2010/10/15 Steve Summit <s...@eskimo.com>: > It seems to me that if we're talking about backpats, it's the > volunteers who are more likely to need them, not the paid staff. > Since you hire the paid staff, you can presumably pick people who > are professional enough to understand their job requirements and > remuneration structure, and the special issues involved in > working with volunteers.
Just please keep in mind that the folks who work for WMF are, without exception, there because of the mission, or they won't be there for long, and many folks were formerly part of the volunteer community, and will be again in future. Staff and contractor positions at WMF are paid well below market, and yet people put in many, many more hours than can be asked from them. So, for example, you might legitimately feel that a project like the original UsabilityInitiative didn't incorporate volunteer contributions well, but that doesn't mean the folks who worked on it didn't give it their all, not because they were (under)paid, but because they passionately want to support our mission. This is why folks get so frustrated when good faith partnership breaks into us/them or finger-pointing. When folks are treated -- by action or by implication -- like corporate drones because they draw a paycheck, they get just as frustrated and demotivated as any volunteer, and will eventually quit, just like any volunteer. So I don't agree that things are quite as asymmetrical as they may seem at times. This is a mission-driven group of people. That's why we're having this conversation. :) And with that, I'll follow Roan's lead and let the coders go back to work. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
