[thelist] Re: Design/Development Goes Third World?

Erika said:

<<Even if we were picking grapes, we'd be the ones holding the key to
production. But it's all worthless if there's only one squeaky wheel
when the rest toil on in quiet discontent.>>

A vineyard / winery relies on the resources of land, premises, machinery,
expertise and labour, with the latter resource being by far the most easily
replaced. I don't know when you last picked grapes, but around here squeaky
wheels tend to get kicked out. Grape picking isn't a job for whingers.

I take your point that we all deserve to be treated with respect by our
employers, but we don't all work for *big* companies. Having had a brief
look at your website, I notice that you are the "owner" of an agency.
Wouldn't that make you your own boss? So what are you going to do if clients
start turning overseas for volume work at low prices? Go on strike?

Personally, if I had the choice of the comfort, security and stability of
working as a tiny part of a massive organisation, or the excitement of
hacking it on my own / in a small team, I'd go for the latter. This means I
have absolutely no recourse to unions or whatever. Frankly that suits me
just fine.

<<Part of the reason we are
helpless to stop the increase of lower-paid foreign workers is that
tech workers are not organized.  >>

If you mean that agencies based in wealthy countries such as ours (I am
British living in Australia) should have the right to get work ahead of
those in countries with less inflated economies, I think the whole global
nature of the industry may be passing you by. And, in the scope of an
increasingly global community, you may even have more in common with a web
developer in the Check republic (which, I can assure you, is definitely NOT
the "third world", and has a longer and quite possibly richer cultural and
creative heritage than the United States) than you would with, say, a miner
/ construction worker / fishing fleet crew-member in your own country. There
is precious little room for nationalistic jingoism in an industry which
straddles international boundaries as easily as ours. Why not take the
positive viewpoint, and see what benefits being part of a global economy can
bring to you. I have worked for clients in several different parts of the
world, and enjoy the travel and cultural experience.

Of course, it makes sense to form professional organisations, both formal
and informal (most of the support I've received in this job has been from
lists like this one). And anyone working a sixty-plus hour week would have
trouble convincing me that they are a "success" (although junior doctors
don't get much choice - family or no). At the end of the day, the confidence
we have in our own individual abilities should govern what we expect and
demand from our careers.

Tim Stewart
tstewart@gisca.adelaide.edu.au