Re: Professional Groups

[<bart2k () hushmail com>]

Scratch the Union idea! I say you look toward a Professional Secret Society...I
hear they were all the rage in past power-player days :)


On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 12:31:03 -0800 Daniel Sichel <daniels () Ponderosatel com>
wrote:
> > It's time we as a professional group start talking and walking
> like
> > adults (at least more than in the past), I think. Just playing
> with
> > computers is fine, but not enough.
>
> > Agreed.  And believe me, I have spent many an hour trying to figure
> out
>
> > how to approach the problem.  Unfortunately, every solution I can
> come 
> > up with involves educating the masses . . . many of whom don't
> want to 
> > be confused with facts . . .  ;>
>
> This is off topic but I couldn't help myself. What we need is a
> union.
> Why? Well right now, management generally buys the software that
> has the
> cutest infobabes, the best promise, or safe branding (Microsoft).
> If we
> had a union that negotiated a contract that paid us extra for fixing
> software failures or broken installs, so that the bottom line got
> hurt
> by the crap these people sell, it would take about 5 minutes for
> the
> priorities to change in purchasing decisions and for SLAs and tech
> support to be ratcheted up where they belong. 
>
> Speaking as a US citizen, if we were Teamsters and honored their
> picket
> lines think of the leverage we would have. Scab truck drivers are
> available, but imagine the chaos of scab sys admins or firewall
> administrators? And of course when the Teamsters honor our picket
> lines,
> that wouldn't hurt a bit. 
>
> Be nice to keep our jobs from going to third world countries where
> tech
> professionals are even more exploited than here. 
>
> But of course, all my technical professional colleagues will pooh-
> pooh
> the idea of a union. They always do. Think about this, a union for
> us
> could be like the bar associatio for lawyers or the AMA for doctors.
> We
> could impose stringent professional abilities, certifications, and
> requirements to ensure we are a professional, capable body of people.
> We
> could institute apprenticeships so we have  a supply of people who
> are
> more than paper MCSEs or CCNAs.
>
> I am very fortunate that I work in an enlightened company that pays
> more
> than lip service to standards and security. Management totally backs
> us
> up on secure and safe computing. No IM, no HTML mail, no user installed
> software. A budget for security and training. It is wonderfule.
> It is
> also the first employer in my 15 years of IT experience that follows
> through on these things. But I remember the pain and anguish from
> before. If we are going to change our industry so that we can succeed
> at
> our jobs, we need a union. Period. 
>
>
> Dan Sichel, Network Engineer
> Ponderosa Telephone Company
> (559) 868-6367
>
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