Haves vs. have-nots

It's been a long day today, literally: 27 hours long, because I gained 3 hours traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast. It's about 10pm local time now, and I arose this morning at the equivalent of 2:30am Pacific time, so I'm starting to fade in and out.

It was a good trip. I met a lot of people in my new department, and spent a lot of time together with my new manager yesterday. Even short meetings face-to-face I've found can greatly spur business relationships; hopefully, that will be the case again here. The one-on-one face time with my manager was great - I know more about his background now, and feel we have forged some areas of common interest. It probably would've taken several months to accomplish the same over the phone.

I couldn't help but be struck by the differences I saw in Charlotte and here on the West Coast: it's like working at two different companies. Truly a haves vs. have-nots comparison. The offices were packed with people there, few cubicles were empty; in California, some areas have more empty cubicles than occupied ones. There the workforce is healthy and dynamic: a mix across all the age ranges and seniority levels, typical of a growing environment; in contrast, California has an abundance of veteran tech workers, but nothing else. Hiring has virtually stopped amongst the West Coast technology workforce, so there’s not many younger workers, with one exception: our Indian contractors.

Discrimination by race, gender, etc. in employment is against the law. What isn't against the law is a geographic hiring bias, and our company has a strong Charlotte hiring preference. As a result, our West Coast tech workfers are gradually becoming an endangered species.

Technorati Tags: California technology, employment