Fscking AOL.

[siggy-lxvi.livejournal.com]

I hate AOL.

( Cut for swearing and thinly-veiled anti-Hindustani comment. )

Fscking AOL.

x-posted to techsupport and siggy_lxvi.

Pay them more? Nah, we'll get better people by making the dress code more stringent.

[siggy-lxvi.livejournal.com]

So I occasionally give a ride to one of our 2nd level people (the ones who take sup calls, answer helpdesk questions from 1st leve techs, etc.) in the mornings. Last week he and I were discussing a recent change to our dress code. Or rather to the enforcement policy on the dress code. Up til now, the dress code at work has been pretty slack. You were allowed to wear pretty much anything so long as it didn't have offensive words on it. Then they clamped it down 'til we got the feeling we were lucky they allowed us to wear jeans with out polo shirts....

So J and I were discussing the recent change and he said that he'd talked to management about it, and their reasoning was that by being able to show a better-dressed work environment, they'd be able to hire better people. I asked the obvious question, "So does this mean they're upping the pay scale?"

"No."

"So, they're making the work environment more stressful, taking away employee privileges, keeping the pay scale the same, and expecting to get better people?"

"That's what they say..."

Wha?

Especially since the call center right down the road requires no technical abilities at all, has the dress code we USED to have (prior to the new enforcement) and make $1.50 an hour more. The only reason I'm not working there is that I like doing technical work. The one interesting call every other day makes it worthwhile for me, for now, to sit and do half a doezen format and reloads, replace burnt out parts, and step-by-step walkthroughs of idiotic processes. I'm about to ask if they'll reimburse me for certification exams, because if they don't, and I start making money off freelancing, I'm gone. This is a college town, I can get some decent money out of stuff like building gamer computers and setting up home networks, and don't even get me started on the money I can make through spyware removal..... One fucking dollar an hour more. That's all I really want from management. One dollar. Then I'll finally be making what I earned pushing an idiot stick for a concrete company.

How the fuck do you expect to get people of any kind of technical quality when you pay less than most of the fast-food joints in town?