Judy Reed is a buyer in a buyer's market, and frankly, that has its
advantages. The vice president for human resources at Stratus
Technologies, a Maynard, Mass., maker of high-reliability servers,
Reed never lacks for attention at parties and dinners in this
employment-starved economy. When she does post a job, she gets four
times the volume of responses she got three years ago, and some
job seekers even follow up with Christmas cards. If she wanted to,
she could fill every opening at a salary 15 percent below the
going rate -- as, in fact, many of her competitors do.

But that's one advantage Reed won't take. She recently hired an
engineer with more than 10 years' experience for nearly six figures
-- the same wage she paid at the height of the bubble. Reed isn't
just being kind. She asserts that any other course of action is
asking for trouble down the road. "The buyer's market we're in now
is temporary," she warns. "Maybe it'll last another year or two."
And then? "Companies that haven't taken care to build worker
loyalty," she says, "will find themselves in the same predicament as in
1999 and 2000."