Utah Blogger/Geek Dinner May 2008 by Laura Moncur

Looking for the Utah geeks, bloggers and coders? You’ll find them at the Utah Geek/Blogger Dinner. This month, we’re meeting at Paradise Bakery. If you have been feeling lonely for computer conversation in the Salt Lake Valley, you’ll find it all here!

THEY HAVE WI-FI, so you can bring your laptop if you want!

RSVP at Upcoming.org: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/857123

Utah Blogger/Geek Dinner
Thursday, July 31, 2008
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Paradise Bakery
1010 E 2100 S
Salt Lake City, Utah 84106

Website: http://codeaway.org/

1. Real and Wage Inflation
2. Intense Competition for Talent
3. Corporate cost-cutting
4. High Energy/Commute Costs

The hardest part to pin-down is that the economic indicators show a market that is schizophrenic. Utah’s high tech job market is part recessionary and part booming. There’s both signs of weakness, but signs of boom-cycle madness.

If there were ever a time to unveil the invisible hand and see what’s really going to happen to this economy over the next six-12 months, now is the time… those who navigate this juncture well stand to gain a lot of opportunity, while these massive icebergs of clashing forces might very well crush entire sections of our economy and workforce if we’re not paying close attention.

Real and Wage Inflation

The Fed won’t admit there’s inflation yet, even though everyone else is worried about it… but one trip to the grocery store tells you a dollar doesn’t go as far these days. This plays into issues 3 and 4, and is the driver for issue 2.

Bottom-line: If the same amount of money you made last year isn’t cutting it, talented people will demand higher wages for the same jobs they were doing a year ago.

If the company they currently work for won’t pay up, no problem, they’ll just move.

Intense Competition for Talent

As a recruiter, I use every tool I can find. The job boards, these days, are as silent and un-exciting as a Hillary Clinton rally in Payson. The war for top-talent has moved from remote, tactical operations using unmanned email probes and remote-controlled resume submittal to (continuing the analogy) hand-to-hand, street fighting. Candidates are being approached at every angle, from every recruiter, in very creative ways…. and they’re getting hired, too!

At the Blogger Dinner last Thursday, Steve Spencer quipped something like: This is just like the late 90s. It doesn’t matter if you can actually do any of the stuff on your resume, but if you have the right acronyms, you’re hired!

(And, yes, Steve’s company is hiring… tell ‘em I sent ya)

Corporate Cost-Cutting

Client after client of mine has issued cost-cutting warnings. Several more companies are putting in-place hiring freezes, readjusting their priorities, laying people off or closing down all together.

This hyper-sensitive focus on costs can be unacceptable to a workforce already in high-demand.

One jobseeker for a Salt Lake-based IT Outsourcing firm told me last Thursday that his current employer has”implemented a new performance-based pay plan where you get a “very low base wage” and, if you hit certain quotas every day, you will get paid more.

The story goes that these employees, if they are industrious little busy bees, can earn even more than they have been making, but the employees don’t quite see it that way.

“Its a joke,” my jobseeker friend told me. “I’ve done the math. It is impossible to make anything close to what I have been making. I am outta here.”

There’s bound to be losses when a company needs to refocus. A recent article by Tiffany Hsu in the Baltimore Sun explains this very well:

“It costs a lot to let someone go,” said Don McNamara, president of Heritage Associates Inc., a management consultant company based in Laguna Niguel, Calif. “So we’ve got to circle the wagons and pull in a little bit.”

Businesses, he said, can cross-train employees in multiple roles to boost productivity and restructure to remove inefficiencies…. but employers can’t cut too many expenses and perks without risking driving workers away.

“You’ve got to be sensitive to your people and make sure morale isn’t one of the things you cut,” McNamara said. “If this comes as a surprise to them, they might be tempted to update their resumes at another company.”

High Energy/Commute Costs

Even thinking about high gas/energy prices makes me exhausted, but the simple fact is we are receiving regular calls and updates from our candidates seeking more commute-friendly work options, telecomuting, shorter commutes, or other benefits to offset the incredible rise in fuel costs this last year has seen. For once, the State has taken a lead here, generating (I predict) pressure on many new fronts to allow employees to have more control over when, where and how much they work.

On the flip-side, a lot of people who otherwise want to keep their current job are interested right now in part-time, flexible, contract-based work options too. That is an unforeseen consequence of these higher prices.

Summary

At the end of the day, companies are asking their employees to do more with less, while these same high-demand employees are not afraid of feeling out their options and making a more lucrative move if needed.

I fear, for companies too cost-conscious, this will become a race to mediocrity unless they very creatively examine their work demands, and be very open and honest with their employees. Find out what they need/want and even while cutting costs, you can make work fun and, heck, maybe even more productive.

The change will apply to about 17,000 employees, roughly 80% of the state workforce, [Utah State Governor] Huntsman says. Public universities, the state court system, prisons and other critical services will be exempt. Residents still will have sufficient access to state offices, many staying open from 7 a.m.- 6 p.m., and more than 800 state services are available online, he says.
[USA TODAY: Most state workers in Utah shifting to 4-day week]

The move, which will have employees working the same number of hours, but just cramming those hours into a 4-day week, should help save state employees money, keep some cars off the road, and reduce the other energy expenses they have just to keep doors open and lights on.

The green work blog, TreeHugger, noted the states’ move, as the first state in the US to try and do this across the board:

By shutting down 1,000 buildings statewide on Fridays, an estimated 3,000 metric tons in carbon emissions will also be cut. Admittedly, though the energy and fuel savings is not as great as telecommuting, the idea of a four-day work week is probably more appealing to reluctant employers who are willing to test more moderate, but still viable, alternatives.

My thoughts on the 4-day work week move is that, as long as crucial state services are still available when needed, this is a good thing. For a long time, the biggest problem I personally have with the “public good” is that there is so much over-availability required to make sure that services are always available to everyone.

It does make sense, however, to keep offices open later than normal 8-5 business hours… I have often been annoyed that I need to take time off work to take care of something at the government.

What do YOU think about the 4 day week?

Anyone interested in how information technology is used to build products or run companies. Despite it’s name, you don’t have to be a CTO to attend—just interested in technology, where it’s headed, and the problems of starting and building a high-tech business in Utah.

If you’ve seen something cool or just want to discuss a current topic, come prepared to bring it up.

Put these future meetings on your calendar:

* June 27 (Friday)
* July 18 (Friday)
* No breakfast in August
* Sept 26 (Friday)

Showtime is HIGH NOON (Mountain). Listen in at (347) 324-3797 (limited lines) or stream online with a chat-room at couchcast.org. Download the show as a podcast, or you can also follow us on twitter @couchcast

Contact Brad by visiting Rocky Mountain Voices or on twitter @bradbaldwin

Details from Laura Moncur:

Thom Allen and Brad Baldwin are sponsoring PodCampSLC in Salt Lake City THIS Saturday March 15, 2008 a10am - 4pm at the Neumont University.

10701 S. River Front Parkway, Suite 300

South Jordan, UT 84095

http://podcamp.pbwiki.com/PodCampSLC

It’s a BarCamp for new media: blogging, podcasting, vlogging, etc. If you are a blogger, this is the event that you really want to be part of.

If you don’t know what BarCamp is, here’s a video that explains it:

Make sure you sign up to attend (it’s free) at Upcoming.org

RSVP on Upcoming.org

Here is a very specific Google Map targeting exactly the location (lat long) of the front door.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

12:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Wasatch Wingz

2020 East 3300 South
Salt Lake City, Utah 84109

40.6997, -111.833

Description

We have reserved the whole place to ourselves, but that doesn’t come free. There is a $15 entry fee, which includes your choice of wings and fries or Ceasar’s Salad and unlimited drinks.

Wasatch Wingz has a huge television, so we’ll be able to play Rock Band in style. They also have enough wi-fi (and wired ports) to house three times as many people who usually come to CodeAway, so they are equipped to take care of us. Additionally, if you don’t have a laptop, they have a bank of really cool gaming computers that should be serviceable. Don’t forget to bring your Nintendo DS if you prefer to play less rock-based games.

There is a $15 entry fee (cash only please) that includes your choice of wings and fries or a Ceasar’s salad and unlimited drinks.

http://www.codeaway.org

No, these aren’t a group of Mormon Missionaries.

They’re high school “kids”. And they’re also not dressing up for career-day, or college admissions or anything else that you might think a 16 or 17 year old might get excited enough about to actually tuck. in. his. shirt.

But they might teach you something about the next generation, often called Millenials or “Gen Y”. They’re not the disrespecting slackers you might think they are. But, in fact, given the chance, they’re more passionate–possibly much more–about things they care about than any generation before them.

They spontaneously dressed up in “Sunday best” to show honor and respect to a man they may have never met and who was “seven times their age and several generations their senior”. Michael Otterson said in the Washington Post on Tuesday.

The man they’re paying tribute to? Gordon B. Hinckley, who died Sunday evening at his Salt Lake City home, at about 7pm., and was the prophet and president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons),

Hinckley, 97, had more of a right, maybe, to have been called “out of touch” with these young adults than most. But he seemed to be one of the most-optimistic about these youth in his lifetime, and those youth responded.

…Resoundingly.

How did all this happen? Without hardly a verbal word being said, the word about Hinckley’s death resulted in a flurry of text messages (incidentally which is how I learned the news–via twitter) youth around the country told each other to dress up for school to show their respect for a man who both led them to good things, and loved them along the way:

“I love the youth of the Church. I have said again and again that I think we have never had a better generation than this. How grateful I am for your integrity, for your ambition to train your minds and your hands to do good work, for your love for the word of the Lord, and for your desire to walk in paths of virtue and truth and goodness.” - Gordon B. Hinckley, Enzign, May 1995

What does this mean for YOU (a manager of millenials)?

1. Respect if you want Respect
   I know you clawed your way up the corporate ladder to get where you are. Get over yourself.
2. Embrace Technology
   You might learn something about how to simplify your life and get things done if you watch how this generation can mobilize, coordinate and communicate using the simplest of tools.
3. Its not that they don’t care, they just don’t care about you.
   Do you really care about the things your boss cares about? Do you dream about them? Well, cut them some slack. The next generation cares very deeply about things… just not things you might expect. For example, ask them about their 401(k) or IRA. They probably not only have one, but you might learn a thing or two if you actually listened once in a while.

PodcampSLC
March 29th, 2008, from 10AM to 4PM. at Neumont University
Check in will take place from 9AM-10AM.

For more information, see podcampSLC.org or the event page at upcoming.org