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

[Berk/Devlin <armadill -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

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: