October 11, 2013 at 3:42 pm
Andrew-H (10/11/2013)
If I don't like my job, I can change employers, there are tons of them.If we are unionized and I don't like my union, how easy would it be to change that? Not very I think.
If you're unionized, then you may encounter trouble changing employers. No doubt there will be a lot of non-unionized contractors or offshore resources who could easily be tapped to fill a position.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
October 11, 2013 at 9:37 pm
Randy Rabin (10/11/2013)
Not sure if anybody else has touched on this, but something unionizing might help with is creating an industry-standard way of defining and measuring DBA skillsets. Someone can say they have a level 3 rating in high availability, or an apprentice rating in query tuning, that kind of thing. I guarantee I could take ten DBAs at the Summit next week, and every one of the ten has completely different job responsibilities.
What standard? Isn't the ANSI-92 the standard? Or is the M$, Oracle, Interbase, or SQL Anywhere the standard you have to learn. I have worked in all those DB formats and more. The general DML/DDL standards are good.
The overall idea of a union is a totally bad idea.
I grew up around Bethlehem Steel. The union helped kill them. I now live outside the Dayton area, OH. The GM Blazer plant is now closed. Another subset of unions raising the costs on labor is that vehicles the robotics to put a car together, painted nicely is less the cost of a human.
As another subset of the <Un>Affordable Care Act is that many fast food companies are now looking for automated burger cookers. As I understand it Europe has fast food orders done by the customer on touch screens.
And as others have noted earlier -- IT is going to tell the robots how to work. The CEO's are going to get the money. The minimum wage workers won't have a job because it is not economical for the corporation.
----------------
Jim P.
A little bit of this and a little byte of that can cause bloatware.
October 12, 2013 at 7:43 am
JBrosch (10/11/2013)
ALL the benefits, I want I negotiate for myself (as a FTE or contractor), many of those you mention - general in the form of about $5 / hour more that other contractors doing the same work. I use this money to "purchase" the benefits I WANT, not somebody else.Since I wasn't part of the original debate, I'm going to add my two cents (some garnered from a run for US Congress in 2012). The issues I have with this topic are the same I have with the ACA - personal responsibility, NOT government (or unions) as a nanny state. If you want it, ask for it AND prove yourself worthy of getting it.
I look forward to talking at both SQL Saturday in Charleston this weekend and Charlotte next.
track me down and say hello at Charleston. I'm sitting in Room #1 there now, typing this.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
October 14, 2013 at 5:07 am
Typed in a hurry - is that the best you can do?
October 14, 2013 at 7:44 am
I believe unionization makes more sense in an industry where workers tend to be less educated and marginally paid and there can be workplace hazards.
However, most of us on the professional side of IT are union of one; we can negotiate on our own behalf and have a pretty good deal relative to the average worker. Honestly, I'd feel kind of silly standing outside my office with a picket sign, and I doubt the media coverage and public sentiment would be sympathetic.
Say what you will about Micro$soft, but it has created a good life for a lot of us. SQL Server is my union leader, and I pledge my allegiance to Microsoft. They've never let me down.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
October 15, 2013 at 1:56 pm
Samuel Johnson (3/7/2009)
"I know lots of you don't think unions are good..." Where does that come from? My guess is that just as many (in fact probably more) people working in IT approve of unions. The people who dislike unions the most are employers, for the obvious reasons.
It comes from being in them in the past. It has been my expereince that unions tend to promote mediocrity and I personally saw a lot of corruption in them as well over the years. It's better to stick to exactly what you know, instead of stating what you think you know about everyone else's situation, when in reality you really don't. 🙂 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
October 17, 2013 at 7:58 am
SQLSimon (3/6/2009)
The US standard for vacation is just 2 weeks????2 weeks? I'm stunned.
2 weeks?
I know, they're mad, right? Two weeks? How much of that is wasted having to be home for the plumber or whatever. Bonkers.
October 17, 2013 at 8:10 pm
The key thing I would be looking for is a level of salary standardisation, same pay for same work type things. I've worked in places where when they promoted staff they gave a fixed 5% rise over your current salary. But then with industry changes and pressures when it came to hiring a staf member under them to replace an existing the new person ended up getting 20% more than their leader. When the new person's performance and review plan was put in place and they mentioned they wanted to eventually become a team leader there was laughter across the organisation as we all knew that it would look like a demotion.
So setting ranges for roles woudl be good so that everyone knew they were on a fair salarey compared to others in their teams doing the same type of role.
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