AgentxofxChaos
Agent of [H] Chaos
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As if the fear of norovirus wasn't enough to not go on a cruise with Carnival, they go ahead and start pulling stuff like this. They really seem to be gluttons for PR punishment.
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Facing Layoff, IT Employee Makes Bold Counteroffer
- Thread starter HardOCP News
- Start date
Ahhh, but if you thought someone was rich and had terrific opportunities, wouldn't it be easier to see "wasteful greedy idiots" in relation?
And the Koreans, I also understand how they would view us as gullible slackers. My wife is really focused when it comes to money and I know it's because she was raised in a time in Korea's history when being poor was common, where there was no help for those unable to help themselves, only family would come to your rescue and that has limits. That makes for hard workers, a deep need to be frugal and a to get ahead. The rat race is alive and well in Korea. Kids there go to school during the day and then if they can afford it they spend time with tutors often until late in the evening, like 10 or 11 at night. It doesn't mean they don't screw off some or find time to take a walk with a girl or meet a guy at a coffee shop, but they commit themselves to a greater degree. If their education system was as strong as their work ethic they would be in even better shape. It seems to me that they have to work much harder to keep up because their schools are not as good at educating as they are at maintaining attendance, discipline, and relying on wrote memorization work.
But there is nothing wrong with a core of CISCO UCS with NetApp and the CISCO Networking. This is very capable equipment/systems, but like everything, there are smart ways to engineer these environments and then there are living nightmares. It really doesn't take a great number of people if things are running right. In fact, the better your IT people the more they can handle cause they have more time when it's all running right. You still need to give them enough time to manage things properly though, little things like documentation will kick you in the ass if you don't maintain them.
I knew a guy and his wife (along with 3 other couples) that were on the infamous Carnival Triumph Cruise from Hell. He's far right, holding up a sign they made thanking another ship for transferring supplies to them.
Right, I never said the equipment was the problem. Just was showing that money really wasn't - that gear is not cheap. My job was around the engineering and automation of those systems - so, in a sense, reducing man hours needed. But, their implementation of it all was very nightmare-ish and crude. Like I said before, they had a number of very basic things done incorrectly, and instead of resolving those issues, they threw more hardware at it to circumvent it.
You are correct all the way down the line.
A poorly engineered environment costs a company man hours in management and troubleshooting as well as lost productivity. A well engineered environment makes everything easier and allows the stakeholders the freedom to plan and move projects forward unhindered and unburdened by outages and access problems. It also makes IA much easier to deal with so that you can gain a clear view of your security posture and focus on real risks instead of chasing the artifacts generated by your own poorly designed and implemented environment.
Look at the normal working hours, holiday schedules and benefits of those first world countries that you mentioned and compare it to the hours that IT people work in the USA; there's a reason that they're not paid as much. The amount of knowledge that an IT worker requires to support all of the different systems a typical organization has is incredible and this is an ever changing skillset. The real problem is that most corporate management people don't have a clue as to what their IT people really do to keep everything running and secure. It looks great on paper when trying to reduce costs to bring in the H1B's or to outsource everything but it rarely works out well in the long run. They'll have to hire more and more H1B's to get the same result as they did from their previous staff negating any cost savings. It still looks great to management though since they can say that they're saving even more money if you just look at the cost per worker without looking at productivity and actual outcomes. Most companies that I've worked at treat their IT people about the same as the janitorial service because they think of them as the people who clean up their mess.
The problem for the IT people is that IT is a trap. You basically have to start completely over in education for any other career path. That's not true for most other positions in corporate America. A degree in Computer Science is almost like a scarlet letter. Even if you try to get out, a lot of employers won't even look at your for any non-IT job since they don't think you'll stay. Every year, you get articles stating that the hottest jobs are in IT related positions:
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/18/the-top-10-hottest-jobs-in-todays-economy.html
The whole H1B Visa program needs to be scrapped. If anything, we have a glut of IT people in the USA. If you buy into the nonsense that we don't have enough qualified workers then the problem would remedy itself in 4 years since Computer Science would be the hottest degree programs at all of our colleges because of 100% placement and high salaries. The last time that I remember this being true was in the 80's which ironically was just before the H1B visa program.
The problem for the IT people is that IT is a trap. You basically have to start completely over in education for any other career path. That's not true for most other positions in corporate America. A degree in Computer Science is almost like a scarlet letter. Even if you try to get out, a lot of employers won't even look at your for any non-IT job since they don't think you'll stay. Every year, you get articles stating that the hottest jobs are in IT related positions:
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/18/the-top-10-hottest-jobs-in-todays-economy.html
The whole H1B Visa program needs to be scrapped. If anything, we have a glut of IT people in the USA. If you buy into the nonsense that we don't have enough qualified workers then the problem would remedy itself in 4 years since Computer Science would be the hottest degree programs at all of our colleges because of 100% placement and high salaries. The last time that I remember this being true was in the 80's which ironically was just before the H1B visa program.
Master_shake_
Fully [H]
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- 17,794
the temporary foreign wanker program fucks another group of workers.
wait, aren't they supposed to try and fill those positions with actual americans before giving up and fucking off?
wait, aren't they supposed to try and fill those positions with actual americans before giving up and fucking off?
Holy Shit. Never paid much attention to that situation before. I cant imagine going without even basic sanitation. That's worse than roughing it in the wilderness.
You know a cruise is fubar when US Marshalls sieze the vessel in port.
Edit: Aren't humans amazing? I mean the psychology. Floating around in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a broken down ship, and people let bags of feces stack up on the decks and in the passageways instead of dumping them overboard. That's what I call a hard core commitment to the environment. LoL.
Had I been Captain it would have been Gents shitting off planks on one side of the aft, ladies on the other side.
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I get you completely;
I mean, you have to follow this train of thought right?
Humans protect the environment
Humans protect the animals that depend on the environment
Humans hoard human waste to protect the animals and the environment
Because humans are not animals and are not impacted by their own environment
In 1998 Congress explicitly changed the law so that H1B's can replace American workers. I bet you thought our government worked for the benefit of American citizens, didn't you? Wrong!
In 2004, they did one better and changed the prevailing wage requirement from the 50th percentile to the 17th percentile so that they can replace American workers with H1B's at wages lower than 83% of American IT workers. H1B's are typically contract workers so employers don't even have to pay benefits and also get a captive labor pool.
As said before, this whole program needs to be ended. If you want to outsource all of your IT labor to India at least be honest about it rather than bringing the Indian workforce here and forcing American to train their replacements.
In 2004, they did one better and changed the prevailing wage requirement from the 50th percentile to the 17th percentile so that they can replace American workers with H1B's at wages lower than 83% of American IT workers. H1B's are typically contract workers so employers don't even have to pay benefits and also get a captive labor pool.
As said before, this whole program needs to be ended. If you want to outsource all of your IT labor to India at least be honest about it rather than bringing the Indian workforce here and forcing American to train their replacements.
dgz
Supreme [H]ardness
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Oh, I get it. Of course you're not going to like globalization when you're vastly better off than pretty much anybody else and it would mean giving up a little so that others are no longer starving. Almost nobody is OK with giving up anything, no matter how much they have. This is a story as old as the world. I really get it even though I don't agree with people making such a stance.
Since you went all cynical about it, I'll respond in the same vain: I am not in America and I stand to gain from you losing your dominant position.
Globalization is more or less equalization and I am all for it even if I stand to "lose" some since most people are living a lot worse than me. The alternative is kings and dirt poors. It used to be like that for most of our recorded history, you know.
You also have to remember that most people's retirement is connected to the stock of companies and the profit they make. That is the great catch 22 in this country. Everybody will not except a loss on their retirement investments, they will either switch investments or go to bonds. We keep demanding a profit on our investments and then complain when the companies have to cut costs to make that happen.
Nobified[H]
[H]ard|Gawd
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I read through the entire thread. Let me tell you something. You are all getting into the weeds. This is globalist pushing for the demiss of America. Wake up my fellow Americans. We need to set aside our differences and join hands to attack this head on. It is time to start holding these corporations accountable. We can start by revoking corporation business and replace it to compete against it. This is war being waged on us all. We need to repeal laws that gives corporation rights like people. Did you all know that corporations were illegal at once time unless it was a direct benefit to the public?
That is reality....until you see this. This country won't get better.
That is reality....until you see this. This country won't get better.
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Interesting choice of words.
D
Deleted member 93354
Guest
If your country suffers, then blame your own leaders, not us. This is a fundamental tenet in political treatise books including the Leviathan. Quite frankly I would rather put food in my neighbor's belly than yours. Living in a country like USA means things are expensive. And while $25,000 would be a kings ransom in some countries, it's starvation level here. The number of people on welfare and assistance has dramatically increased in relation to decrease in wages. Those decreases in wages are tied to loss of manufacturing jobs here.
And if you think we are greedy, you would be wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_foreign_aid We give more in foreign aid than any other industrialized nation in the world.
And if you don't like that, then tough, not my problem.
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woa woa woa my foreign friend. It is not the American people's responsibility to take care of every starving belly on the planet so take a left fucking turn right now and leave your condescending attitude at the customs checkpoint. You can not lay the troubles of the entire globe at our feet. You name another country that does more for needy people around the world before you call us uncaring and unwilling to help.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_foreign_aid
Here is a top 20 list;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_development_aid_country_donors#cite_note-3
If the EU figure looks like it is listed oddly it's because it includes;
equalling the $87.64 billion listed above.
Of note;
From that first wiki page, in 2007 Private donations for foreign aid was over 30 million which means the American people all on their own donate as much as the US Federal Government does for non-military foreign aid.
And from this article;
https://www.theguardian.com/global-...ign-aid-which-countries-are-the-most-generous
The US was the highest net contributor but these guys think that's not enough and cite others as giving a higher percentage of their gross income;
Which is all well and good but how many of these countries have been fighting a war for the last 15 years? And really, private donations from Americans have been reaching over $30 billion and our government donates 32 billion in non-military aid and what is not listed above is the other $10.5 billion in military aid.
But you think Americans don't like giving anything up. You think Americans are fastly better off then almost anyone else?
You know, we didn't just start giving to other nations the last few years or decades, we started getting serious about it right after WW2. How about you take a more open eyed look at how much America has done for other countries over the last 75 years and you can start right there in Europe.
It doesn't work well. Been through it multiple times to find the company brings it back. A lot of times the outsourced people have less experience and just read from a book. They also don't care about the company and do things when they want.
dgz
Supreme [H]ardness
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All I am saying is that in a truly global society, which includes business, less opportunity for one party means more opportunity for others. Everyone's greedy and resources are finite. I get the concept. Sure, 25k might not be much in the US, but even that relative poverty is nothing like the slums in India and some African countries.
I am not pointing fingers here. Read again what I said if you have to. While the economy is not a zero sum game, wealth is.
westrock2000
[H]F Junkie
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Don't you think people in your line of work should be paid less? I mean do you REALLY deserve the money you make?
IT keeps the companies lights on. Without us, they would be SOL. And we should be paid well. Many management people do not seem to understand that. I think there is a threshold. I have seen some people get paid too much and some get paid too little. But I have seen more get paid too little than enough.
dgz
Supreme [H]ardness
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Everyone wants a better life. Stop grilling me for saying I want some at your expense
dgz
Supreme [H]ardness
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I want people in other fields to be paid more. Which, in effect, means yes. I don't deserve this much MORE compared to the people who clean the streets, clean my garbage, teach my kids, even the fucking law enforcement. Keyword is relative to them
Of course that puts me in a minority. Not a huge surprise there
D
Deleted member 93354
Guest
Don't EVER overestimate your importance. BTW: The people in marketing & accounting would like to discuss who keeps the lights on for you.
I can promise you it isn't them. Without a computer, Network, cabling, etc they are SOL like I said. Most people in accounting can't do it by hand these days, and all have to do it on a application like Great Plains or quick books.
D
Deleted member 93354
Guest
They CHOSE those careers. Everyone should look at how much they make before they chose a career. Should you be paid $50,000/year being a mime just because some guy spent 8 years in college and he makes $60,000 as a chemist?
There is NO incentive for improvement if everyone gets relatively the same. This has been proven OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER in psychological experiments, social experiments, and macro economics.
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D
Deleted member 93354
Guest
Without anybody in marketing to SELL services/products, there is no income. And without income, the people in accounting can't pay that electric bill that keeps the lights on.
When you are in a company everyone matters. If they didn't matter, they would be laid off. Like I said, you're a cog. You can be bypassed, or replaced. Don't overestimate your importance.
Remain humble. Work hard. Be grateful you have a job which puts a roof over your head and food on your table. Don't be envious of others. Envy is a sin.
As my dad taught me, "If your employer ask you to clean toilets, you clean toilets. And if you don't like that, don't complain. Get a new job."
Some matter more than others. Yes you need Marketing to sale stuff if that company is in that line of work. But again without IT people in todays world, most companies will not make it. Anyone can be replaced. Not the point I was making.
dgz, I want to bring something up here with you and I am hoping you can understand my sentiments. Americans can be our own greatest critics. An outsider might read our comments and either think we don't know what is what, or that we are crazy critical of ourselves and to a great degree, we are.
I have been to Germany and I have seen how Germans work. I've also seen how retail shop owners close their doors at 3 PM and go home to their families when most US retail would be open till at least 6 PM and sometimes much later. I drove around Germany and was amazed, and frustrated, that at 4:30 PM, after I got off work, I couldn't find a power cord adapter for my US standard power cord to plug into a Euro power receptacle because all the stores were closed. I don't know how Germans do this? Do they wait until the weekend? Do they go early first thing in the morning? Sacrifice their lunch hour? Or do they call and order what they need delivered to their home somehow? Whatever it is, it's definitely different but my real best guess is the boss simply gives them time off to go take care of personal business. I have heard that many foreigners think Americans work far too much.
Still, all this aside, I want you to understand that although we may be very tough on ourselves and be very critical of each other, we do not generally accept criticism from others very well. We know we are different and that people who have never lived here for long just don't get how different. They do not understand what it is like for a Texan to have to drive for five to eight hours to get to a lake to go fishing, or for my kid and her husband to drive all night, 10 hours in the rain to get from LA to my home in Arizona, just to swap their bags over to our SUV and light out for an 12 hour drive to Texas for X-Mas at the family home with Grandpa and my sister and niece.
I earn decent money for Arizona and together with my wife we pull in a good $130K a year in a location where the cost of living isn't that bad. Still, the federal government takes about $40IK right off the top and Arizona wants another $7K plus $1,400 for property taxes and a hundred each for vehicle registration. So basically right off the top I loose $50K to taxes. But I also pay taxes for fuel, and 8 or 9% for all retail sales, and phones and internet connections and for the most part, some government somewhere is in our pocket for almost everything we do, use or buy.
And then there is the money I invest for savings and retirement. Now I get taxed on what I made and invested and if that money makes more money it gets taxed as well. Yes, it's at a better rate but only if it all goes right. If something happens and you have to pull that money out early, the fees and penalties will make you wish you had hid it in a shoe box under your bed.
Then there is insurance, cars cost people a good $600 or more a year per vehicle, medical can be $500 a month or more, dental and vision add up. So most of us are paying a good $7K a year for insurance.
So take our decent 130k - 50K = 80K, invest 12K for retirement leaving 68k, take out insurance for the year leaving you 61K, rent costs the same as a mortgage in the short term so just pull out 10K and call it even, we have 51K left and now we have a good $400 or more a month for utilities and other bills so take another 3K leaving 48K and well slow down right there. $48K annual that is now potentially available for spending for food, clothing, other needs and wants, the remainder to supplement investments. The is $4,000 a month and you still may have a car payment or two, if your in good shape like my wife and I. Just invest 10% of the gross and see let's see what's left, owww, that's like $13K from the $48K leaving $35K, our 4K a month is now less then 3K, we should make a car payment so let's see, $300 is modest, so $2,700 is left. Might as well claim that 9% in sales taxes at this point so we are running around $2,500 a month and groceries cost better than $100 a week so let's just lop off that 500 and leave us with $500 a week to use how we want to for a well off couple with 2 kids grown, ohh, they weren't always grown up and out of the house.
We had an insurance salesman at the house the other day, he tricked his way inside cause my wife's union, (that reminds me, Union Dues),started provided a $25K accidental death and dismember policy, which they use to try and get inside to sell you more insurance. Their approach was to ask how much you make cause they think you need more insurance when you make more money, a percentage should go to them.
And this is the point. The Government, and all business in America want to take from you, every dollar that they can. Costs are based on income and the more you make, the more they try and take from you. As long as you are earning, they want every loose penny they can get and when the day comes that you are not earning, they want to start taking everything you have invested and purchased back. Reverse Mortgage anyone?
Now anyone here can argue and quibble over these numbers, it's not universal by a close shot. But the previous couple of sentences should be easy enough to confirm from anyone here old enough to have seen it for themselves. This is the game they want every American to play and so many Americans are not very good at understanding the game this way.
I have been to Germany and I have seen how Germans work. I've also seen how retail shop owners close their doors at 3 PM and go home to their families when most US retail would be open till at least 6 PM and sometimes much later. I drove around Germany and was amazed, and frustrated, that at 4:30 PM, after I got off work, I couldn't find a power cord adapter for my US standard power cord to plug into a Euro power receptacle because all the stores were closed. I don't know how Germans do this? Do they wait until the weekend? Do they go early first thing in the morning? Sacrifice their lunch hour? Or do they call and order what they need delivered to their home somehow? Whatever it is, it's definitely different but my real best guess is the boss simply gives them time off to go take care of personal business. I have heard that many foreigners think Americans work far too much.
Still, all this aside, I want you to understand that although we may be very tough on ourselves and be very critical of each other, we do not generally accept criticism from others very well. We know we are different and that people who have never lived here for long just don't get how different. They do not understand what it is like for a Texan to have to drive for five to eight hours to get to a lake to go fishing, or for my kid and her husband to drive all night, 10 hours in the rain to get from LA to my home in Arizona, just to swap their bags over to our SUV and light out for an 12 hour drive to Texas for X-Mas at the family home with Grandpa and my sister and niece.
I earn decent money for Arizona and together with my wife we pull in a good $130K a year in a location where the cost of living isn't that bad. Still, the federal government takes about $40IK right off the top and Arizona wants another $7K plus $1,400 for property taxes and a hundred each for vehicle registration. So basically right off the top I loose $50K to taxes. But I also pay taxes for fuel, and 8 or 9% for all retail sales, and phones and internet connections and for the most part, some government somewhere is in our pocket for almost everything we do, use or buy.
And then there is the money I invest for savings and retirement. Now I get taxed on what I made and invested and if that money makes more money it gets taxed as well. Yes, it's at a better rate but only if it all goes right. If something happens and you have to pull that money out early, the fees and penalties will make you wish you had hid it in a shoe box under your bed.
Then there is insurance, cars cost people a good $600 or more a year per vehicle, medical can be $500 a month or more, dental and vision add up. So most of us are paying a good $7K a year for insurance.
So take our decent 130k - 50K = 80K, invest 12K for retirement leaving 68k, take out insurance for the year leaving you 61K, rent costs the same as a mortgage in the short term so just pull out 10K and call it even, we have 51K left and now we have a good $400 or more a month for utilities and other bills so take another 3K leaving 48K and well slow down right there. $48K annual that is now potentially available for spending for food, clothing, other needs and wants, the remainder to supplement investments. The is $4,000 a month and you still may have a car payment or two, if your in good shape like my wife and I. Just invest 10% of the gross and see let's see what's left, owww, that's like $13K from the $48K leaving $35K, our 4K a month is now less then 3K, we should make a car payment so let's see, $300 is modest, so $2,700 is left. Might as well claim that 9% in sales taxes at this point so we are running around $2,500 a month and groceries cost better than $100 a week so let's just lop off that 500 and leave us with $500 a week to use how we want to for a well off couple with 2 kids grown, ohh, they weren't always grown up and out of the house.
We had an insurance salesman at the house the other day, he tricked his way inside cause my wife's union, (that reminds me, Union Dues),started provided a $25K accidental death and dismember policy, which they use to try and get inside to sell you more insurance. Their approach was to ask how much you make cause they think you need more insurance when you make more money, a percentage should go to them.
And this is the point. The Government, and all business in America want to take from you, every dollar that they can. Costs are based on income and the more you make, the more they try and take from you. As long as you are earning, they want every loose penny they can get and when the day comes that you are not earning, they want to start taking everything you have invested and purchased back. Reverse Mortgage anyone?
Now anyone here can argue and quibble over these numbers, it's not universal by a close shot. But the previous couple of sentences should be easy enough to confirm from anyone here old enough to have seen it for themselves. This is the game they want every American to play and so many Americans are not very good at understanding the game this way.
Exactly. Working with EMC Support, HP Support, and even Dell (non-pro support), it is a pain. You usually know more than they do. Right now my own company is using FIS to outsource the help desk and tier 1 support. Obviously FIS wants more and wants to take us completely over, but thankfully my management knows better as they have already shown they can't even handle basic support and we will never expect them to handle tier 2 or higher after they have caused us to have multiple outages and they don't know why it happened. lol
NickJames
Supreme [H]ardness
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- Apr 28, 2009
- Messages
- 6,698
No thanks, I work to play the social game so I can make more money. Being complacent in life gets you nowhere and if I wasn't envious of people making more money than me then I would never see a pay raise. If I have valid complaints to raise then I will raise them. A good employer knows how to keep its employees happy and knows the value of its best workers. No, everyone does not matter, some workers exist to fill seats and diversity roles. If you're just going to work like a cog then yes you are replaceable. Don't be a cog.
D
Deleted member 93354
Guest
Oh I'm not saying wanting to make more money is a bad thing. That creates motivation. There's a difference between wanting more, and still being grateful for what you have.
I'm saying "Jack makes $50,000 more than me. I want to be paid the same as Jack" That is envy. That's bad.
At the end of the day you should be grateful for what you have. Because if you don't you will be miserable. It doesn't mean you shouldn't try for more. But as I always say, "I'm blessed with what I have. I have everything I need under my roof" I pay my bills, have food, health insurance, and put away enough for retirement. Life isn't built on money. Life is built on how you live and if you are happy. If you don't believe me, ask the Amish, the Danes, and Buddhist Monks.
Do I work hard? Yes! Do I want more? Yes! But I won't be upset if some guy makes 10x's as much as me if I have everything I need in life. Focusing on what you don't have is what makes you unhappy. And if you are that unhappy it's your responsibility to find that happiness elsewhere. It says, "Life, Liberty and THE PERSUIT OF HAPPINESS." not "Life Libery and the guarantee of happiness and a good life for all"
It's a very fine line yet is distinct at the same time in how you look at it.
I think both of these guys have good information to share.
DigitalGriffin has good advice when it comes to essentially, one's reputation as a worker. That being said, NickJames understands that in some career fields it's not enough to be appreciated as a non-fuss employee who is steadfast and loyal. Sometimes you must go beyond what is called for and it is not in your best interest to let people forget what you have done for them. I saved my customer a couple hundred thousand in equipment, I increased their uptime dramatically and now we only go down for planned outages and power outages. I would have 0 downtime if I could get the customer to buy into it. I have also positioned my customer so that he can remove some maintenance contracts worth another $64K without loosing any storage capacity. My company's customer is very happy with me, and I make sure my company knows what I did for them and their standing with this customer. That being said, I am under no delusions.
Our contract will come up for re-compete like all of them do. We might win, we might not. The winning company may pick me up and may not. But the customer has some pull and if they are happy with me they know how to let the winner know about it. It's my reputation that I must build and maintain and I do it by taking good care of my customer for whoever it is that writes my checks. I don't want to move up, I don't want to be in charge, it's enough to know that I am valuable and that I am listened to. And if I do want to move on, that I leave behind people who will have good things to say about me.
DigitalGriffin has good advice when it comes to essentially, one's reputation as a worker. That being said, NickJames understands that in some career fields it's not enough to be appreciated as a non-fuss employee who is steadfast and loyal. Sometimes you must go beyond what is called for and it is not in your best interest to let people forget what you have done for them. I saved my customer a couple hundred thousand in equipment, I increased their uptime dramatically and now we only go down for planned outages and power outages. I would have 0 downtime if I could get the customer to buy into it. I have also positioned my customer so that he can remove some maintenance contracts worth another $64K without loosing any storage capacity. My company's customer is very happy with me, and I make sure my company knows what I did for them and their standing with this customer. That being said, I am under no delusions.
Our contract will come up for re-compete like all of them do. We might win, we might not. The winning company may pick me up and may not. But the customer has some pull and if they are happy with me they know how to let the winner know about it. It's my reputation that I must build and maintain and I do it by taking good care of my customer for whoever it is that writes my checks. I don't want to move up, I don't want to be in charge, it's enough to know that I am valuable and that I am listened to. And if I do want to move on, that I leave behind people who will have good things to say about me.
NickJames
Supreme [H]ardness
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I spent nearly 6 years as a government contractor without a raise. I thought just being happy for what I was making was enough. But slowly I saw so many people undeserving of where they are or what they make. Incompetent staff quickly working their way up the ladder based on nothing but social engineering and favoritism. It really jaded my view of the American workplace. In the last 2 years I doubled my pay by making myself heard, not by complaining(no one likes a complainer) but by stating my worth and it worked. It's always good to make yourself heard and not just be another face in a cubicle. In my position the worst they can say is no.
No, in Government contracting you are not likely going to see many decent raises. Each job position has a price range, once you get close to the top of that price range you won't get much more. If you start there then that's just all there is. The only way from there to get a raise is look for a contract that has a better pay range and jump contracts, or move to a new job category that has a better pay range.
For instance, by working my way into storage related positions I'll be able to swing a change from standard sysadmin pay ranges to storage engineer pay ranges. That's as far as I care to take it, I'm 57 in March, I plan to retire at 62, I have 5 years left and then it's adios mutherfuckers, I'm popping smoke and making room for a new guy.
A decision is made by considering all relevant data. If excessive taxation and regulations makes doing business in the United States "difficult" than decisions will be made to move offshore. Conversely if taxes and regulations are reduced to more business friendly levels than it becomes more probable that businesses will decide to remain or return.
NickJames
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2009
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- 6,698
I went from Clerk, to Information Systems to System Analyst to currently Specialist. The Wage Determination chart is a load of shit and they can price you at whatever they want. The worst part is they don't even go by the entire job description. They just try to put you into a lower percentage than what your contract was bid for. They just cherry pick what they want off your JD to fit you into a lower bracket to make the largest cut.
I managed to siphon information out of my contract officer to allow for more bargaining power. I found out that my contract was worth 45/hr while I was making 19/hr, fuck that. So I rewrote my own job description multiple times and was able to get my officer to push me into a new title every year during renewal by removing physical and in my opinion irrelevant duties and switch it over to a more computer oriented position. I went from 38K to 50K and finally 65K in the last 2-3 years. I am about 30K off from the top of the GS scale in terms of non supervisory positions which isn't bad for a contractor in my area. I plan on moving over to permanent staff soon which will put me on as a GS11 with standard raise opportunity to a GS12.
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Comcast CEO Brian Roberts received total compensation of $40.8 million last year. Do you think a guy like that gives two shits about the little guy? No fucking way. The people who run these companies want to extract every fucking penny they can from you, using any tactic they can get away with, no matter how sleazy. They don't give a fuck about you because they have everything they could dream of, and they want more. When you create a pay structure like that you have basically hired mercenaries. To make matters worse, money has been ruled free speech in America. Now those companies can buy as many politicians as they want, buy as many laws as they want. America is a farm, corporations and politicians are the farmers, and it's people are the livestock.