LONG POST - BEST OF C.S.Y2K: Cory Hamasaki on personnel - most critical success factor in Y2K remediation
- Cory Hamasaki for me isTHE author on newsgroup comp.software.year-2000 who made me clear that personnel is THE CRITICAL success factor in Y2K projects. Cory has 25+ years of mainframe programming, and knows what he is talking about. Also, he knows lots op pals working at large companies on Y2K.
- He only allows a complete copy of his NG post; so this is a long post as well - but well worth reading!
- BOLD is from JM
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Cory Hamasaki's DC Y2K Weather Report # 45.
"November 30, 1997 - 761 days to go."
(c) 1997 Cory Hamasaki - I grant permission to distribute and
reproduce this article as long as this entire document is reproduced in its entirety including this notice. I do not grant permission to
a commercial publisher to reprint this in print media.
Please email, fax this to your programmer pals.
Not much on the job ad front today. This was a holiday weekend. We'll be back next week with lots of jobs.
-------------- Washington Post sez No Programmers ----
November 30, 1997 - Page A1,
A Seller's Market for Tech Workers.
As Jobs Go Begging, Firms Downscale Plans.
<I say, yippee.>
Check out:
washingtonpost.com
or if they moved it, hit their search engine.
Here are some fun, fair use doctrine quotes <and my comments>:
Earlier this year, Ellen Kong persuaded Scott Routt to quit his job and
join the high-tech company where she works. She did the same thing with Pamela Hawe. And Deborah Basha. And Laura Babbitt. And Nate King.
To reward this exemplary service, Kong's employer, an Arlington computer systems company called SRA International Inc., gave her a present: a check for almost $50,000. It was a bounty, pure and simple, $10,000 per head.
<Ten thousand bucks for a nice fat programmer on the hoof. Ellen lures her geek pals and gets fifty grand in bonuses. Remember, earlier this year, I was writing about nets dropping on programmers, programmers being hounded day and night?>
Despite the money it's offering, SRA today has almost 100 unfilled
positions. As a result, executives there have had to turn down work with the U.S. Army, International Business Machines Corp. and BellSouth Corp. "We simply can't find enough of the people we need," laments Edward Legasey,SRA's president. "And it's no different for any of my competitors."
<Hahahahaha, I love it. Is it liquidated damages time yet? No? then
you're not hungry enough. Just wait a couple months when the staff churns a little more and there are NO geeks available at any price. Wait until the Army sez, staff the d*mn job or you're outa here.>
Indeed, many business leaders say the shortage has reached near-crisis proportions. In the Washington area alone, industry groups estimate that 25,000 technology jobs are going unfilled, a deficit that economists say is costing the region more than $1 billion a year in lost wages.
<It's so good, I can roll in it like a big dog. Near crisis? If they read
c.s.y2k, they'd know that it is a crisis. Got it people? There are
millions of lines of code that no one is looking at. Millions of lines of
code that run the civilized world and need to be fixed NEXT YEAR so we'll have 1999 for the integration testing and data conversion.>
Almost daily, there's new evidence of the shortage and its impact:
Infodata Systems Inc. of Fairfax has had to postpone release of products because it has been unable to find enough software engineers who are proficient in the cutting-edge programming technologies known as Java and C++. "It used to be that you'd place a classified ad and you'd get flooded with qualified applicants," said Eva Franklin, the company's human resources director. "Now it's almost impossible to find the right people."
<I own stock in Infodata, maybe I should go to the next shareholders
meeting and pound my fist, Hire some geeks!>
And lately, programmers who know the older Cobol and Fortran languages are in demand to fix the world's "Year 2000" computer bug, which threatens havoc in systems that aren't reprogrammed to recognize dates in the next century.
<Surprise! Some of us know 'gasp' assembly language.>
For SRA's Legasey, the challenge isn't just attracting new programmers -- it's keeping the ones he already has. In what has become a vicious cycle, desperate competitors have been doing the same things SRA is doing to add employees: dangling high salaries, signing bonuses and other emoluments to qualified programmers, trying to get them to jump ship.
<desperate, DESPERATE! Shout it out! Vicious, Hahahaha! I'm rubbing my little hands gleefully together.>
Although SRA has adopted a raft of defensive strategies -- from salary increases to a new casual-dress policy -- defections have become common.
From July 1996 to this past June, the company hired 450 people but lost 310, including two of Kong's five referrals. "Retaining your existing employees is just as important as recruiting new ones," Legasey said.
<Fat salary increases, and still they bail out. Whoa, this is geek
paradise... too bad it's DC. I drove through the city again at night and in ten minutes, I counted 192 dead street lights. I may have missed a few...>
-------------- How Soon? How High? ---------
In 1995, I began running my mouth, bugging everyone about 'the century end' problem. I called it that because I hadn't heard de Jager, Widmar, Yourdon, Capers, didn't see any information on the Internet or the press. I was concerned because I saw five mainframes fall over on December 1, 1979 trying to perform packed decimal arithmetic on '000197AF'.
In 1995, I was certain that 'the century end' problem would be a huge opportunity for over-the-hill, big iron, gear-heads. An opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to make up for the dark years of 1985-1995.
In 1995, mainframers, systems programmers, wizards who come to work in flowing capes and pointed hats with stars and comets, were still being right-sized. Three pals, code-grunts with advanced technical degrees, decades of experience, crankers who came in early, worked late into the night, were laughed at by the horn-hairs. He doesn't take two hour lunches at local bistros-must not be a team player, he avoids our weekly meetings and won't laugh at our amusing stories. He's not one of us.
10, 15, 20, 25, 30 years experience but only 8 years on PC's, C, and SQL and he gets HOW MUCH? That's 40% more than we'd have to pay a kid-coder, a young, eager, nubie who might take a little longer but hey, we bill by the hour and by the job category. A nubie means more profit so we can sit around and stuff more donuts in our mouths.
In internal accounting, the billing algorithms burden the players on a
percentage but the final reconciliation is done in dollars. This means that the more highly paid people pay a larger percentage of their billing for office amenities and cost the contract more. This slight-of-mind, which few managers understand, causes them to complain endlessly about the cost of senior people... darn it, all these old foggers are killing my budget.
Bzzzzt, no; reality disconnect. It's not the difference of 80K and 60K
salary that causes the problem. Your internal accounting systems mark up each salary by 300% for insurance, leave, management overhead, office space, administrative support. While some expenses are proportional to salary, some, such as office space are constant, and some, management and training, are inversely proportional.
Since management is dealing with burdened labor rates, they see the 80K as 240K and the 60K as 180K and think, ooooh, if I 'can the butt' of a geezer, I'll have 240-180 = sixty thousand more bucks for me.
Management has been rightsizing since the eighties... rightsize... how clueless, it's dumbing down. The companies have gone clueless, dumbed down until they are unable to think their way out of a paper bag.
In 1995, the work had to start or there would be no chance of fixing the mission critical systems. I was sure that enough other people saw that and the work would start. It didn't.
In 1996, I was sure that the work would start. It didn't. I did see some interest in awareness and in talking about the problem. Good sign, maybe it'll start in 1997, that'd be two years too late but maybe some systems would be fixed.
Some work started in 1997 but it only caused programmer salaries to go up about 50%. Journeyman COBOL wage slaves who were struggling to get 50K now easily get 75K. COBOL experts who used to earn 60K, waltz into 90K jobs. Assembly language pro's with down-to-the-bare-metal expertise used to fight for 60/hour, in 1997, I've heard from several who are getting 100/hour.
There's lots more headroom, 1998 will be terrific.
---------- How do I get my fair share? --------
Collect the stories. Checkout garynorth.com and print out the reports on how bad the problem is, the programmer shortage, as well as everything on rapidly increasing rates. Leave those around the office, if you have a buck-slip, slide a few reports surreptitiously into the system. Make sure that the info gets to HR and the compensation committee.
Don't bring up Y2K but if someone mentions it, start an argument, it doesn't matter which side you take, if they say it's a big problem... oh no, it's not. Get them to think critically about Y2K, explore the issues.
When someone, anyone, leaves the company, blame it on the rate run-up and Y2K, keep them focused.
Lets start a nice healthy panic... but be prepared to feel the massa's lash. If he pays the bucks, he'll want results. In 1998, when your income is twice or three times 1995's, you'll be working like never before. Are you ready for that? Can you take it? What about when someone goes postal? Do you have your Kevlar vest under your desk? I'm not sure I want to work under those conditions. Geek Rage..., it's ugly. Let's plan for April 2, 3, 1998, Geek Out.
------------ Geek Out - April 2, 3 1998 --------------
Just a little time off, a mini-vacation, a sick-of-it leave, some comp-time but everyone takes the time off.
Rototill the yard for a garden. A c.s.y2k regular says that
butternut squash is a great addition to a survival garden. I like it
too, slice it in half, season with butter and salt, roast it in an
oven or add it to stew. If the power is still on, you can microwave
squash in a covered dish with a little water.
If the weather is nice, do some work on your house, there're always 20 things that need fixing, vines to pull down. Trash to pitch, etc.
And after the work is done, take the kids to a cheap afternoon movie, a big bucket of popcorn with yellow-popcorn-oil (it's artery clogging palm oil.) Tell them that you will have to work long and hard because management was a bunch of idiots but it's OK because you're providing for them and mom. Tell them straight out that you will have work long hours for a couple years but that you will always have time for them and that as often as you can, you will take time off from work for movies, their special projects, and other fun activities.
Geek Out is your time to decompress for a few days. If everyone takes the same few days, the lights will be out in the slave quarters.
Theme song for Geek Out, the music from the TV Soap, Dark Shadows. If you can get a CD or .wav of it. Set up a machine at work to play it automagicly during Geek Out.
You boss and his boss are wandering around cube-city, wondering where everyone is... a .bat file kicks off a sound/CD player... Dooo-do-doooooo, do-do-do, do-doooooooo, wind, waves crashing on the shore, Barnabus Collins... the old house, vampires. I'm scared, lets get outa here.
------ ALC lesson 1, DC Y2K Clip 'n Save ----
Essentials. While S/390 assembly language is huge <It takes a real Geek to crank S/390 assembler.>, a few lessons will expose you to enough essentials to carry you though Y2K.
Like all languages, there's data and code.
MINE DC CL6'LOOT' dcl mine char(06) init("LOOT")
YOURS DC PL4'00125' dcl yours dec fixed(7) init( 00125 )
OTHER DS CL9 dcl other char(09)
SKIP 2 %space 2
CALLME DS 0H callme:
MVC OTHER+2(3),MINE substr(other,2,3) = mine
MVI OTHER+5,C'K' substr(other,5,1) = 'K'
CP YOURS,=PL3'125' if yours = 125
BE SKIP then goto skip
MVI OTHER+2,C'B' substr(other,2,1) = 'B'
SKIP EQU * skip:
BR R14 return
The above fragment isn't enough to assemble. What's missing are the JCL, the CSECT, END statements, addressability, and register equates. The example includes storage and data declarations, labels, data movement, comparing, and branching.
This is enough to give compiler users and SQL'ers a taste of REAL
programming.
---------- Non-programmer lurkers ---------
Every few months, a non-programmer lurker becomes infuriated because us code crankers, SQeaLers, Pee Cee Wee Nee's, water-cooled geeks, us, the collective we, are chattering about how much we're going to earn.
If you fall into this mind-trap, read the above ALC lesson. Each line
in the lesson is just one example of the millions of lines that
make up the source that runs complex application systems. If one
character is misplaced, the entire system will fail.
If you know a real programmer, show the lesson to them, they'll tell you that it is a trivial, contrived, simple to the point of stupidity, example. If one character of one line is wrong, paychecks don't print, food isn't delivered, and phone calls don't go through.
Imagine a printout the size of the Manhattan white pages covered with this stuff. In hundreds of pages, one character is misplaced, can you find it? No? How about if I scream in your ear while you try to make sense of the code? How about if a hundred thousand food stamp recipients are rioting while you try to find the coding error?
In Y2K, there are thousands of errors to find, some are obvious, some are subtle, and some will take a wizard to solve. Some errors have to be corrected on page 200 and 851 at the same time.
"It's not called CODE by accident."
In 1995, wizards used to do this work for $45/hour. Less than what a handy-man charges for cleaning gutters, less than a plumber's hourly rate. The sign at my car dealer reads, "Labor $75/hour". The
gas station down the street charges $48/hour. Let's put this into
perspective. $100/hour for code cranking is dirt cheap.
But the mechanic doesn't earn $75/hour and the rate covers benefits, office rent, tools, and machinery, you say?
Well fiddle-di-di. I pay for my own medical insurance, office space,
computers, including a mainframe running MVS, and lots more. Even if you don't have your own mainframe, a good workstation, modem, laser printer, software, and manuals can cost several times what an auto mechanic or plumber has invested in his tools.
Let's get our rates up so we can live like human beings not like...
------------ More DC Fun, can you take it? -------------
The Ex-chief of police's roommate was arrested for blackmail and extortion, but wait here's more, check out: prop1.org, YES! the street people of DC have a webpage, Click down, there they are! Is this a great town or what?
Cory Hamasaki |
