By Brian Boyko
When your job can be quantifiably measured in the terms of ROI, many companies are finding that the ROI workers bring to the table just isn’t enough. We often hear about massive layoffs in the news; we rarely hear about massive hirings, which suggests to me that there typically aren’t many.
Add to that the increased job competition from globalization, and the typical IT environment is filled with two types of people: Those with skills so unique that no one can replace them, and those who fear for their jobs.
One of the reasons we were able to open a development center in Raleigh was because of a significant layoff by another technology vendor which gave us the ability to select some world-class talent.
Or, take Microsoft. Bill Gates personally testified before the Senate on the issue of immigration, arguing for more H-1B visas. David Broder at the Washington Post says that Gates claimed that “salaries for these jobs at Microsoft start at about $100,000 a year.”
This would be great, except Microsoft’s actual filings show that these jobs start at $46,267 a year. In fact, less than 15% of Microsoft’s H-1B workers – for 2005 – had salaries equal to or over $100,000.
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We’re not picking on Microsoft because they’re atypical but because they’re typical. The people who work in IT do not directly generate money for the company, like a sales force does. They don’t even indirectly generate money for the company, like a marketing team does. What they do is they support the infrastructure. Every piece of equipment and every person working in IT is a cost to the bottom line. This may make them a top target for budget cutbacks and layoffs when people are looking at the bottom line.
We’re not suggesting a policy change at the governmental levels – H-1B visas allow the best and most talented foreign employees to come to the U.S. to work. They also allow companies to hire them at lower pay by holding their ability to live and work in the U.S. over them – it seems difficult to have one without the other. And it’s not really about H-1B visas, except to point out that if you work in IT, unless you’re a one-of-a-kind genius, you are ultimately replaceable.
This is the business of business. Make as much money as you can while spending as little of it as you can.
But a complete lack of job security has rendered our generation of IT workers at a distinct disadvantage, and hobbled American businesses. If you do not feel secure in your job, you will think twice before telling your supervisor that a measure is ineffective or counterproductive, you will go with the safer and tried-and-true path rather than trying new, potentially better, solutions, and in short, you don’t try to innovate. You end up trying to comply.
And for many in IT, compliance without creativity leads to deepening resentment, job dissatisfaction, and all sorts of hits to a company’s morale. Additionally, those one-of-a-kind geniuses that pop up from time to time in IT and have secure positions (or can at least find another one at the drop of a hat) didn’t get there by complying, they got there by innovating.
The difference between network technicians who rise to the top of their profession and those who don’t is the degree of innovation. If your environment doesn’t encourage trying to find new ways to do things, you’re not getting your best out of your networking staff.
And that means you’ve lost a significant potential amount of ROI.
Please write in with your thoughts on this issue.
Brian Boyko is the editor of Network Performance Daily.
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