Siemens enterprise and carrier divisions

Post #47,338 by boxley 7/29/02 11:41:04 AM Reply	Siemens enterprise and carrier divisions Wont go into details, but doubt it is fat that needs trimming. IS compaq going to make money on that contract? In november if an offering did not make money it wasnt put on the table. The years of growing business at any cost was over for them. When I worked at the headquarters the US operation didnt seem rife with fat but did seem to have a lack of focus and strategy. In todays market that is common but they wernt as supportive of providing data services as they were of telephony services although the competency was there to compete with EDS, Hugh's Raytheon et al to run data centers. What probably happened was that compaq underbid them to get the contract then leverage it later. Siemens wouldnt compete on that basis. thanx, bill ."Once, in the wilds of Afghanistan, I had to subsist on food and water for several weeks." W.C. Fields
Post #47,341 by inthane-chan 7/29/02 11:54:21 AM Reply	Possibly. However, I can also say with absolute certainty that SBS has some of the worst salaries in the local area for the kind of work they're offering. In addition to paying what I was making as a computer tech in a small local computer chop shop SIX YEARS AGO... 1) 1 YEAR noncompete so broad that you cannot work in ANY high tech position without their permission. I consider this illegal on constitutional grounds, and am treating it as such. I've also notified their HR department of my position, and have received a notice from them that they will not hold me to the agreement. Now, I find this interesting because apparently they didn't have this restrictive policy until about six months ago, just before they lost the contract to Compaq. They also made all their employees sign the new noncompete or face early termination. Why is this so interesting? Well, read on... 2) Unethical hiring practices. Software testing at Microsoft is pretty much handled entirely by a contracting agency named Volt. SBS would like to snake into the software testing industry. Apparently, they've been sifting Monster.com for currently unemployed Volt employees, then making job offers at something close to unemployement (so that the individual can't refuse, or else lose their unemployement benefits) for 2-3 week assignments, and in exchange, the individual MUST sign the noncompete, locking them out of working for Volt for a year, and building a stable of testers who can ONLY work through SBS. Yeah, you're saying "how do they know how much a Volt contractor makes?" Well, Volt pays their contractors a set rate based on the position title - and unemployment is based on a fraction of your total income over the previous 12 or 18 months IIRC. It's a pretty simple formula, and I could work out how much to offer somebody pretty easily... I've talked to about 10 other Volt ex-employees who are in the same boat I was - and gave them the same advice that I took. Apparently, each of them knows a fair number of Volt employees in the same boat. By my guess, at least 200+ people have currently been nailed by SBS through this slimy scheme. Businesses play games, and people lose their livelyhoods. Beware the ant that walks amongst the feet of giants... There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Post #47,343 by boxley 7/29/02 12:03:42 PM Reply	Whoa! No Sh*T! That is completely not the company I used to work for, now I am probably glad I dont. So slimy they are reduced to snakepitting their employees? When I got layed off I got a severence package even though I had only been there 2 yrs. I thought it was more than generous. thanx, bill ."Once, in the wilds of Afghanistan, I had to subsist on food and water for several weeks." W.C. Fields
Post #47,347 by inthane-chan 7/29/02 12:13:28 PM Reply	I bloody well wish I was a paranoid delusional... Sorry, but it's true. There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Post #47,386 by Ashton 7/29/02 4:22:54 PM Reply	This is M$-grade crap. Has anyone asked a decent atty. about the legality of such a plot? It seems ripe for a class-action and above all: Local and National PUBLICITY - surely worth a Marianas Trench full of lawyers. No? I mean it is patently a form of outright extortion, exploiting black/white Rulez regarding one's unemployment option VS signing UNDER DURESS (the legal term?). Those ~200.. you mention - would seem to be more than enough to query and justify such a suit. And the evidence is there - surely each one got a copy of the forced 'contract'. Guess I can't imagine intelligent folk just lying down and taking this without any effort to publicize the Corp crime (?) Especially! now in the Enron + spotlight. No brainer. But what do I know.. Ashton
Post #47,393 by inthane-chan 7/29/02 5:09:08 PM Reply	Technically, it's not under duress. It's a legal offer for employment, with terms that are acceptible under Washington State unemployment law. Unethical as all Hell? Yup. Illegal? Nope. There are 10 types of people. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Post #47,395 by Ashton 7/29/02 5:29:46 PM Reply	Then: publicity is the direction. ___Daylight glare.
Post #47,431 by mhuber 7/29/02 11:59:47 PM Reply	Knowing what to offer: I don't know about WA, but here in WI unemployment is a % of income up to a rather low limit. I can tell you exacly how much UC an unemployed experienced technical person in Wisconsin is receiving: $324/week. No more, and assuming a pay rate anything near what the old going rate was, no less. And refusing an offer kills that. On the other hand, flipping burgers only partly kills it (%65 of income from under-employment is deducted from weekly UC - but that stretches the checks out, so, as far as I can tell, burger flipping does not reduce total UC benefits and somewhat increases current income) and, I think, allows you to turn down temporary work. (NOTE: this is my non-lawyer interpretation of a pamphlet from the UC people. A pamphlet, I might point out, that would have gotten me fired for cause (ineligible for UC!) if, as a professional tech writer, I had had anything to do with it. Anybody who mistakes this for legal advice has worse problems.) So any company that wants to pull that stunt here has perfect information to work from. ---- United we stand Divided we dominate the planet without really trying

Welcome to IWETHEY!