Reply #53: Working harder in tough times [View All]

[54anickel]

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=169400372

snip>

Martin ticks off statistics that inform the bleaker moods rising up from Silicon Valley's cubicles. Employment rates are stuck at 1995 levels, commercial realtors report vacancy rates from 33 to 53 percent. And Bay Area icons Hewlett-Packard Co. and Oracle Corp. last month announced layoffs totaling 20,000 souls.

Martin mines the Web for those kinds of hard figures for his sideline-publishing a blog (www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com) that has suggested the Valley could be the next Rust Belt. The work is "mainly a way to vent and counter the cheerleading that goes on in the press, and part of it is a backup-in case I lose my job," said the 46-year-old rep for a major semiconductor maker.

"I operate as though I could lose my job tomorrow. I have no debt, my money is invested conservatively and I am renting on a six-month lease," said Martin. "My view is the segment of people getting rich in Silicon Valley will keep getting more and more narrow."

Keeping a balance
Indeed, job security crumbled in the dot-com bust of 2001. Now the balance between work and personal life is swinging in the breeze for cell phone- and laptop-wielding engineers tied to colleagues and customers spread across the United States, Asia and Europe.

more...