Jerry Curtis Has Been in the Sun (Choosing Manual Labor Over Netslavery)
Posted Wed May 2 22:52:33 2001 by sbaldwin |
By James C. Hess
Jerry Curtis has been in the sun.
A lot.
He laughs when asked how much time he spends in the sun. His teeth
seem whiter against his sunburned face. "Oh, say ten, twelve hours a
day. Six days a week."
Jerry spends so much time in the sun because he makes eight dollars
and fifty cents an hour loading and unloading delivery trucks for a
wholesale greenhouse.
A year ago he worked in a temperature-controlled office, sixty
floors up, making three hundred thousand dollars (U.S.) a year, plus
stock options, and a quarterly percentage bonus.
Nine months ago, though, this coveted existence started coming
apart: The dot-com Jerry worked for issued an internal memo that they
were looking for new funding.
"Corporatespeak," Jerry says. "It means 'we're screwed. We know we're screwed. But we're not telling you we're screwed'."
He considers this and laughs again. There is delight and pleasure in his laughter.
Six months ago it all came crashing down.
"The security department came around with a trolley filled with
those white legal boxes you can buy for moving. Whatever fit into the
box comfortably we were allowed to take. Everything else stayed and was
sold at auction to pay creditors."
He sighs. Happily.
Three months ago he got out. The dot-com went bankrupt shortly thereafter.
Jerry hit the ground running. He took the first job that came along.
The job he now has.
Any regrets about this life change?
"None," Jerry says. "I'm glad it happened. I've never been happier, in fact."
Never been happier? Working twelve hour days? Six days a week? For eight fifty an hour? Jerry laughs. He is truly happy. "Yep."
But what about the perks? What about the stock options? The bonus? The benefits?
"Highly overrated. In the long term I will do better in a situation like this."
Increasingly present and past employees of dot-coms are passing up employment with high tech firms. The reason:
Jerry says "High tech means high risk. High risk means you lose."
Increasingly, like Jerry Curtis, dot-commers are turning to more traditional employment opportunities.
Why?
As Jerry put it so well: In the long term they will do better.
According to a headhunter who asks not to be named for fear of
being fired this change means one thing to high tech: Bad news. People
just don't want to work for a company that will terminate them without
a second thought.
Besides, chances of going back to work for a former high-tech
employer are not good. When they fire you, they fire you, owing to the
fact they soon go out of business thereafter. There are few second
chances in the dot-com world.
There is good news to this, though. If you are a high-tech type, if
you have the desired qualifications and experience, and if you are
willing to work for a dot-com, you can almost be assured of writing
your own ticket.
Just ask Susan Ester. Five years ago she was making $25,000 a year
as a surface mount technology assembler. She had medical and dental.
She had stock options. She had a profit-sharing plan.
But that was all. Chances of advancement were few. Long-term career growth was, at best, limited.
So she looked around, considered her situation, and took out
several thousand dollars in loans to take certification courses in C
and C++.
A year later, now employed by a dot-com as a programmer, she was
making $60,000. She had full benefits, stock options (pre-IPO), and
profit sharing. Six months after that she saw her income more than
double. Three months after that her income climbed to two hundred
thousand.
Today she earns slightly more than three hundred thousand a year.
She has full benefits, a retirement plan, a stock investment plan, and
a bonus plan.
She also has a written agreement that even if she is terminated she
will still walk away with three years income plus a fourth year of
income for staying on.
Why such a lucrative deal? Especially given the current economic picture?
According to the headhunter: She has what they want. What they need. Because she does they are willing to pay. Big.
But three years isn't that long. What then?
Susan already has a plan for her next career: Her brother, a former
dot-commer himself, has a bookstore he opened with part of a buy-out he
received. When Susan's three years are up she is going into business
with him.
"The family business," she says.
The family business. It could be the new new economy.
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