IT Labor Shortage Eases As Economy Worsens More clients are looking for workers with mainframe and midrange system skills to work on legacy-system projects that languished during the strong focus on Web-based projects in the past few years. The hot jobs are in enterprise systems, where demand increased 62%, and network design and administration, which is up 13%. (Apr. 2001 InformationWeek)

Impending layoffs need warning Former Computer Associates are charging that the software developer tried to disguise recent mass layoffs as individual firings. Why does this matter? If 33 percent of a single site's full-time employees, minimum of 50, are laid off within a 30-day period, or 500 or more employees are laid off from multiple locations within a 90-day period, the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Act applies. (Apr. 2001 InfoWorld)

High Tech Work Complicates FLSA Classification of Computer Employees In general, recent court decisions have shown that it is the employee’s duties that determine whether the worker is exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act — not the importance of the employer’s computer system, the employee’s job title, the employee’s salary or the employee’s level of education. (Mar. 2001 HR Hub)

Broken Promises Technology workers are always getting screwed over by management. IT managers are overworked, pissed off, underpaid, frazzled, stressed-out people who will say or do anything to get the job done. Ultimately, the best recourse is to work for people who are honorable - and organized. (Mar. 2001 Computerworld)

Do You Work for a Bully Boss? The boss frequently screamed profanities, refused to share critical information on deadlines and productivity goals and gave conflicting instructions. But separating the bullies from the tough operators is a difficult and unpopular task, especially in high-tech industries where stress is considered a motivator. (Mar. 2001 The Standard)

The age of overwork There are the sweatshops that make khakis, and then there are the sweatshops where the people who wear khakis work. "White-Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioration of Work and Its Rewards in Corporate America" charges so-called new-economy companies like America Online and Intel (and some old-line stalwarts like IBM) with grinding their huge stock market gains out of their employees' so-called lives. (Mar. 2001 Salon)

For the Sake of Your Code, Check Your Ego I recently heard about a development effort where the same utility subroutine appeared 16 times in the code base. Each one had been created by a different developer who insisted on using his or her particular version. Unfortunately, this is not an unusual situation. (Feb. 2001 DevX)

Ed Yourdan: A Recession Guide Most recessions last only a year or two before good times return. But if your organization mistreats its IT professionals during a recession, they will get their revenge when the job market improves. Indeed, the last recession provided countless examples of employees who were forced out by corporate downsizing decisions but who then returned to the same jobs as contractors. (Jan. 2001 CIO)

Survey: Challenging IT workers is best way to keep them Key considerations in retaining IT workers, in order of their ranking by the respondents, include a favorable work environment with good managers and high morale, flexible working hours, stock options, the opportunity to earn extra vacation time, support for career and family goals, casual dress codes and high-quality supervision. (Jan. 2001 ComputerWorld)

Techie staff work longer but produce less Technical staff have to work harder because technology projects have increased in complexity whilst deadlines have become tighter and tighter, forcing workers to put in longer hours in order to cope. In the US, the average technician's work year increased 36 percent to around 45 hours per week, and by 30 percent elsewhere but this didn't necessarily reflect better quality work. (Dec. 2000 The Register)

Culture Clash Copy the style of the code in the module you are editing, even if it is painful. A common problem is the silent reformatter. This is the person who doesn't object to the coding standards, but does everything he or she can do to work around them or avoid them. This is a real management nightmare. (Dec. 2000 Devx)

The Fine Print If you're trying to escape a former employer's noncompetition contract, then check out www.BreakYourNonCompete.com, which offers strategies for getting out of those pesky contracts that prevent employees from taking business and clients to a competitor. (Nov. 2000 The Standard)

Backdoor I.T. How do you get a technology project up and running when IS is too busy to help you? People are getting the work done by slipping in through the back doors of their IS departments and enticing the techies to help them in off-hours, or nights, or weekends. The trick is to make the project relevant and exciting enough to crack open the door and catch somebody's eye. (Oct. 2000 Darwin)

Interview This! Hiring Managers and recruiters have some new tricks up their interview sleeves. They pose some killer questions to test applicants' business, IT, and management savvy. They must: Job seekers are savvier than they were even five years ago. (Oct. 2000 Infoworld)

IT Recruiting: Lifestyle, Location, And IT The majority of IT jobs don't come from technology companies, but rather from user companies. When considered by region, the disbursement of IT jobs across the United States is eye-opening. The South has 3.45 million IT jobs, more than any other region. Surprisingly, there are more IT jobs at technology companies in the South than there are on the West Coast. (InformationWeek May 2000)

Limiting job-hopping In this tight labor market, a little-known legal rule called the "inevitable disclosure" doctrine is gaining popularity. And it may end up putting the brakes on employee mobility. In this new breed of trade secret cases, courts can also look beyond whether a trade secret was actually stolen, and can now prevent employment if trade secret disclosure by the employee is "likely to result" in the new job. (UpsideToday Apr.2000)

What Should You Do With Illicit Information You Discover on the Job? Today’s IT workers, unlike their predecessors, are privy to a great deal of information. You may well discover activities you believe to be illegal, or at least unscrupulous. What do you do with your potentially damning knowledge? (CIO Mar. 2000)