My wife is awesome and very understanding and supported me when I left without having another job ready, but your own results will, most likely, vary).
If you get a bonus, stock options and praise for laying off people, it really doesn't seem to be all that hard. To quote You've Got Mail, "It's not personal, it's just business"=it's all about the money, not the people.
It's personal to every individual being given the pink slip. It should be personal to management as well. If you can't deal with that type of emotional stress, management might not be the place for you. That's why, at most companies, management salaries are higher and the VP+ salaries are 6-7+ figures. IT'S WHAT YOUR BEINGING PAID FOR. I don't begrudge those who have worked their way up, but when anyone as an employee is punished for doing exactly what you were told and even excelling there appears to be something wrong.
When management continues to receive bonuses during a quarter that the rest of the company doesn't due to poor performance, it's a bit upside-down. Management are the ones making the decisions about the direction of the company and directly affecting the financial outcome of the company. If anything the bonus delivery should be in reverse. If there's enough money to for bonuses for anyone, it should be given to those who succeeded in the goals they set for the year, and progrss from the bottom to the top of the food chain. For the people at the bottom, any bonus is substantial. This would also do wonders for the companies values you concept. (Kinda the opposite of the pink email concept)
Side note: For all I know this is actually happening at corporations, I'm just not aware of it. To those companies, this doesn't relate to you. This is simply something that wandered in when I was thinking one time.
Obviously all of the above is an opinion and may never have a bearing on reality.
-------
The above thoughts are capable of walking on their own, they appear the same way that code escapes. They did come from me, but not anyone I know. They are not affiliated to have come from any known corporation, abc entity, xyz state or lmnop country, Additional legalese, plausible deniability, etc. as needed ad infinitum. Ever read the manual for Haventree Software's Easy Flow package?
I do apologize if you take offense. In that case, in your opinion, fortunately this is not reality.:-)
I think it has a lot to do with motivation. The first time I took a language was in High School (French 1. twice. Extremely pathetic) and did not really learn all that much. I also didn't study all that much.
Later, I ended up going to Japan for almost 2 years. I had 2 months of preparation, and that was all official the language training I really received. In Japane, I talked to people and studied on a daily basis, and by the time I returned to the US I was fluent. (Defined as I could translate either direction on the fly, could carry on a decent conversation in a number of topics, and could understand anything that was spoken around me. I found our later I had also learned the majority of the 1-6 grade Kanji as well as a number of others)
At the time I had tremendous motivation to learn the language, but I also really enjoyed learning it. I also ran into others who really who were equally motivated (and studied harder than I had) and had a very difficult time communicating their thoughts to the people they were speaking to. While I do believe that study will get you a tremendous ways, an aptitude combined with motivation will get you farther than simply study alone in the same period of time.
I am a geek by nature and (as luck would have it) trade. I've run across all sorts of computer literate and unpracticed people. Part of the whole "knowledge about computer stuff" is simply a time spent issue. If someone is interested, they learn about these things much faster, children by nature (unless someone punishes it out of them) want to know how everthing works everything is a toy. To me this implies that they will learn things much faster. The same motivation can exist in an adult, but typically not at that level. They just want the dumb thing to work. They don't care how or why it works. Whatever it is has become a tool. The minute something shifts to a tool, people (in general) only do the bare minumum to get it working and then stop worrying about it.
In my case, in relation to computer stuff, I can be working on a problem and the solution will jump to mind extrapolated from a combination of a number of different things that I've seen. Some of these things could have happened years ago. Is this aptitude or training or motivation? I used to be able to do this in a few other areas as well, but am not nearly as good in those as I am in the area of computer related things. I'm still curious how all this stuff works, there's always something new to learn. I spend a tremendous amount of time (more than is probably good for me) playing with new things on the computer and I learn all sorts of new things. (A side effect is I have spend less time in many other areas) I believe that aptitude/native intelligence/genetic makeup can count for much, but without sufficient motivation, it's not going to produce very good results.
Slashdot Mirror
And make sure they document their code.
I wish you luck on that one. :-)
This has to be a troll, you make it sound like they have a right to do this.
I may not necessarily agree with how the IP laws are being created and enforced (read RIAA here, they really need to get a new bussiness model. Then again, I won't miss them when they crash and burn because someone else beats them to it.) but that does NOT give these people free license to do this.
These "millions" of people need to get out and (for lack of better wording) GET A JOB!
Yes, sometimes working for someone else stinks, but "get rich quick schemes" == "ticket to jail fast" in these cases.
I have learned enough in economics to understand that layoffs are needed in relation to downturns in the area of business a company participates in. These days, however, it's seems to be used for other completely unrelated reasons.
I survived 2 layoffs at a company and voluntarily left on the 3rd (the severance I received was sufficient to keep my family supported until I found another position). They seemed to think that was the best solution to the problem.
Two things I noticed as a result of the layoff sequences:
1.) It never really addresses the problem. (In my opinion of course)
2.) They rehired back to the same quantity of people before the layoff on each occasion. They appear to be doing so again.
Top Level Management always refers to layoffs as a "hard" decision. While I am sure that some of the folks at the top of the corporate food chain, go through tremendous emotional stress, and for them it is, it isn't as hard decision unless it affects you as well. Layoffs are all about saving the corporation moeny, so if management had to take a salary cut in relation to the ratio of people that report to them that are being laid off, that would then be a much "harder" decision. It would also, require fewer people (sometimes substantially fewer) to be cut in order to meet the same monetary goals. Chances are, if you concern is your stock, it would look better to the stock market as well. (Anyone who comes home and brings information about salary cuts, is typically not going have a good day. My wife is awesome and very understanding and supported me when I left without having another job ready, but your own results will, most likely, vary).
If you get a bonus, stock options and praise for laying off people, it really doesn't seem to be all that hard. To quote You've Got Mail, "It's not personal, it's just business"=it's all about the money, not the people.
It's personal to every individual being given the pink slip. It should be personal to management as well. If you can't deal with that type of emotional stress, management might not be the place for you. That's why, at most companies, management salaries are higher and the VP+ salaries are 6-7+ figures. IT'S WHAT YOUR BEINGING PAID FOR. I don't begrudge those who have worked their way up, but when anyone as an employee is punished for doing exactly what you were told and even excelling there appears to be something wrong.
When management continues to receive bonuses during a quarter that the rest of the company doesn't due to poor performance, it's a bit upside-down. Management are the ones making the decisions about the direction of the company and directly affecting the financial outcome of the company. If anything the bonus delivery should be in reverse. If there's enough money to for bonuses for anyone, it should be given to those who succeeded in the goals they set for the year, and progrss from the bottom to the top of the food chain. For the people at the bottom, any bonus is substantial. This would also do wonders for the companies values you concept. (Kinda the opposite of the pink email concept)
Side note: For all I know this is actually happening at corporations, I'm just not aware of it. To those companies, this doesn't relate to you. This is simply something that wandered in when I was thinking one time.
Obviously all of the above is an opinion and may never have a bearing on reality.
-------
The above thoughts are capable of walking on their own, they appear the same way that code escapes. They did come from me, but not anyone I know. They are not affiliated to have come from any known corporation, abc entity, xyz state or lmnop country, Additional legalese, plausible deniability, etc. as needed ad infinitum. Ever read the manual for Haventree Software's Easy Flow package?
I do apologize if you take offense. In that case, in your opinion, fortunately this is not reality. :-)
I think it has a lot to do with motivation. The first time I took a language was in High School (French 1. twice. Extremely pathetic) and did not really learn all that much. I also didn't study all that much.
Later, I ended up going to Japan for almost 2 years. I had 2 months of preparation, and that was all official the language training I really received. In Japane, I talked to people and studied on a daily basis, and by the time I returned to the US I was fluent. (Defined as I could translate either direction on the fly, could carry on a decent conversation in a number of topics, and could understand anything that was spoken around me. I found our later I had also learned the majority of the 1-6 grade Kanji as well as a number of others)
At the time I had tremendous motivation to learn the language, but I also really enjoyed learning it. I also ran into others who really who were equally motivated (and studied harder than I had) and had a very difficult time communicating their thoughts to the people they were speaking to.
While I do believe that study will get you a tremendous ways, an aptitude combined with motivation will get you farther than simply study alone in the same period of time.
I am a geek by nature and (as luck would have it) trade. I've run across all sorts of computer literate and unpracticed people. Part of the whole "knowledge about computer stuff" is simply a time spent issue. If someone is interested, they learn about these things much faster, children by nature (unless someone punishes it out of them) want to know how everthing works everything is a toy. To me this implies that they will learn things much faster. The same motivation can exist in an adult, but typically not at that level. They just want the dumb thing to work. They don't care how or why it works. Whatever it is has become a tool. The minute something shifts to a tool, people (in general) only do the bare minumum to get it working and then stop worrying about it.
In my case, in relation to computer stuff, I can be working on a problem and the solution will jump to mind extrapolated from a combination of a number of different things that I've seen. Some of these things could have happened years ago. Is this aptitude or training or motivation? I used to be able to do this in a few other areas as well, but am not nearly as good in those as I am in the area of computer related things.
I'm still curious how all this stuff works, there's always something new to learn. I spend a tremendous amount of time (more than is probably good for me) playing with new things on the computer and I learn all sorts of new things. (A side effect is I have spend less time in many other areas) I believe that aptitude/native intelligence/genetic makeup can count for much, but without sufficient motivation, it's not going to produce very good results.