Techies Go To Finishing School
from the waste-of-time dept
Remember the days when techies were so cool they could do whatever they wanted and no one would care? Apparently those days are long gone. At George Mason University they're making techies go to finishing school to get some proper etiquette training. They're apparently hearing from recruiters that they want graduates with a bit more "polish" outside of their programming skills. Of course, many techies I know would say that anyone who wouldn't hire them due to their inability to pick the right fork wouldn't be a good employer to work for anyway.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
depends how you define good
I've seen too many techies who make six figures but have the hygiene and manners of pigs. But, if that is the lifestyle they prefer, they will be quietly excluded from high society, and will be kept in their place.
Some geeks obsess over money and having cooler toys than others, but they're just symptoms of a deeper desire for high social status. Until they get this, they will always be screwed by the social butterflies who know the bigger picture.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Techie Finishing School
The Finishing School would be about as appropriate and meaningful as making sure that your techies are punctual.
The day job actually listed a criteria of punctuality for our new hires. Obviously written by a Suit who doesn't understand that the very nature of the job requires flexibility. Long hours. Late nights. All night. And a punctual techie is the last thing we need - someone who leaves when the clock strikes 5PM.
The finishing school makes about as much sense.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Techie Finishing School
A company is a team enterprise, and IT cannot be a rogue group that makes its own rules. The single mother in the legal department making $20,000 a year has to come in early too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Techie Finishing School
If they're not getting the job done because of their lateness, that's a different story, but most techies I know do a perfectly good job, and if something goes down at 5am, they're quick to wake up and fix it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Techie Finishing School
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
I think that there are a whole lot of issues raised by this, not the least of which is that I think it makes sense to be using facilities like workspaces pretty much around the clock. It's a good use of space. Programmers usually don't need to be around during office hours, at least not all the time, so why not allow them some flexibility? What is important is whether they get the job done or not.
Basically, supply and demand will take care of this, people who can get a job anywhere, good techies, will leave and find an employer who understands that by their very nature, technical and programming work is not always a 9-5 job.
Thus the best techies will go to work for the most informed employer. You would want to get paid a lot to work for somebody who doesn't understand the very nature of programming and technical jobs.
"hate to burst your bubble, but we can't have tech support people coming in at 11AM because they didn't feel like waking up"
Who is this royal "we" that you speak of?
"That's what they all say"
It's what they do as well, or they are out of a job.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
I did say they can choose that lifestyle if they prefer. They might wonder why their career seems to dead-end though. The new money crowd can boast of its superficial money and power, but they are routinely excluded from the highest positions.
"I think that there are a whole lot of issues raised by this, not the least of which is that I think it makes sense to be using facilities like workspaces pretty much around the clock. It's a good use of space. "
Not necessarily, because people who come in at night run up the electricity bill, among other things.
"Programmers usually don't need to be around during office hours, at least not all the time, so why not allow them some flexibility? What is important is whether they get the job done or not."
That may be true of an entry level programmer whose responsibilities are distant from the customer. People in responsible positions, however, need to be there for users when it doesn't work.
"Thus the best techies will go to work for the most informed employer. You would want to get paid a lot to work for somebody who doesn't understand the very nature of programming and technical jobs."
What if the "informed" employers want you to come in on time anyway, regardless of pretenses that it's ok to come in late? I have worked for many different IT employers and they've all been the same.
"Who is this royal "we" that you speak of?"
Any employer. If my morning flight has mechanical problems, I don't want to wait 2 hours for the mechanic to come in on his flextime schedule. It's the same story for techies.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
I think you're missing the point. If it's taking them two hours to come in and fix the problem, then clearly they are not performing their job. However, if they can do their job with their own time schedule, then what's the problem?
So far, your argument has basically been to say that these techies aren't doing their job. Our response is that if that's the case, then you're right... however, there *are* jobs that can be done on flexible work schedules, and employers who ignore that are being shortsighted, and are likely to miss out on some of the best talent.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]