So I just approved a job posting on jobs.perl.org for the Clark campaign. It includes this gem in the "Desired skills" section:
Ability to thrive an extremely high-stress environment, including long and irregular work hours (and multiple and competing Priority 1 issues).
Allow me to translate.
"We are too fucking disorganized to actually prioritize things, and there are no project managers here. Instead, everybody else working on the campaign will dump shit in your lap and tell you it's urgent. Also, we're too cheap to hire more programmers, so we'll expect you to work a lot."
Of course, this is like most everywhere else, so candidates who have this skill are easy to come by.
Re:for all campaigns...
jordan on 2004-01-05T22:45:31
Yeah, I think a better translation would be:
We're looking for a true believer, someone who will really sacrifice for a cause in which they believe. Oh, and no whining, no matter how unfair it might seem.
Re:for all campaigns...
nicholas on 2004-01-06T00:51:21
On the subject of unfair - what are the "long term" prospects of this salaried position? (for values of "long term" of the order of November)
Re:for all campaigns...
jordan on 2004-01-06T01:40:31
I have no real knowledge, but if your candidate wins, and you've been seen as an asset who worked selflessly, I would think you would have excellent prospects in Government or in Industry, through the connections made.Re:for all campaigns...
autarch on 2004-01-06T05:09:32
Fair enough, but either way I find the use of euphemisms like "multiple priority 1 issues" rather irritating. If there's no project management and everything is a big fire, say so.
The way they phrased it makes it sound like the candidate should try to convince them they can handle that sort of thing, when really they should be trying to convince the candidates that they should be willing to put up with it.
Re:for all campaigns...
lachoy on 2004-01-06T12:42:20
I know you've approved a lot of job postings: how many of them don't use euphemisms like that and actually say, "We're going to pile work on your back like you're a donkey and treat you as if you were a child with four sets of parents."? That part, at least, isn't confined to campaigns, just to (most of the) folks who hire folks.Re:for all campaigns...
autarch on 2004-01-06T16:52:58
I wasn't trying to suggest this was unique to this job posting. I'm just tired of seeing this sort of language. Perhaps I was in an extra cranky mood when I looked at this one;) Re:for all campaigns...
jordan on 2004-01-06T16:31:15
I suspect it's exactly as you phrase it "no project management and everything is a big fire".
This position probably reports in name to some guy who is in charge of the Internet for the campaign. But, real direction will probably come from 5 or 10 different people.
The stress will be tremendous. You're working on a bunch of fires and the Candidate himself will request something and that becomes job 1 and then the FEC will want a pile of documentation about how this was done or that was tracked (need some time? by 1700 EST today would be fine) and that will become job 0...
I wouldn't touch this unless I really really loved Clark and really wanted to help out.
