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> hire people that actually care One thing to note is that hiring skilled IT workers is often outside budget capabilities. It’s not that they want to hire some
by ivalm 5y ago
> hire people that actually care
One thing to note is that hiring skilled IT workers is often outside budget capabilities. It’s not that they want to hire someone incompetent, they simply can’t afford to hire someone competent.
- sirspacey 5y agoNo. There has been massive interest in modernizing these systems. It’s the beliefs and attitudes of leadership that cause well intentioned engineers who are willing to take a lower salary to leave
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- willis936 5y agoIt doesn't help that they used a Soviet method of denying shortcomings in hopes that fantasy will overrule reality. What can you do when you have limited resources to make your situation worse? Punish people who are helping you for free.
- AstroDogCatcher 5y agoIncompetent people will do anything they can to avoid admitting that they are incompetent. One of the more interesting possible outcomes of a UBI I hope to see in my lifetime is the ejection of many of the seat-warmers currently occupying IT positions in western public sector organisations.
- passerby1 5y agoOn contrary, it could get worse. The next level after UBI is here, would be an ego satisfaction. Anyone on a power trip is playing this game with passion, more than a merely seat-warmer.
- Iefthandrule 5y agoYou make it sound like no one is responsible for setting the budget and determining that a decently paid IT staff is not worth it. It is malicious intent the whole way down.
- jedberg 5y agoIs it worth it though? If a few teachers have their identity stolen, will that in any way hurt the school? I mean, it should hurt them, but it's unlikely that it will. The only people who might feel bad are the moral IT folk who created the problem.
- jjeaff 5y agoI mean, is there really any risk of that anymore? Equifax had already seen to it that basically every adult in America's personal information is out there.
- josephg 5y agoI don’t think it’s malicious intent. Hanlon’s razor: never ascribe to malice what can be explained by incompetence. It’s simply that nobody at any level takes actual responsibility for outcomes. People at the bottom of the system (teachers, parents) can see problems but are usually disempowered and voiceless, and can’t fix them on their own. And people at the top are either ignorant of the real problems or lack real leadership and incentives to fix them. (Or they feel overburdened and overwhelmed). An old friend of mine teaches the first year CS curriculum at a local university. By all reports he’s phenomenally good at his job. He truly cares and his students adore him. But he’s making a fraction of the salary he could be making in industry. At some point he’s probably going to quit to do a job he’s not as good at, and doesn’t enjoy as much. Why is he paid many times less than he’s worth? Because the university wants to pay CS lecturers who teach 2000 students the same as they pay people who teach poetry to a class of 5. So my friend can’t get a competitive salary without entire departments revolting. Who’s fault is that? I don’t believe it’s malicious intent. It’s just a boring, systematic failure high up in the org chart leading to bland mediocrity. The only people who can do something about it don’t care about outcomes enough to fix the problem.
- heavyset_go 5y agoMiddle schools can pay administrators $250k+ a year, but can't afford sys admins?
- treeman79 5y agoMy wife (teacher) wasn’t allowed to use the microwave for a year due to the cost of electricity. They got upset when I suggested we donate 20 dollars to cover microwave budget for entire school for the year.
- EvRev 5y agoSounds like a good opportunity to teach the kids about solar. The solar ovens were such a memorable experience, but I suppose the cloudy days would be tough. Teaching the kids about DC to AC conversions at the same time as office politics would be a valuable life lesson!
- munk-a 5y agoI disagree - it sounds like a good opportunity for the school to either stop pinching pennies so absurdly or for the district to actually start funding education at a reasonable level.
- ranger_danger 5y agoSomething tells me it wasn't really about the cost. Someone just hates smelling food I bet.