Economics
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Terrell Owens signs with the Cowboys and I'm not thrilled. As a longtime fan of Dallas, I'd have preferred that they get someone else, despite his talent. Too much baggage. Alfonso Soriano refuses to play outfield for the Nationals this week, disobeying his manager who asked him to go out there during a game. Lots of people are upset with this "spoiled" athlete who makes $10 million a year and won't listen to his boss.There's way more stories of this type of behavior than there are positive ones. But how do these individuals get away with this behavior and still command such high salaries?
It's called economics. There are many people, often sports or entertainment stars, that have a supply of something: talent. And with the demand out there to see them, the price goes up. It's a simple graph from basic Economics 101, like the one shown below. I learned about this early in my college career, as the supply goes down, as in one or two superstar wide receivers in football, the price goes up. In this case to $10 million for Mr. Owens this year.
If you can have that kind of demand for your services, than you can easily get more money. And it's not limited to sports.
I have a friend that manages a development team. This manager requires the team to read software development materials from the team library, which contains books, magazines, etc. that pertain to their business. Often there are magazines passed around and the developers are asked to read for an hour a week and note a sentence or two that shows they read something. My friend even gives them the hour during work hours as a way to encourage personal development and growth of the developers.
Recently one developer said that they didn't want to read one week. Since it was a busy week, the team working overtime, my friend didn't complain too much. However the developer went further in saying they didn't think they should have to read and that if they did, they should be able to pick anything, not just from the library. No suggestions or, hey, could you get a copy of Professional SQL Server 2005 Integration Services, nothing other than a complaint.
My friend was a little put off by this. After all, my friend is trying to help the team grow, looking to ensure they do not become stagnant and wanting to foster a professional environment. And giving away work time to do it, not requiring the developers to find time at night or on the weekends.
I've seen this behavior more and more over the last 7 or 8 years than the 7 or 8 prior to that that I've been in this business. As the demand for IT services has gone up, many people have gotten inflated salaries and the ego to go with them. Too many IT workers think they're above some work or don't think they need to improve or companies should place additional demands on them. This goes from requiring certifications or training to not being willing to help out in lesser skilled areas.
Maybe I'm getting old. Maybe I'm from a different time, but I think that requiring you to keep learning isn't a problem in IT. After all, technology changes rapidly and it benefits you. And requiring it on company time shouldn't be an issue. Asking me to help out with a ticket queue and assigning ACL permissions to individuals won't generate a complaint from me.
Heck, it's much easier than doing SQL work and the pay's the same.
Steve Jones
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Steve,
It sounds to me like your friends got a staff member who isn;t a team player and is disinterested in the future direction of the company he works for / participates in / helps to build.
Surey there are enough candidates about to replace someone who is not "patriotic" to their place of employment.
Time off from work, to research and keep yourself abreast of emerging technologies - I have got to get me a boss, who not just offers lip service but expects it / supports it. there a re lot of talented people out there who'd love the chance to work for someone that takes a "real" interest in their employees professional progression.
Sure, your friend personally and in the company is rewarded for his positive outlook and gets better results out of staff as a result... but it's certainly not a given that you're boss is going to even give a 2nd thought about that bloke over there in the cubicle - just so long as he delivers want I want / need and on time!
Gavin Baumanis
Smith and Wesson. The original point and click device.
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Cowboy Fan!
I knew there was another reason why I enjoy reading your articles aside from the SQL insights.
Go Cowboys!
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Hmmm, supervisor says read for one hour a week on company time. Employee doesn't want to. Supervisor suggests to the employee not to let the door hit backside on the way out.
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Most of the jobs I have ever taken always have had that little clause that reads 'and any other duties as assigned.'
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Disclaimer: Andy is a Redskins fan.
Developers can be quirky. Team-think doesn't always allow for this, desiring everyone to be a team player (I cannot help but think of several scenes from Office Space...).
There was a recent debate on talent and allowing for quirkiness between Eric Sink and Joel Spolsky. I blogged about it some.
In my humble opinion, I believe there is room for individualism in the collective. I know that sounds contradictory, so please allow me to attempt to demonstrate by recording a discussion I had with a Chinese translator while living and working in the Yunnan Provice in 1994:
Him: "Your system of government is based upon greed."
Me: "Our system of government is based upon individual responsibilities and rights."
Him: "Our system is based on caring for our brothers."
Me: "So is ours."
Him: "How can you care for your brothers when you only watch out for yourself?"
Me: "By taking care of myself, I am not a burden to my brother."
I don't want to hijack this thread into a philosophical debate, but I believe philosophical differences may be at the heart of your friend's experience, Steve.
I firmly believe there is a great gulf between wrong and different. I see this as the heart of many similar debates.
Just my $0.02...
:{> Andy
Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics
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In my time I've actually seen individuals that refused to take paid training trips that included generous expense accounts, and the training was needed for the employee to be able to do the job for which they were being paid...
I've seen others go on a company required training trip to only drink and party to such excess that they were unable to attend the training during the day.
And finally, the occasional idiot that uses the occasion to get drunk, start a fight, and lands in the local jail
So, you've got someone who refuses to do something intended for his benefit on company time, and you’re surprised
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Emerson
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Well playing Devil's advocate here but to defend the choice of what to do outside your details. These little requests can lead to a slippery slope.
It can from some perspectives start at reading 'extra curricular' material aside from work, not be a fixed issue. Then from some people’s perspective, imply that anything is also inferable.
Would I be a bad person by suggesting you taking out the trash takes away work from the cleaning person.
Or repainting my office is not letting a contractor do the work.
Also, it could be implied that the person handing out the 3rd party material is not comprehended by the individual and thereby using their position of power to gleam from the other possibly brighter or better informed persons mind what the substance of the article implies or its relevancy. I by the way have this happen quite often but not in these exact currumstances, sometimes I play ball other times 'i'm too busy'. This would allow the 'manager' to appear brilliant to upper management with regard to advanced changes in the IT field.
As a lead position over the other IT people, should they instead state what there opinions are on a subject, they might be wrong; and if you are wrong enough you either end up invading Poland or end up working for those whom you were trying to stand on the shoulders of.
Or in football terms, if you don’t like it, you go catch the ball.
"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And poof. Just like that, he's gone." TUS
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Providing value to a business is not an easy thing to schedule or demand. How we get and maintain our positions varies by position and personality.
I'm sure if the developer was given a project he was interested in, the value he brought to the enterprise could made clearer.
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I agree with the demand vs supply explanation, and that the best way to keep one's demand (pay) high is to be able to do stuff (or combinations of stuff) that others can't do.
I have two different weeks of training scheduled next month (both paid by my employer) -- I don't turn down chances to learn more because in the end it puts me ahead of the guy who is unwilling even to read an hour a week. But if he doesn't want to read, that's fine, it makes the competition easier for the rest of us.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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I think you meant to put quantity on the horizontal axis, not time. Econ 101, baby.
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When you stop learning you're dead.
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Gah! What an idiot. I'd love to have my boss say "take one hour a week for reading/training." In my 19 years in this business, I've almost always had to do these things on my own time, giving up time with friends, family and leisure pursuits in order to improve my skills.
He obviously doesn't know how good he has it. If I were your friend that guy would be out of there on his attitude alone. If he has trouble seeing the value in the opportunity your friend is offering him, who knows what else he is missing or ignoring?
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You have a friend?
Wow.
I didn't think admins had those unless somebody needed something...
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"But if he doesn't want to read, that's fine, it makes the competition easier for the rest of us."
Jay, you're assuming that management will hire/promote the person with the greatest knowledge of the technology in use and/or the person with adequate tech chops who knows the business, can relate to/get along with the users, show up on time, sober, unarmed, etc.
In my experience, management has no clue as to picking the right people for a task, no concept of what good work (code, data structures suck, but look at that animated gif!) looks like, is too ready to hire/promote/assign based on criteria not related to the job ("yer a Cowboys fan, too? Go Cowboys!" "You betcha Uncle Billy! Go Cowboys!") and no stomach for doing the job they were hired to do, which is to get the right people for a task and give them the resources they need to do it.
There is no "i" in team, but idiot has two.
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