The architect's away day the week before last was a great opportunity to catch up with people I haven't had chance to speak to for ages. Over dinner, I was discussing old colleagues with one guy I've worked with for over 25 years. The conversation ebbed and flowed, as it does, lubricated by the plentiful supply of wine. One of the things I really enjoy about having worked for the same firm all my life is the relationships and friendships I've built up over that time.
We agreed that one of the main reasons we've stayed with the same company for so long is the people we've had the chance to work with over the years. For the most part, the work has remained varied and interesting during that time, although there have been peaks and troughs. But the people - their enthusiasm, wit and integrity; the sense of camaraderie, almost of family - the chance to continue working with them on a variety of different projects and challenges has led to many of us staying with the company for long periods, often whole careers. This is unusual today, especially in our industry, where people are almost expected to change jobs every few years to get a rounded experience. But over the last thirty years I've worked on mainframes, midrange systems, office systems and PCs. I've developed operating systems, applications and solutions. I've been a designer, implementer, tester, manager, integrator, support leader. I've done recruitment, marketing, worked on sales campaigns and stood on stand at commercial shows. So I've never felt the need to leave to gain more experience. It's all been here for me.
There is a downside though. Recruiting people with equivalent experience into senior roles is not possible unless an attractive salary is offered. A salary far in excess of what us long-serving types are on. And the way the company pay scales work, to pay such a salary forces the company to recruit into the highest grades of the technical career structure.
So we have an anomaly. 30-year veterans of the industry, who not only know the technologies but also the company inside out, have first-class networks of colleagues to draw on for help and can get the job done in half the time. These people on, let's call it grade 2, or 3 and earning £x,000 per year. And they're being asked to work with people recruited from outside the company, so no knowledge of process or information stores, no usable network of experience and (sad to say) all too often very rudimentary knowledge of the technical subject matter they have been recruited for (despite no doubt spinning a plausible yarn to the HR people and managers who interviewed them) and yet are on vastly inflated salaries (often 2x £x,000) and grades 4 or 5 - at the top of the tree.
Meanwhile the older experts are passed over for promotion in favour of these people on the grounds that if they've stuck around so long they will continue to put up with it whether they are promoted or not. It's a cynical attitude to the staff the company depends on most.
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Non-competitive salaries are even harder to come by in government jobs like where i am. We were sadly underpaid until we managed to wangle a pay level adjustment in time for the impending Y2K "doom" which of course never really materialized. But at least our salaries were a little more inline with the industry. In the interim, some people's salaries have been adjusted up even more but our lowly developers salaries were deemed appropriate :(
I know what you mean about being in a company a long time. Our office has quite a few of those "lifers", and quite a few of them are eligible to retire on early retirement plans within the next five years. You are never going to replace them adequately. You might replace the skillset but not the knowledge of the corporation. When people leave, it's *always* the coworkers they miss more than the job or the place. We have a good crew too for the most part.
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