Conference 7.286::digital

1510.0. "a management failure..." by BOSACT::CHERSON (inquiring minds want to know) Wed Jun 26 1991 19:42

It's getting late so I won't go on for a day and � with a long thesis on 
"corporate wet dreams" such as COD. 

I attended COD I, and in fact was offerred a position with a district, would 
have involved relocation, etc.  Well numerous factors influenced me to pass the
offer up, and I guess that I am thankful that I did.  I am in the field though,
having come out to one of the DCC's several months after COD I.

The expertise that is required in the field is not so much skill sets such as 
Unix and C, DEC follows the practice of hiring people out of "body shops" to 
write code for customers.  What our customers really need is people with 
"experience sets", i.e., if you've worked in manufacturing than you should work
with discrete mfg customers, if you come from a finance background than work
with CFO's etc.  In short customers want people who can speak the same language
as they do.  Unix gurus are crawling out of the woodwork (and into DEC even as 
we "speak"), they're like MBA's...

COD may have been a good concept, but should never have been enacted without
some thought as to how it will be implemented, etc.  If the end result was to 
"rightsize", than those people should have been laid off two years ago.  It 
would been much more humane to lay somebody off where they live rather than
relocating them thousands of miles, uprooting them from their families, etc., 
only to experience the "tap" now.  I can only equate this with a swift kick to
the stomach.

Convert resources into instant sales reps?  No, a thousand times no. We don't
need more sales reps.  And besides the job is an extremely difficult one, where
no one could rate above a 4 during their first year.

The failure of COD only demonstrates the management crisis that this company is
experiencing rather than a failure of those COD graduates.  Trouble is is that
it is claiming innocent victims.

Enough of these well-intentioned "wet dreams".  Get rid of the real deadwood 
that is plagueing the company, and retain and reward the good resources.

 

I would be curious as to what data there is to suggest that there is this mass
firing of COD folks.

I don't see it, and I am one of them!  I also work with 2 or 3 others, all of
who are doing quite well.

/mike

    RE: .1 Perhaps the answer is that you have competent management who
    were able to properly forecast their needs and hire appropriately. You
    (and I) may be in a minority though.

    		Alfred

    re -1 ..... Could be some offices took the opportunity to "stock up"
    as long as Corporate was paying the freight, and then got caught by
    the business slump/new management system.
    
    UN*X people as common as MBA's????  What a terrible thing to say about
    U-People!!!! {:^)

    Hey! "UN*X people are as common as lawyers". Now *there's* a slap in
    the face.
    
    Ken