Work Morale Low Among Layoff Survivors

from the i-just-wanna-go-to-nepal dept

Most everyone I know that is still employed out here in the Bay Area is in a similar situation. They're happy to be working and getting paid, but the excitement of work is just no longer there. Worker morale is dragging in the gutter lately. We miss fun work culture of the boom times, are riddled with survivor guilt and are envious of our friends partying around the world on severance checks. Some of us are resorting to buying lottery tickets and appearing on game shows to try and find a way out of our seemingly Sisyphus-like existences.
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  • identicon
    Feh..., 31 Oct 2002 @ 10:07am

    PLEASE...

    Give me a break...

    Millions of grunts spend their day doing manual labor. Millions of others spend their day in small cities all over America working twice as hard for half as much...not because they are any less talented, but because of the luck of the draw.

    Crying because people miss foozball tables and wearing jeans to work?

    As technology workers we were all spoiled rotten.

    Now complaining about having to actually work is like a rich spoiled Yale grad oil tycoon's son complaining he has to pay for his own automobile....

    FEH!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 31 Oct 2002 @ 10:18am

      Re: PLEASE...

      I actually see both sides to this. Clearly, there are many many people who are much worse off.

      However, I tend not to put much weight in arguments that begin along the lines of "millions of people are suffering and you're complaining about..."

      The feelings and morale of the people in these jobs are still real feelings.

      People spend a significant portion of their lives at their job. What is wrong with someone realizing that they don't enjoy their job? Do people have to suffer to make their feelings legitimate? I'm all for helping everyone have a better life, but there's only so much a single person can do - and if it initially involves focusing on making their own life happier and more enjoyable, what's wrong with that?

      "I can't complain, because other people are worse off" isn't exactly a recipe for improving the world.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      EMC Guy, 31 Oct 2002 @ 4:42pm

      Re: PLEASE...

      maybe I missed it, I didnt catch the part in the article where workers are crying over foosball and jeans?

      Not all tech workers are spoiled rotten- I call on a lot of tech companies and most people are worried about their jobs, they are concerned about the employees let go, and I think a lot of people are afraid its going to get worse. And its even worse in Telecom- its not alot of fun in the valley right now...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Jack0, 1 Nov 2002 @ 11:12am

        Re: PLEASE...

        "Sisyphus-like existences"????

        "the excitement of work is just no longer there??"

        "We miss fun work culture of the boom times"???

        Wahhh....work isn't fun....no more free mountain dew.....no more afternoons playing Counter-Strike in Greg's cubicle! Wahhh! I'm now forced to actually make the network work! I'm now forced to come up with a business idea that actually makes a profit. Wahhh!

        People should be happy their working, and if their job is such a drag and they actually have any talent to begin with, go find another job.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chris, 31 Oct 2002 @ 10:16am

    RE: Please

    Luck of the draw my ass. Finishing high school, not getting pregnant at 17 or younger, going to college, continually striving to improve yourself have nothing to do with the luck of the draw. The fact is that for the vast majority of us (severly mentally of physically diabled excepted) we are where we are because of the decisions we made prior to today. And if we expect to be somewhere better tomorrow, it has to start with making better decisions. Its not rocket science.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      2Lazy2Register, 31 Oct 2002 @ 10:35am

      Re: Please

      While I see where you're coming from, Chris, I have to partially agree with the previous poster, at least in my case. Yes, I worked my tail off to get where I am in the IT industry. I could just have easily worked my tail off in another industry (say aeronautical engineering, for example), and be just as successful relative to my peers, yet be making half what I do now. I sort of do consider this luck of the draw in that I happened to get into an industry that exploded salary-wise. Note that I was a pretty early entry to this industry, starting at $10/hr in 1989. I got into this work because I enjoy it (my first home computer was a TRS-80 Model I), not because I thought it would be lucrative. I just got lucky on that part. My job is not a cake walk, but there are certainly people working a lot harder for a lot less because they didn't make the somewhat lucky choice that I did.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Chris, 31 Oct 2002 @ 11:19am

        Re: Please

        I started with an Atari 800 - so I know what you mean :) Of course, there is some, maybe a lot of chance that dictated why we chose the industry that we did. But the fact that we made good with that chance is work - not luck. And I get very frustrated with people that write off anybody more successful than themselves as "just lucky." Hell, I've had stock options in 4 Internet companies and never made a dime from it. I know people who are millionaires that never made more than 50K in salary. Is it luck or were they just smart enough to seize an opportunity? I lean towards smart. You didn't have to be lucky to get a job with AOL or UUNET in 1996, mostly you just had to apply.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Jack0, 31 Oct 2002 @ 12:46pm

          Re: Please

          Actually it's luck and skill. I've known absolute geniuses that spent the dot-com boom teaching in schools. I've known complete boobs who were glorified car salesmen and developed massively popular websites that then collapsed. SOmetimes it's skill, sometimes it's luck....The dot-com boom was less about legitimacy than it was about hype, con-artists, and upper level managers with the technical savvy of a mud puddle.

          Location had a lot to do with it. Are programmers in Pittsburgh who never made more than 50k better than some schmuck in Silicon Valley with a liberal arts degree who happened to stumble into an IPO at the right time?

          The dot-com boom was jam packed with under-qualified, over hyped con artists, many of who over-estimated their own talent and began to believe their own hype....

          When the walls came down and legitimate business rules began to apply again, the wheel turned and shook the excess flour from the pan.

          Now they are all wondering what the smell is....and are upset that their company sold the HDTV in the rec room?

          I've watched countless losers over the past three years leeching off their families and whoever else (and complaining all the while) because they were too proud to lower themselves and consider other job possibilities...

          I rode through the boom and did very well for myself as a network admin and now a writer....very well....

          But for every one of me...there's twenty thousand people in other businesses (and many in tech) who think you people whining about perks and stock options are whiney b_tches. ANd quite frankly I agree with them.



          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          martrom, 31 Oct 2002 @ 12:48pm

          Re: Please

          Just because there are those who have it worse, doesn't mean all of us can't hope to have it better. I never appreciated the "be thankful for what you've got" if what you've got ain't that great.

          Sisyphus-like = Sisyphian

          link to this | view in chronology ]


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