Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rich Bloem who wrote (59716)	2/4/2007 1:17:47 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 197271

Rich, I know people are called "human resources" and there are other resources like coal, copper, gallium arsenide and electricity supplies, but I'm sure I'm not the only weirdo who feels that there is more to my association with a company than being a resource, which can be bought and sold, shoved in a cupboard and brought out again as needed then tossed on the trash heap one day, or casually sold down the river like a cotton picking slave to a new master and whip wielder. <the reason employees were so put out as you say, was simply because of the loss of stock options that subsequently went out of sight. > I never felt like a piece of coal or just another circuit board. Humans have evolved from chimps and we have wiring which makes us strongly tribal and we wrap our identity, intentions and efforts around shared goals and social systems. As Islamic Jihad is showing, people who have very strong brand identity will die for the cause and not in a defeatist suicidal way, but in a courageous going out with glory way. When employees or countrymen see others being sold down the river to some cruel new master, or otherwise treated as lumps of coal or as circuit boards, it must unsettle the rest. Imagine if you said you'd sell me to the Hagfish Guild to work on GSM. My circuit boards would spring a leak and the combustibility of my coal components would be evident. I went into the old HQ after it had been sold along with the coal and circuit boards to L M Ericsson. It was a sorry shadow of the glory days of 1994 when it was a shining beacon on a hill and I got in a lift [elevator] with Andrew Viterbi [who I recognized from photos] and he spoke a few words to me. That was a magical time. I felt sorry for the woman receptionist as we chatted about the transfer. The heart had gone out of the place. It went drab. The employees were unhappy about more than the money. The money is the scoreboard, a measuring stick. The money is a funny thing. It is part of the deal, but far from the whole thing. It's interwoven through the tribal identity. Those who live just for the money are like lawyers = one doesn't ever get feelings of love in legal situations. When it's just money that matters, it's heartless and people don't like heartless. Sometimes a sacrifice is necessary and people have to be made redundant, sold down the river, cut in pay, demoted etc. That's okay with people even if they are unhappy about being reduced in the tribe, provided they feel fairly treated. It's better to be a has been than a never was. Once upon a time, one could wander into the buildings and pop in to see the person wanted. Now it's a hardened bunker with full security. It's like Globalstar in San Jose on Zanker Road, which was a criticism I had of them. I thought Globalstar should have their offices downtown on Main Street [if there's a Main Street], for all to see and pop in to share the fun and exciting developments. Instead they were hiding inside Lockheed's secure systems like a military operation. In summary, I think the GDP per capita of QUALCOMM employees has gone down a lot if they are just commodities, which they seem to be if they are planned as obsolete before they join. No wonder the profits are not growing as they were and the R&D costs are burgeoning. I imagine it's more of a rest home now, than a seething cauldron of energy, creativity and productivity. Nobody wants to be hagfish food or told to be a hagfish now. Mqurice