Question for you:

Post #28,435 by nking 2/14/02 11:28:13 PM Reply	Question for you: What happens when an employer lies to you, or raises the requirements for the same job after a few years? How about employers that lied to the government about qualified IT workers so they could raise the H1B Visa quotas? How about my former employer that lied to me, kept breaking promises, and eventually lied about my performance review just to get rid of me? The job in 1997 required a two year degree and 3+ years experience, and in 2002 now requires a four year degree and 5+ years experience for the same job for less pay. Explain that? They wonder why in four months that they haven't gotten anybody to replace me despite the surplus of IT workers in the job market? "Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
Post #28,453 by wharris2 2/15/02 5:41:18 AM 2/15/02 5:57:24 AM Reply	Short answer: It's a two-way street Longer answer. Just as an employee owes his employer honesty (and note there are laws governing what an employer can ask an employee - honesty does not necessary imply full disclosure of everything there is to know), so does an employer owe its employees reasonable honesty. Trade secrets, access to computers or resources - sure, an employer can legitimately deny their employees or prospective employees a lot of information. But they, too, have an obligation to be truthful and forthright about their dealings. Changes in the business environment can change the circumstances of an employer-employee relationship, that's understandable. (The company I'm with has reduced it's 401K matching because of some belt-tightening, but they've said so up-front.) But lies and misrepresentations on their part are at least as much reprehensible as an employee lie or misrepresentation, and probably moreso, in that their statements and representations effect more people. In cases where they can't or shouldn't answer, they should say so rather than give an evasive or false answer. Enron is going to be a classic example of this; while the company president was hyping the company stock, and in his position he full well should have known the company was going down the tubes, dozens of top managers were making millions selling it off. An employee working for a lying scumbag of an employer really doesn't owe them anything, but if for no other reason than personal integrity should still be honest with whoever he reports to or associates with. You might be fired on the spot for telling the company president that the project that he wanted done in three weeks was not done and couldn't be done in that time (I once came perilously close to that - a really stupid "got to have a feature our competitor has and got to have it now" project), but if I ever have a management position I'd prefer to hear the truth rather than some squishy syncopathic suckup job. (The company president actually got beet-red in the face and stormed out of the meeting, virtual thunderclouds over his head - I guess the director of development managed to calm him down a bit before I was called on the carpet.) But that's me, and that may be why I don't have or don't particularly want a management position. Where each demon is slain, more hate is raised, yet hate unchecked also multiplies. - L. E. Modesitt, from his Recluse series Edited by wharris2 Feb. 15, 2002, 05:57:24 AM EST Expand All History
Post #28,484 by nking 2/15/02 10:04:33 AM Reply	Well I had been lied to They made me a lot of promises and broke them. I was to become their web master, and then someone else got that position. They promised it to me first. They promised me DBA training and make me the DBA if I stayed for six more months, I did, and they decided not to give it to me. Then later on they gave the DBA position to a workstation technician that barely knew how to make a SQL statement. I was promised a project leader job if I got the docket calendar finished on time. I did, and I didn't get the job, a coworker got it and then quit the job a few weeks after getting it. I was sick, and I documented it, and had notes from my doctor that I gave the IT secretary who gave them to HR, yet HR had no record of my doctor's notes and counted the sick days against me on my review. So was my employer honest with me? Did they keep their promises? Or did they just use those empty promises to keep me working there until I could finish projects that they wanted done sooner than possible? "Will code Visual BASIC for cash."

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