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Subject:please post From:YvonneGuzman -at- cs -dot- com To:TECHWR-L -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Fri, 28 Apr 2000 14:22:10 EDT
Hi ! Can you please post this message? Thank you.
I'm a student in the tech writing program at Middlesex Community College and
I'm writing a story for the spring issue of the program's newsletter about
what
happens to the culture of a start-up when it gets bought by a big company.
I'm wondering if any tech writers out there have experienced this kind of
transition. The kinds of issues I'm interested in are:
- In what ways did the company change culturally? Were the changes primarily
positive or primarily negative, in your opinion?
- Were the negative changes offset by the fact that everyone made a
lot of money? Did everyone make a lot of money? Or was it just the people
at the top?
- Did employees leave? How many? Why? Did they go to other
start-ups?
- Was there a dramatic change in the number of hours you or other
employees were expected to work?
- Did you end up with better benefits?
- Was anyone laid off?
- Did you and other employees find that you had significantly less
control over the product?
- Was there a big change in the general atmosphere, and did you or
other employees find yourselves missing the "buzz" of working round
the clock on cutting-edge technology? Or was it nice to be under
less pressure and working only 45 hours a week as opposed to 65?
- What kind of person prefers a start-up to a public company, and
what kind of person prefers a public company to a start-up?
If you have any thoughts on these topics, please message me or call
me at:
yvonneguzman -at- cs -dot- com
(781) 322-8094
If you could possibly do so in the next few days, that would be great. I'm on
deadline... I'm sure you all know what that's like.
If you are messaging me, please let me know if it's okay to use your
name and, if so, let me know how you'd like your name to appear in
print. If you could also include the company you currently work for,
your age, and the name of the city where you live (or as much of
that as you are comfortable with), that would be terrific.