Effects of current state of the economy on tech writers' lives (WAS: Re: Any $ Tips about going Contractor to Perm in Same Firm?)

Subject: Effects of current state of the economy on tech writers' lives (WAS: Re: Any $ Tips about going Contractor to Perm in Same Firm?)
From: Berk/Devlin <armadill -at- earthlink -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 12:33:31 -0800

Yes, but.

As a contractor this many years, I worked for quite a few companies that were flush with VC dollars and high stock evaluations. Throughout the years, even when the NASDAQ was high, I've also worked for companies whose stock prices had fallen significantly lower than once they had been.

As a contractor, the price of a company's stock was never of interest to me in determining whether or not to accept the contract. I mostly tried to figure out if the work was interesting, if I could do it, if they were willing to pay me what I was asking and if they typically paid their bills.

****** Over many, many years, I've noticed that the emotional climate of ALL these places
ALWAYS fluctuates with its stock price
and
******* The emotional climate of the workplace ALWAYS eventually affects my ability to
get my work done whether or not I am ever on site.

Employees are almost always adversely affected by the misfortunes of their companies.

They are talking about tax penalties (On April 15, they are going to pay for the high value of the stock options they exercised in 2000, and will never be credited back for the fall in prices in 2001.) They are talking about lay-offs. They have already been laid off, or know friends who have. They are wondering how to make those mortgage payments and the payments on the Porsche.

They try to keep on doing the work, but they are worrying about their personal issues too.

If the market is flush and there are many alternate employment opportunities, when the stock price of a company plummets, the best workers go, and the least loyal go and what is left is either the people who started with the vision (and they are great to work with) or the people who don't have the skills to market themselves elsewhere.

If the market is not flush, and there are not as many alternate employment opportunities, the most political go, and what you are left with is the people who did not leave soon enough. Often, these are not happy individuals. The team that is left is not as competent as the one factored into the schedule of deliverables. The team has lost knowledge and experience that it cannot regain. The team is demoralized by its losses.

Throw on top of that the usual, insane Silicon Valley deadlines with the accompanying lack of sleep and poor diet, and you end up in an really unpleasant work environment.

It doesn't matter whether the company is deep-down financially sound or not, you still have a really unpleasant work environment.

So, Bruce, while I agree that the stock price has little to nothing to do with the true worth of a high-tech company, I also find that the history of the stock price tells me a lot about what working there will be like.

Which is the reason why I decided to go captive. I am the fifth employee of a start-up started and owned by engineers. They really believe in what they are doing. And whether they fly or fail, I will learn a lot from them and I will be able to make a significant (technical) contribution. (And, I don't have to worry about the stock price, because, for now, there isn't one.)

--Emily

At 06:29 PM 3/24/01 -0800, Bruce Byfield wrote:

... I think that the evaluation of a company by its stock price is the
last remaining legacy of the dot-com bubble. It's important to
remember that stock prices are simply what people are willing to pay
for shares in the company. ... From a potential employee's viewpoint, it's far more important to find out <valuable suggestions snipped>


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