[Foundation-l] The fallacy of power

[Birgitte SB]

--- On Wed, 4/30/08, Brian <Brian.Mingus at colorado.edu> wrote:
<snip WMF job qualifications lack community experience>
 How can it support the community if it
> doesn't
> understand it because most of the people
> "supporting" it just wanted a job?
> 

This is so off-base I really don't know where to begin.  What mature person "just wants a job"?  Do you realize that the large majority of people spend more energy focused on their job than anything outside of their nuclear family?  If anyone was hired that only cared to collect a paycheck, they would quit in a month. There are much easier paychecks around. Do you realize the public crap WMF employees get from this list alone? And it must be threefold flowing around the informal blogs and IRC chat rooms floating around that are less public but guaranteed to eventually get back to the subject.  It was nearly unbearable for me to have one gossiping troublemaker in an office.  I can't imagine what it is like to be exposed to this crap on such widespread forums as WMF employees are.  And it is not like they can go on wikibreak when it gets too stressful.  This is their *job*.  Many  of them have moved to a new city and invested in a new life for this career.
  It is not simple for them to "leave or fork" if things go badly.  That means they care a great deal more about all things WMF running smoothly than most of us do.  That means they are more likely to sacrifice their personal objectives for the broader operation of WMF. 

I wouldn't work for WMF if you tripled my salary.  Seriously sometimes people on this list really cross the line of rationality when discussing WMF employees.  I don't think half the people who venture to comment on the subject have any clue what it takes to run even a very small office.  Employees are not interchangeable robots, and they are not being done any favor to be offered a job by WMF. You don't find people that are willing to put up with this kind of criticism and second guessing on a 24 hour cycle unless they not only believe strongly in the mission but they believe that they can make a positive change in the organization.  Anyone that wants to punch in and out and simply do what they are told will take a job where there is only one supervisor evaluating their work. Not where a hundred people evaluate the work and court anyone they believe can act as a supervisor to do something. Only ambitious high-minded sort people that *want* to be a part
 of this community would go for a career in the WMF. 

Birgitte SB


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and 
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.  http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ