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[Phillip Rhodes <mindcrime AT cpphacker.co.uk>]

Greg Brown wrote:
>     I think as long as there is a "new market" jobs can be shipped to
>     (India, etc.), companies will continue to treat their workers like dirt.
>
>     Smart companies treat their people right.  I've not run into very many
>     smart companies.
>
>     --[Lance]
>
>
> Well, I think that is true for public companies especially.  The company 
> exists because of and for the shareholders, not the employees.  

That is true in a sense, and a corollary to that is that employees are
free to own stock in the company as well...  so if the company does
benefit from outsourcing work (or whatever) the employee also still 
benefits.

An interesting side note: I read something once where someone said that
the biggest thing separating the poor and the rich in this country is
knowledge of how to utilize capital markets.  That is, the rich invest
their money and grow it, while the poor spend their money.  Of course 
there is a point there, where if someone literally is struggling to buy
food there is nothing left over to invest.

> It 
> sucks, it really does, but that is the way business is run.  If a public 
> company doesn't gain every market advantage over it's competitors the 
> bottom line will suffer, the shareholders will get angry and the board 
> will be voted out in favor of a board that will send jobs overseas, etc.

Yes, but where is the real market advantage?  Short sighted thinking, 
IMO, treats employees as numbers ("resources") and allows for
arbitrary shuffling of the numbers (employees) at a whim in an effort
to make more money. My thesis is that taking a longer term view, which
includes building that trust bond between employee and employer, is
actually advantageous and that some companies will eventually start to
recognize this and will outperform their competitors as a result.


> Motricity let the camel's nose in the tent with the VC they accepted.  
> They might have received more money from this particular investor but 
> now that investor calls the shots.  And call he did.  He wants return on 
> his investment and, sadly, he seems to think this it the best way to 
> accomplish that goal.  Shame too, Motricity had some really good people 
> with great talent.  I hate to see it go, but in reality, it's already gone.


Yeah, it's a bummer.  But maybe there will be a silver lining of 
sorts...  maybe a bunch of those smart, talented people will go off
and do their own new startup that will be even better than Motricity? :-)


TTYL,


--
Phillip Rhodes
Chief Architect - OpenQabal
https://openqabal.dev.java.net
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/philliprhodes
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