Klarinet Archive - Posting 000692.txt from 2001/11

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] re: so you want to do this for a living
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 21:25:17 -0500

> From: Mark Charette
>
> > I've been making a living in music for well over
> > 40 years,
> > and while I am far from wealthy, I have never been
> unemployed even one day
> > since graduating from my undergraduate university.
>
> While I, having spent the last 30 years in engineering &
> computer fields, am
> currently unemployed (but pursuing my dream of creating a
> successful new
> company).
>
> So, does that mean that a career in music is more stable than one in
> computer engineering? Something to think about ...

I have two sons who are employed in the business world. They have both
spent their entire careers in situations in which they can be fired without
notice, upon the whim of their employer. In fact, that has happened to one
of them twice. I know several other people who were employed by major
corporations who have had the experience of coming to work in the morning
and finding that their keys no longer fit their office doors, or that their
passwords no longer worked to allow them access to their company's computer
network. In one instance, in one company located here, one that is national
in scope, over 50 people were met at the doors of the company's office one
Friday morning by uniformed security people, escorted to their offices,
handed a cardboard box, given 15 minutes to clear out their personal
belongings, escorted by the security guards to their cars in the parking
lots, and told to never again set foot on company property. I've never
heard of anything like that in the education profession. Where I now teach,
after a person has been on the faculty for over two years, if they are to be
terminated, they are guaranteed a one-year notice. That seems pretty
generous.

Ed Lacy
EL2@-----.edu

---------------------------------------------------------------------