Re: "Gamble my career"?

[David.X.Kahn@xxxxxxx]

Reeve wrote:

> So, if you install this chimera and something bad happens to your
> system, do you think your boss, or the owner, or the board of
> directors will applaud and say, "Hey, nice try!"  Sorry, the line
> for the lynching party forms at the end.  If one of my valued,
> long-time people even downloaded TT without talking to me, it would
> be the end of that career.

Look at it another way. If your company is about to pay a chunk of green
screen tax do you not have an obligation to your bosses at least to make
them aware of the existence of a possible alternative? Your memo will of
course point out both the ethical issues and the business risk and may well
recommend that you do not purchase it, but how are your managers meant to
make a decision without a full awareness of the alternatives? I wouldn't
like to be in a position where we had just shelled out big bucks on an
upgrade and then a week later my boss came to me and said, "Hey, I've just
found out about this magic tool called Fast400 that might have saved us
that upgrade. I had in look in the midrange-l archive and it seems you knew
all about it. How come you didn't see fit to mention it to me?"

Every decision you make carries an element of risk, but managing risk is
something managers are supposed to do. If you regard Fast400 simply as a
means of deferring, rather than avoiding, the green screen tax it should be
possible to calculate the payback period. There are hidden costs to take
into account. These include possibly damaging your relationship with IBM
(although you don't have to go out of your way to tell them) and having to
take extra caution with PTFs and new releases, possibly missing out on some
features and bug fixes that you'd really like to have. All these things you
should be able to put a figure on, and having done that it then becomes
possible to work out how long the tool has to function for the company to
break even.

Dave...

"Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow." - Oscar Wilde

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The opinions expressed in this communication are my own and do not
necessarily reflect those of my employer.