----- Original Message ----- On Sun, 4 Dec 2011 19:03:01 +0000 (UTC) 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> Well, it's both and more. It's another source of guaranteed profits
> for the banks & it's also a guarantee of labor discipline on the part
> of an indebted, desperate professional/managerial layer.
One might have thought they were already servile and docile enough. Could they bend over any farther, or spread 'em any wider, than they already do?
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Apparently, they could. It's hard for me to judge because I've been working in IT for most of my adult life and the reality there is somewhat different. It's still relatively easy to find a job, unless you're old. So, discipline is harder to enforce. Also, given the nature of the work, it's harder to figure out what the discipline should be. In the world of software a hundred lines of code might cost you a day or a week -- who's to say? Also, no matter how good the code is, it might never make it to market for a host of other reasons. I had a friend who worked at Apple for ten years and in those ten years managed to ship one hundred lines of code. He was widely respected and went on to an architect's job at another major software company....so it wasn't him.
In this context, it's impossible to set up any kind of production benchmarks/goals/standards etc.
Joanna