What was so wrong with "Dot.Coms"? Employees were finally treated
with respect.
Be sure to
read "The problem with working for "Regular" companies"
I
was reading about the failure of Quokka.com on www.f--kedcompany.com (you
can guess what the -- stands for). Everyone on the builtinboard was
laughing at their excesses (and the media, in general, is jering about
the excesses of "dot.com" companies). This got me thinking, what
is so wrong about treating your employees nicely?
The articles that
I read made a big deal out of the fact the every employee had a $600 Executive
Areon Chair. So what? Most employee computers cost over $1000.
And, does making your employees comfortable a bad thing? Why should
only executives have nice chairs?
For years, companies
treated their IT departments like crap. The IT department was usually
in the basement of the building using hand-me-down furnature, worked bizarre
hours that no executive would ever think of working, and either worked
in the cold of the computer room or the heat of their cube (which usually
was next to the building's boiler room). The company's executives
thought of ther IT department as an "expense" and really didn't want
them. Except, they needed the computers that the IT department
maintained.
There are probably
many company employees that feel this way, I just happen to be a computer
person so this is my perspective. I would guess that there are
many truck drivers, secretaries, store clerks, etc. that feel that things
should be better for them. What should be so bad about the company
buying these people a $600 chair (or something that makes work nicer/easier
for them)?
The Internet bubble
was the revenge of the nerds. Finally, executives had to notice how
important computers and IT people were. Suddenly, executive
weren't the only people with $600 chairs and stock options. Employee's
were finally treated with respect. Employee's that had been in the
basements of large corporations left and joined "dot.com" companies that
really wanted them. These employees suddenly saw how the "other half" lives;
nice computers, nice chairs, and stock options.
What was Corporate
America's response to this mass migration of IT workers? They petitioned
the US Congress to increase H1B visas (special waviers for foreign
workers). They claimed that there were no native workers available
and needed foreigners. NO, this was not true. Corporate America
just didn't want to treat their IT workers with respect and pay them what
they were worth.
Well, the Internet
bubble has burst. Things are going back to the way they used to be.
Corporate America can now quit chasing IT workers with bonuses and nice
chairs. They can now move the IT department back into the basement
and forget about the nerds.
Was the "dot.com"
bust really such a good thing? Think about it...
An interesting article about H1B visas ahd the "Hit Tech worker shortage" from a professor at UC at Davis
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