Re: Information gathering exercise

I monitor the value of several parameters when I attempt to consider
how the company values my contribution to them. The type of computer I
have on my desk is one of those parameters albeit a minor one.
However, times have moved on and I am still using the same hardware I
inherited when I joined the company back in mid 2003.

In that time the previous CEO has changed his laptop at least once but
only because his bleeding edge laptop went kaput. Naturally, when he
purchased a replacement we went for the best price he could get at the
time. That, being 2 years ago, means a rather better CPU than the one
I spend my daily life in front of. Having said that, I doubt he maxed
the memory out at 2GB and probably stuck with 1GB. I guess that was
sufficient for Word, Outlook and PowerPoint.

FYI, our new CEO didn't like the look of that laptop (see above) we
offered him so he elected to use his own laptop  instead. What kind of
message does that send to you? To me it says, "the equipment you have
offered me is inadequate for my purposes".

The normal parameter I use for determining how much the company values
me is how early I find out about things like upcoming changes and new
ideas. In general, my value here is high but significantly less than
that of our mechanical engineers whose stuff costs big bucks and,
because their lead times are so long, they tend to be involved in new
things very early on because the cost of being late is so very high.
Whereas, software can get added in at the last minute so it isn't all
that important to get those software engineers involved at the project
start. Nah, we can leave that until we are three months in and have
already designed most of the hardware.

I have an excellent relationship with the product manager and I can
thank him for the many, early notifications I get of new projects
these days. He has a systems view of things and see how everything
comes together.

Another parameter is pay. The good news is that I am still employed.
The not so good news is that none of us got any pay rise last year
plus we got placed on a 9 day fortnight to reduce costs. Like I said,
its a topic best left for another day.

On 22 February 2010 21:02, Jeroen Wenting <[email protected]> wrote:
> You determine how much the company values your contribution by the kind of
> computer they supply you with?
> Rather short sighted approach but if it works for you...
>
>> Thanks for that Jared, but I doubt that my CEO is all that easy to shame
>> on
>> such matters but that won't stop me trying.
>>
>> In any event, when the job market improves, I can always take my skills
>> elsewhere; somewhere else that values my time and productivity more
>> highly.
>>
>> On 19 February 2010 13:10, Jared Richardson <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Show The Powers That Be what the baseline NewEgg consumer desktops are.
>>> Perhaps you can shame them into an upgrade?
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=10&name=Desktop-PCs
>>>
>>>
>
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