[PLUG] hiring full-time: PHP programmer

Geoff Burling llywrch at agora.rdrop.com
Sat Nov 23 01:50:48 UTC 2002


On Wed, 20 Nov 2002, Carla Schroder wrote:

> On Wednesday 20 November 2002 17:10, Greg Robillard wrote:

[unknown poster wrote:]

> > > $25/hr is more than I'm getting via Intel.  (Who just cut most
> > > contractors rates by 10%)  At least I'm getting benefits via my agency.
> > >
[snip]
> >
> > Yes, even 12 bucks an hour is better than nothing, especially when rent is
> > due. And  I know we aren't in the heady days of 1999, when an HTML coder
> > could bring in $60/hr. But it is also not 1933 either, back when Perl was
> > the only scripting language around :)
>
> Perl was good enough for my granny, by gosh.
>
> I know a couple o persons who have been unemployed for two years. They are not
> on the streets, thanks to having working spouses, who IMO are far too
> patient. They're not going to find a job that meets their specs, because by
> gosh they are worth way more than anyone's offering. A person can be picky
> when they have a bidding war going for their services. Otherwise, be hush,
> get to work, and be glad to be receiving a living wage. Clerical and temp
> jobs range from $8- $12/hr, no bennies. That's not living wages. Unless you
> live in your parent's basement.
>
I could offer a few other reasons why those folks are still unemployed, but
I don't want to get side-tracked in the psychoanalysis of unemployment.
(Although I will mention that someone who has been without a real job for
a year or two is probably also suffering from depression. And needs to get
help.) I just wanted to mention that at my current paying job -- taking
catalog orders at Norm Thompson -- I'd estimate about a quarter of the temps
working there lost their jobs in the high-tech blowout. There simply aren't
enough technology jobs to go around.

Anyway, working at Norm Thompson beats working at Stream. At NT, I'm only
fighting boredom (& it helps working for a company that sells things I
can believe in); at Stream, it was a daily battle for my self respect.

BTW, I'm sure the folks in charge of Norm Thompson are happy to have us
high tech cast-offs: according to one woman who has worked the phone center
for 10 years, the temps they had to settle for barely qualified to be called
the ``scrapings of the barrell." Some of them were obviously not fluent in
their own native tongue -- English. (Well, those weren't exactly her words.
She used rather more earthy language to describe them.

Geoff





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