Tech worker co-operatives - a growing alternative to traditional employment?

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• partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  You also don’t have to make redundancies once the contract’s finished. It’s a universal fact that being a co-op is a tick in your favor.

  I’m interested in specifics on this. If the co-op is purely doing contract work and the contract ends, how are they able to continue to pay workers on the bench? How long are workers allowed to be on the bench if they can’t be place on contract work?

  We did some work with a couple of corporates and our developers hated it. So, we said we’d focus on charities and NGOs, the public sector and education.

  There are a limited number of charities and NGOs, and many times these customers are the most squeezed for budget, meaning lower amounts of income to the co-op.

  Another significant hurdle is salary competitiveness. Generally, programmers can secure higher wages outside the tech worker co-operative sector in both countries.

  I think this is the buried lede. How much is income reduced to tech workers vs traditional employers? Without strong social safety nets in the country a co-op with a much lower salary may not be a viable option because unemployment would leave the former workers without resources to live on.

  If anyone has any experience with tech co-ops and can fill in the gaps of my understanding, I’d be interested to hear it.

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  • drapeaunoir@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    the difference in salary they’re talking about is more along the lines of small business vs venture capital-backed startup or established huge corporation. one joins a worker-owned coop for the alternative to corporate life, not the high-paying salary. and you’d have to try pretty hard to become unemployed at a coop. there are generally no “layoffs” since there is no greedy billionaire at “the top” needing a second yacht. it’s tough work, but it is totally worth it if you have a seething hatred for capitalism. fuck the billionaire class with a cactus, sideways.

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    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      the difference in salary they’re talking about is more along the lines of small business vs venture capital-backed startup or established huge corporation.

      That would make sense if the organization is revenue generating with its own business efforts instead of enabling other organizations, which is what it sounds like is the case for this tech co-op. The co-op doesn’t seem to generate anything of their own. It sounds like they get contract work from NGOs and non-profits. If there is no work, or not enough, what happens to the co-op workers?

      and you’d have to try pretty hard to become unemployed at a coop. there are generally no “layoffs” since there is no greedy billionaire

      So when the NGO and non-profit contract work declines or dries up entirely for a time and there is less or no money coming in, how do salaries get paid at 100%? Does each tech co-op worker simply get a small percentage of the remaining income? How long do workers actively working contracts for NGOs/non-profits in the co-op continue to subsidize those that don’t/can’t get placed on work?

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  • grue@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    If the co-op is purely doing contract work and the contract ends, how are they able to continue to pay workers on the bench?

    I think this is the buried lede. How much is income reduced to tech workers vs traditional employers? Without strong social safety nets in the country a co-op with a much lower salary may not be a viable option because unemployment would leave the former workers without resources to live on.

    I feel like the answers to these would be related. One answer could be that the organization maintains a large fund to act as a buffer to maintain salaries between contracts instead of operating “paycheck-to-paycheck.” An even simpler answer could be that the co-op chooses to take on a large number of small contracts instead of a small number of large ones, such that the revenue is relatively consistent to begin with.

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    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      One answer could be that the organization maintains a large fund to act as a buffer to maintain salaries between contracts instead of operating “paycheck-to-paycheck.”

      Thats great in concept, but keep in mind they’re already taking customers that likely have small or limited budgets. Where does this extra buffer come from? The only income stream is delivering on limited contracts to cash strapped NGOs and non-profits. Remember, they took corporate work at one point, but hated it. Corporate work is where the bigger bill rates for delivery of contract service come from.

      An even simpler answer could be that the co-op chooses to take on a large number of small contracts instead of a small number of large ones, such that the revenue is relatively consistent to begin with.

      Its amazing if your org can get so much contract work that there’s jobs available to turn down. This usually requires a dedicated sales and marketing staff, which don’t generate any revenue for the co-op, only delivery of services to. So the sales and marketing arm are yet another drain on the already meager amounts earned from contract awards.

      If there was surplus money to be made large for-profit contracting companies would be in here already doing some or all of this work.

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  • ture@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Didn’t really understand if the salary quote was about the same coop then the salary one, but in general of you want to work for public sector, education, NGOs etc one should anyway expect lower salaries compared to working for cooperations. So these should be the benchmark to compare and not all over market averages.

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    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Certainly, but this is a different animal. What you’re describing is non-profit organization that retains employees doing IT. Like a for-profit, the employee has the expectation of a job irrespective of the level of project work the organization has. The non-profit will have a similar reporting structure and expectations on the IT worker, with the upside that the IT worker is deriving not only benefit from their salary, but from the good the non-profit is doing.

      Contrast that with the IT contracting world were rates for IT work are much higher than a standard retained IT worker. The reason the pay is higher is because of the risk to the worker they may be unemployed with the work dries up. So from what I gather from the article this tech co-op is the worst of both worlds: low pay, low job security.

      I’d love to be corrected if anyone has IT co-op knowledge/experience.

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• Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  I would be potentially interested but no idea where they are. In the UK but not near London. Also in support rather than dev. Can barely find normal roles here let alone one for a workers co-operative. Probably going to be stuck in my current role for ages.

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  • chobeat@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    co-operatives are started by worker’s initiative. It’s not something that comes to save you. If there’s no co-op in your area, start learning what you need to start one, govern one, and how to find co-op funding.

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• tisktisk@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  If I'm looking to make a career pivot into a (anything programming related) tech field--would looking for one of these be worthwhile investment or no?

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  • chobeat@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    It depends on where you live and what you’re looking for in life.

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