So back in April, I snarked about a study at the UW that explained that our compensation is competitive because in addition to our non-competitive wages we get terrific benefits and five other wonderful alternate compensation forms. Of those additional benefits the only one that seemed to be a real bonus was “job security” — not so much for ~65 of my co-workers.
UW Technology is going through a huge financial crunch that pretty much came out of nowhere. From what I hear (which isn’t much), a major element of the crunch is a rules change that departments that rely on recharge (charging other departments money for their services) have to pay the benefits of their staff instead of the UW paying the benefits. But there are some other reasons that haven’t been made clear to staff — and there are people that are pointing fingers at senior management (particularly since we had a surplus a year ago).
The end result has been a good sized group of layoffs, including one person from my group. (Fortunately, he seems to be in good spirits about it — it’ll give him some time to devote to game development and he can look for a job in that sector.) One entire sub-team was eliminated, and others were all but eliminated. I only know 10 names for sure that have been laid off, but 65 people is 10-15% of the affected operating groups.
I wonder what the study will report next year…
Until today (on average) you’ve earned enough to pay your Federal, State, and Local taxes — you are now free to earn money for yourself. Of course I’m reasonably sure the true Tax Freedom Day for Seattle isn’t until May…
Bloons Tower Defense is pretty damn cool. After playing a half dozen times and dying about midway through the game, I tried a radically different strategy and was able to win. I’m now trying to win with all of my lives, but I keep missing some bloons in the mid game (~level 12).
So in this week’s UWeek (a weekly paper for UW staff that rarely has something useful), has an article claiming that my compensation package is competitive with the market. I like my job and have no plans to find a new one — largely because I am comfortable, the job is convenient, and I an sufficiently compensated. But I am extremely skeptical that my compensation package is very competitive.
Milliman observed that while private sector employers usually offer incentive compensation in the form of bonuses, stock options or both, few northwest employers actually come close to matching the UW benefits package. “The University provides a number of significant attractions beyond direct compensation,” the report notes. “These include a highly desirable location, the opportunity to work at a premier institution of higher education, a stimulating work environment, job security, and rich cultural experiences, just to name a few.”
So to summarize the key benefits offered by my job are:
1) “in a highly desirable location” — I don’t care how desirable it is, but it is close to my house so it is convenient.
2) “at a premier institution of higher education” — bfd.
3) “stimulating work environment” — this is a quality of your tasks more than anything, If I did the same thing elsewhere it would be just as stimulating.
4) “job security” — very true.
5) “rich cultural experiences” — bfd.
Honestly I’d rather have more money than a “rich cultural experience”. And of course the numbers are skewed a bit by the other public sector organizations included in the study since the benefits are largely the same and when you give weight to some of the fluff above we’re better than them.
So this weekend we’re making the final push to finish the electrical work on the garage. It was slow going in the early afternoon we finished with one exception. It was very satisfying when we were testing the circuits and everything worked. That one final bit is the exterior lights, which have been a pain in the ass. At about 4PM we got back from our 2nd trip to buy parts (the third this weekend), with a possible solution. Of course with our work nearly complete something had to intervene.
To complete a bit of work I went down into my basement — It was then that the hippies attacked. I’m not sure what they were planning to do in the basement — drug induced orgy, drum circle, or just looking for something to sate their munchies. The fight was fast and furious, they were armed with with a wide assortment of musical instruments and drug paraphernalia while I was armed only with my tool belt of electrical equipment and a keen understanding of physics. The first went down quickly with a handful of yellow wire nuts he ran away screaming about bees; and the second a handful of staples. I then pulled my 25′ measuring tape to use like a weighted string and was able to take out two more (one armed with a bong, the other a before a hippie armed with a guitar was able to strip it from me, but when I smashed a hole in the guitar with my hammer he fell to the ground crying.
All that remained were the two female hippies: the first wielded a tambourine; and the second a bad acid trip made her freak-out. The tripping hippie went berserk slashing at me with filthy raged finger nails. I was just barely able to deflect her first frantic attacks with my needle-nose and thick pliers, but she was able to knock both from my grip. I then flung a pair of screwdrivers at her, but she was able to dodge the missiles. Running low on tools, I was getting desperate and sent my new circuit tester at her head. The black and red body with flopping probes hit her in between the eyes and sent her into
Unfortunately, I was distracted with the first female hippie, the second chucked her tambourine at me. The projectile hit me directly in the right eye. My glasses prevented the tambourine from damaging my eye, but the glasses where forced back violently and cutting me just under the eye brow. The flowing blood and sudden blow blinded my right eye. I staggered back in shock and pain trying to protect my eye and determine the damage. They took the opportunity to make their escape.
Jim (our neighbor) drove me to (and later picked me up from) Group Health’s Urgent Care where after 2.25, I was discharged with three stitches and a slightly blurry right eye. I would take a picture to document the injury but Aly took the camera with her to Orlando (work thing). So Adam, I’m sorry I didn’t make it to tonight’s Ritual Pumpkin Sacrifice. But at least I’ll have cool scar over my eye from a hippie’s tambourine — and not from a chuck of wood flung from my chop saw that ricocheted into my eye — it was hippies.
Heh. Organic farming practices produce more CO2 per unit of food than traditional farming methodology. Oops.
The advertising agency that produced the Gears of War commercials certainly earned their money. The extended cut is superb. The song is Mad World originally by Tears for Fears and covered by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews for Donnie Darko.
Thanks to the Requiest for tracking down the info.
From the SciFi News:
Strike Entertainment and Universal Pictures will remake John Carpenter’s SF horror movie The Thing, with Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore writing the script, Variety reported. The 1982 original dealt with a shapeshifting creature from outer space that terrorizes researchers at an Antarctic station. That film in turn was a remake of the 1951 classic SF movie The Thing From Another World, which was adapted from the 1938 short story “Who Goes There?” by legendary SF author John W. Campbell Jr.
So it is a re-make, of a re-make, of an adaption. And Hollywood wonders why people are less willing to pay the outrageous ticket prices to see movies…
The switch to PST was quite a shock last night as I walked home in the freezing cold with the sun long gone. The sunnier walk to work just isn’t worth it. How about we just get rid of standard time and use daylight savings time year round? That means I won’t have to change clocks or suffer through “spring ahead” ever again.
The reader said she didn’t want children. I urged her to reconsider. Here’s what happened next.
Why childless people hate me. By Emily Yoffe
The article is pretty interesting, particularly that the most vigorous responses against having kids were not about how wonderful a life without kids can be, but how miserable and horrible it is to have kids. Read the whole thing.
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