[Novalug] Employee turnover rates

[ethan at 757.org]

> Not sure you have lived in this area in the past. Assume for discussion you
> have not.  My advice, Don't move here. Why?  very simple.  Say you sell your
> house in Norfolk for $200,000 and you clear $50,000.  Thats not even a 10%
> down payment on most houses in this area.  Why do all that debt.  I'm getting
> ready to buy a house, and so far, here is what I can afford:
> 1. Cardboard box house under I-66 (VA side) bridge
> 2. My own little street grate in downtown DC (you know the ones with steam
> rising for them)
> 3. Any house with less than one bedroom or bathroom, (can't afford to have both)
> 4. A two car garage with un-attached house (meaning just the garage, no house)
> Its fscking ridiculous what houses cost in this area.
> American dream my ass, more like American slavery,

I have not lived up in DC, but am aware of the disconnect between home 
prices and incomes.

I do not own in Hampton Roads, although I make a pretty darn good salary. 
Currently median household incomes are around $60K in Hampton Roads, and 
median home prices are around $350K. For $200K you might get a townhouse 
with a delapidated roof or something.

However, I expect the prices in my area to fall at least 40%. But at the 
end of the day, yea I might be able to buy something but do I really want 
to live here?

I've tried to launch some cool projects... one to boost the local music 
scene using a website, and embedded linux machines at music stores that 
drive LED signboards. Couldn't get crap for traction. People are too dumb 
or shortsighted.

I tried to do a project with a Linux driven local music television show. 
But no one had content because there is no place to run it. This region 
has 7 cities that all fight each other, and at the end of the day there is 
very little to attribute to the region other than Military, Bruce Hornsby 
and the Range, and rappers (NERD, The Neptunes, Teddy Riley, Missy Elliot, 
The Clipse, Magoo, Timbaland and many who I've forgotten about). There 
isn't much of a real soul or personality. When I was trying to advertise 
one of my projects, I ended up advertising it in Richmond Virginia because 
they had independent newspapers and stuff, where as our region has 1 
company that owns everything (Landmark -- owns the Weather Channel, 
Virginia Pilot, Inside Business, Portfolio (the so called indepdent lefty 
paper), Nine Volt, and the list goes on and on.

I'm off track. Oh yea, so housing values are going to plumment all over 
the USA. But if I were to buy in DC after the values all drop, earning a 
higher salary, but paying more... in the future when I do want to retire 
I'd have more to do it on.

Oh yea, another project... I have a proposal in to do a syncronization 
system of the holiday lights on all the buildings in the downtown Norfolk 
area, FOR FUN. They will turn it down though.

I tried to give them cool ideas for this Battleship Wisconsin tourist 
attraction, but got no interest from them.

*shrug* I'm not going to move tommorow, my job is good and I'm hoping the 
company expands and goes places. But in the end, after working for places 
that were boring (A national space agency, a particle accelerator, a 
warfare simulations govt place, etc) I've found the smaller startups more 
rewarding. I like to do work, I like to save people money, I like to learn 
things.

And on that note, for people looking for jobs. Here is my advice. Almost 
EVERY job I've had, it came down to the projects I do outside of work. It 
came down to the fact I was interested in what I do outside of work. Most 
of my skills and experience have come from outside of the jobs since the 
jobs were generally unchallenging (Current job is cool, but many past ones 
have been weak).

End of lots of ranting.

Oh yea, Boston is bubbleriffic. That place it going to crash hard. If the 
housing prices are anywhere near as bad as what I've read, I'd imagine 
it's hard to attract talent there. I think there is population outflow?

Hotlanta, AFAIK, has good prices for homes. Don't know a ton about the 
area other than some of the earlier compsec companies like ISS were there.