I just came across this old article of mine. It got some play in the
day, particularly when it was reprinted in @NY on March 7, 1997.
Reading it now, I’m not sure how prescient it makes me– or how good I
should feel about how much I got right. So return with us now to those
thrilling days of six and a half years ago…
There is a myth making the rounds in Silicon Alley these days, and it
goes like this: the freelance workers who make up the backbone of New
York’s growing new media industry do not handle themselves
professionally in the job market.
This rankles me. There’s just as much professionalism in the freelance
job pool as in any other industry, if not more. I know a lot of Web
freelancers out there. And they’re all BUSY. Headhunters tell me
candidates at every level of experience, from HTML to hardcore UNIX
admin and beyond, are in short supply, and the corpses of dead Net
companies can’t fill the positions quickly enough.
Even people who have their own companies work as freelancers, sometimes
to catch up on new technology and ideas, often to bring in some extra
cash to while they wait for their business to take off. The fact that
freelancers move around so much makes us like bees, cross-pollinating
ideas and know-how across companies.
No, it’s not the freelancers. So let’s discuss the professionalism of
employers. (All examples are taken from the WWWAC
list, names withheld to protect the guilty).
Let’s start with employers who aren’t really sure what they’re looking
for: “JOB: Mojo cool Designer Wanted” (HotJava I’ve heard of, but Mojo
Cool is a new one on me) or “Wanted: Internet Champion” (presumably
somebody who placed on the US Olympic Web Surfing Team) or “Job
openings for Web hevy hitters” (sic — presumably somebody who goes
back to a site over and over again to inflate hit counts). And of
course, the perennial: “Must have three years experience within a
corporate environment developing Web sites.” Say no more.
But these are just examples of cluelessness. The big gripes are against
the willfully mean actions of employers, like this one:
“Startup company needs a freelance HTML whiz to help us create our
commerce-oriented Web site. Please have good, solid HTML skills with a
bit of design sense thrown in. We need someone full time for the next
few months and possibly longer.”
Translation: “Work your ass off building our Web site from scratch, and
maybe we’ll think about hiring you. No promises. Meanwhile, you get no
benefits, no assurances, and no withholding, you won’t be able to look
for a full-time position or line up any other work because we have no
clue how long this’ll take, and we’ll pay you after the site’s
done–actually, it’ll be about 30-60 days after that.”
And these are employers who have standing in the new media community,
people who should know better. Large companies, small companies, what
have you, usually the explanation is:
“No, you must have been paid, we have a good system. Our invoices go
through our Web database.”
“Your Web database doesn’t work.”
“Really? Can you come in and fix it?”
A salaried worker would be paid every two weeks. Most temp agencies pay
in a week. But because this is the new media community — hey, we’re
all friends here, just helping out friends.
Which brings us to the delicate question of salary requirements. Some
find it gauche to even broach the issue and can’t understand why some
ask bluntly. The answer is simple: to try and discern the chowderhead
employer offering sub-standard rates. Somebody who wants HTML coding
cheaper than simple data entry is clearly not serious. By not posting a
salary range, employers are flouting one of the Online Commandments–
Thou Shalt Not Waste The Reader’s Time.
I could mention the employers who asked me to bring my own computer, or
the ones who asked me to work from midnight to 8 a.m. because they
didn’t have enough terminals during the day, the ones who insisted I
make a copy of my software for their machines and other such
horrors–but you get the idea.
I posted a commentary with many of these points to the WWWAC recently,
including my own tale of woe of a company that hadn’t paid me for four
months. I got more mail praising that than for anything else I’ve ever
done on the Net, and I’m a CDA plaintiff. Apparently, I’d hit the
bullseye.
The e-mail was heartbreaking. One was from a woman who complained about
her boss, who thinks you’re not dedicated to your job unless you’re
working at least 70 hours a week, and when she calculated her salary
against hours worked she was making less than the minimum wage. Another
had worked until 5:30 a.m. that morning finishing a Web site — not an
uncommon occurrence at that company. There was this winner:
“Your post really scares me. I’m currently looking for a job doing Web
design work, and I’ve applied with many of the employers on the WWWAC
list that you’ve mentioned. More than 30 days to pay someone? What’s
worse is that I currently work at Kinko’s, which doesn’t pay me the
salary that a Web designer should make but which at least pays me
regularly every two weeks. Out of the frying pan into the fire?”
When Kinko’s looks good, folks, you gotta wonder.
There is a lesson for Silicon Alley here. A few folks got in early, and
built their businesses by finding people even less experienced and
exploiting them. The ones at the top of the pyramid got rich, and the
rest — well, why dwell on them?
But, like any pyramid scheme on the Net, it can’t last. There are too
many jobs for too few people, the Web workforce certainly knows how to
spread the word within itself, and there are only so many people out
there who are willing to play hip starving artist. What is unclear to
me is whether the workers have enough clout to force change within the
bad companies, or whether it’s just easier to cut bait, start up your
own company, and repeat the cycle.