[PLUG] Re: [KLUG] Hello / K12Linux / Job posting

Robert Clark res03db2 at gte.net
Mon May 20 02:41:21 UTC 2002


On Sun, May 19, 2002 at 08:20:49AM -0700, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
> Speaking of non-PDX job opps, there was a small article in the Oregonian about
> Symantec corporation.
> 
> I don't supponse anyone recalls, but several years ago Symantec corporation
> (makers of Peter Norton's PC Anywhere, Norton Antivirus and others) got a
> series of special tax breaks and a shitpile of lottery money to locate a
> tech support center down in the old BonMarche shopping mall in Eugene that
> employed up to 300 people I think it was.
> 

I was down there at the time. I got tired of watching the local city government
people falling all over themselves as they described in gushing detail how
much of a positive impact Symantec was going to have on the downtown mall.

The city had this great idea about blocking the downtown off from auto
traffic. And then they were puzzled when everyone drove to gateway mall
to do their shopping.

Businesses began deserting the downtown like rats from a sinking ship.

> I remember going down there once when I was still working for Symantec and
> getting a kick out of seeing the old escalator in the building - first office
> building I ever saw with an escalator.  It was cheaper to just leave it in
> there instead of taking it out.

I applied there (Symantec in Eugene) once, just to get an idea of
what was on the questionaires.

I passed info back to my friend who was a CC instructor. He wanted to
get an idea of what skills his retrained-logger students would need to
get into tech support.

The questions centered around what happens in DOS before Windows starts.

> 
> Well anyway Symantec is cutting loose all the customer support and tech
> support positions to an outsourcer.  What the article didn't explain was
> that usually how this happens is that Symantic terminates all employees
> across the board.  Then the incoming outsourcing company
> reads through the personell files and any managers that are making less
> than some arbitrary amount they instantly hire, then they take those guys
> and run through the rest of the personnel list and line out the
> non-performers,
> and the folks making a lot of money who have been there for a long time.
> Then they offer the remaining employees new jobs at the same pay rate, but
> less benefits.  Then they go out and hire the remaining people that they
> need to fill the empty positions.
> 

Sounds like the scenes of "Office Space" when the efficiency expert is
brought in.

> If you know anyone who has zero professional computer experience but wants
> to break into the industry, let them know about this, the outsourcer is
> Spectrum Contact Services, of Dallas TX.  Doing desktop support for these
> kinds of products is a killer, and I guarentee that the benefits and pay
> will be worse for the employees that get fired from Symantec and rehired by
> these people, so your going to see a lot of disgruntled employees quit over
> the next year.  It's not a fun kind of job.  But, it's one of the best ways
> to gain experience and having a year of support work on your resume is a
> lot better than nothing.  Also the location is close to the University of
> Oregon.

It would be a good fit for my brother, but it would be hard to justify
his moving down there.

> 
> The article did take the space to mention that doing this disqualifies the
> company for any economic development tax breaks.  No word on if they have
> to pay back the lottery money.  I suppose I could make a mention here about
> the uselessness of having government officials wasting taxpayer dollars on
> boondoggles like getting corporations that run sweatshops to locate in their
> cities but I suppose I'll just keep quiet. ;-)
> 
> Ted Mittelstaedt




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