I was listening to TWiT the other day, and Wesley Faulkner had just announced a new venture that he’s working on. It’s called “Work’s Not Working“. The basic premise is that in our current corporate environment, the deck is stacked against those doing the work. (Yeah I am over simplifying this a bit, but I feel that’s a great summary).
Why I am supporting
Very early in my career I had a few experiences that align really well with some of the reason why some one may want to join this community.
I was working for a really small consulting firm. The CEO, his son and wife all worked at it too. I had been brought on to help healthcare companies (and others) via contract programming and general IT work. When hired on I was told that part of my compensation would be a percentage of the profits based on the work I had been doing. I never received a bonus in all the years I worked there.
A few years into the job, I was asked to come in and help fix our payroll. They were having to address the changes in the Social Security taxes, when the maximum tax amount split so Medicare and Social Security could have different maximum values. I had done the same work for a customer, so I knew the law and the code.
Given we were small, there was no real test data, so I had full access to the company’s payroll data. I discovered that not only was I the lowest paid consultant (not a surprise), but I was also paid less than the secretary (the CEO’s wife), and I was the #1 profit maker for the company. So all those promises of bonuses based on my profitability were lies.
After this point I was approached by a customer to come work for them. It would be a 50% raise, and I would be instrumental in building out their IT staff. I would also be leading a major system upgrade. This is when I discovered what a “Right to work State” meant. Basically, I didn’t have the right to work, if my current employer didn’t want me going to work in the same industry. Ultimately the CFO of the company that wanted to hire me, told my boss, that if they wanted to get the big upgrade job, they had to let me out of the non-compete clause.
I bring this story up as something that I had to learn about early in my career. Remember, a company has lawyers and a Human Resources department. They work for the company, not the employees. Some of the people are fantastic, but their jobs depend on them doing what is right for the company.
When I read the mission of “Work’s Not Working!” I knew I had to support it. Over the course of my career I’ve been a mentor, manager, and friend for many people I worked with. I hope that Wesley’s work will provide this to a broad reach of developers and more!