Re: Make me want to stay!

[John Posada <jposada -at- NOTES -dot- CC -dot- BELLCORE -dot- COM>]

Can I place my $.02 here?

I'm a contract tech writer, doing RFP proposals at a major telecommunications
organization.  I'm contact occasionally by contract shops asking if I would
like to consider a position being offered.

Sometimes (though not too often), they actually offer rates that are
substantially higher than what I'm getting now, sometimes to the tune of 20%
per hour more (BTW..for reference, I'm being paid in the very high 30s per
hour, with access to a substantial amount of overtime) .  However, I've yet to
come across one that got my interest enough to send them my resume, which I
have on disk and can be attached to email with about 5 keystrokes.

My reasons for this are as follows:

1) Encouragement and permission to use my brain, experience and imagination in
deciding how I can do my job, in the order and priority that I think is best.
2) Trust  that I did something the way I did it because I know best for
something that they are paying me to know.
3) Access to the proper tools to do my best work
4) Environment that makes me feel comfortable.
5) Acknowledgment, both verbally and in writing, for a job well done when I do
something above and beyond the normal requirements.
6) Acceptance of my little quirks and idiosyncs
7) Encouragement by team members, engineers, SMEs and management to participate
in each project process from the beginning of a project.
8) A manager that goes out of her way to protect the department writers when
they are being abused or taken advantage.

I'll keep the job for awhile

John Posada
- Central New Jersey Employment Manager
Society for Technical Communication
http://stc.org/region2/njc/

- Technical Proposal Writer
Bell Communications Research
(908) 699-5839 (W)
jposada -at- notes -dot- cc -dot- bellcore -dot- com

"Its wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago"
        - Vice President Dan Quayle, 4/30/91
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I don't speak for my employer and they return the favor
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 In response to my donning the employer's hat about "job
 hopping", Joanne Grey asked what I'd do to make her want to
 stay. As Moshe Koenig noted eloquently (the "concentration
 camp" image was particularly striking), you've got to give
 employees a reason to stay (nothing is ever one-sided). Off
 the top of my head, I use the following organisational
 criteria in evaluating a job: bosses who treat me as human,
 who give me power commensurate with my responsibility, who
 cut me some slack, who challenge me to produce my best but
 who don't humiliate me if I fail, who encourage me to learn
 new skills, and who offer something like job security.

 I've only changed jobs twice, each time initially with a
 minor pay decrease but with great working conditions and an
 opportunity to catch up quickly to my old salary. As a
 result, I'll have doubled my first paycheque within 10
 years and only 3 jobs. That's certainly not as impressive
 as what others have quoted, but then again, I'm not working
 in high tech, Montreal has a low cost of living, and I
 haven't agressively sought new positions when I found some
 place where I could be content. I'd make more as a
 consultant, but frankly, until my kids grow up, I prefer
 the security and the predictable hours.

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.