More Letters!
And This Too Shall Pass?
Love the Man in the Uniform
A Morning in the Life
Give This Man a Flamethrower
Being "Sticky" Is Not Enough
Don't Me.Com
Under the Volcanoes
The Cyberslouch
e-Slacking
Stock-Suck

Let's see -- a decent salary, a window office and my boss pretty much leaves me alone. So what's missing? Oh, yeah: I can't find my loyalty.
     Now this isn't some yuppie sob story: "Not only did the gear-shift warmer on my E55 go out yesterday, but I can't find my spiritual center!"
     No, this is just a minor mystery.
     I spent a couple of decades in old media, where everybody griped all day long, but deep down, we knew we had a worthwhile mission: we were saving our readers from their own ignorance, etc., etc.
     Now, after almost five years at three Internet companies, I kind of miss that sense of purpose. I couldn't ever return to that world. But more and more often, I ask myself: "How many more websites does the world really need?"
     Thirty years ago, our dads toted their lunch pails and slide rulers through the factory gates on that slow trudge to the gold watch and the final hearty handshake. But were they any more loyal to Boeing or Weyerhaeuser than today's 25-year-old is to his third or fourth Internet startup?
     Well, so what if it does all come down to money, and we have no more class than the pro jocks who sulk if they don't get a $10 million signing bonus, then jump teams the next year? Now that we're no longer units in a "disposable workforce," it's payback time: we can demand salary, perks and stock options. Is that a bad thing? Probably not, unless you screwed up and missed a better offer somewhere else.
     So I ask myself: am I loyal to the team?      Yeah, to a certain degree, although it's kind of like an airport-shuttle driver being committed to his passengers. It's a trusting but short-term relationship. Loyal to the business plan? Hard to do when it changes every week and the overriding vision is to "be sticky."
     But the money's good. So maybe the thing to do is put in the time, invest in a good cause in the real world, and most importantly, plea-bargain the vesting schedule on my options down to two years.--Dick Payton