You make my point exactly. There is a power imbalance here, and
something needs to be done about it.
What to do--I don't know. I'm not a programmer, an employer, or a
union organizer.
The one good thing is, you probably won't have to face a line of
Pinkertons with shotguns. I wish your brother and his colleagues the
best of luck, because it probably won't be easy.
--Constance
On Jun 30, 2010, at 11:13 AM, phartz...@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 10:48 AM, Constance Warner
<cawar...@his.com> wrote:
Maybe it's time for programmers to get concerned about politics and
economics--even, dare I say it, unions. (It won't be easy, but they
probably won't send the Pinkertons with shotguns against you, the
way they
did to workers in the coal fields.)
My brother, who currently labors in a fairly stressful computing
environment as far as I can determine, is pretty paranoid when it
comes to retaining his job. He lost his last computing gig to a
worker in India who would do the job cheaper. I can understand the
concerns that my brother harbors. He moved 600 miles, and left his
wife and home behind to take his current job because he could do
government work that requires a security clearance and therefore
cannot be farmed out to foreign workers.
The price he pays for that "job security" is about 60 hours a week
at the office, collapsing in bed immediately upon getting back from
the job, and then waking up to crank out a couple more hours of work
by way of VPN before going to bed, then getting up and starting it all
over again. He has already lost a lot of accrued vacation time
because he just felt unable to take it because of work pressures. He
gets good money, but that is probably because his company charges the
government and us taxpayers an excessive amount for the defense work
they do. I am sure you know how that works.
Steve
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