How true... for instance I started this job 6 1/2 years ago. I make exactly the same today as the day I started.NcongruNt wrote: I wasn't referring to the intelligence or importance of the workers when I said that. I say it in reference to the way skilled workers in the tech industry are being treated as expendable and unimportant by the corporations that rule this industry. The same holds true for software engineers, too. When I say bottom rung, I'm talking about how support and field technicians are overwhelmingly treated by their employers. Corporations see such positions as pure overhead and treat them as such. In my opinion, this has led to the demise of the quality of customer service in the computer industry.
I'm supposed to be the System Administrator, but I have no input on what we purchase, in fact I have no purchase power at all.
I'm told that we're getting some new equipment/software on the day that the vendor shows up to install said equipment/software.
When the printer went down last year as they were trying to print holiday bonus checks, the business manager got all huffy and wanted me to fix the printer right away... which I did, but did I get a holiday bonus... NO!
I get no respect, yet people yell at me because their computer/printer doesn't work. Just this morning an employee told me his printer wasn't working (before I even punch the time clock), I stop and take a look at it... his USB cable had come unplugged from the printer.
*sigh*
Hopefully the employers will understand and treat the next person better.NcongruNt wrote: Additionally, I have great respect for blue collar workers - they are the ones that keep this country running. My comparison was to provide a parallel to the kind of disrespect that blue collar workers are commonly at the receiving end of. Please don't put words into my mouth by implying that when I said blue collar, I meant dumb and uneducated. I most certainly did not.
Russ