Balloons and Y2K New Year's

This week I went to the party store and bought a dozen some balloons for a birthday. As I bought them at the register, I contemplated how I was going to get the balloons into an already stocked car. It means lots of stuffing and not seeing out the windows actually. This reminded me of a new year's eve party I was responsible for over 10 years ago in 1999.

I somehow got roped into throwing the Y2K new year's eve celebration for the technical application team at Limited Brands. The new year's eve party was actually thrown in July, because on the actual new year's eve, we would all be working, right? On New Year's Eve in 1999, most techies were huddled into small war rooms holding their breath (and bored) or "on call" and contemplating the demise of their career. Nothing happened and it was a wasted party night, but for our team of 150 or more, once we finished our projects we partied mid July.

The celebration was held at a saloon/bar party room. The bar had games (think skeet ball and video old school) but also room for a catered dinner and microphone. And alcohol of course. I strangely became the party planner for a few big events like this. I guess because I didn't suck at it and I could be spared. Anyway, I did have help for this particular event since it was so large. One of the ideas in decorating the party room was to have balloons tied to each chair, to fill the large ceiling tent with a festive look. So I ordered 250 silver balloons at the local party store and showed up clueless what this actually meant.

In hindsight it's comical to recall stuffing around 30 balloons into a Honda Civic and making 9 trips back and forth to the venue. Somehow it got done, and balloons were tied to chairs. It ended up looking nice, but frantic and over it I was. I have long been known for doing things the hard and slow way! This got me thinking that it's been 10 years since 2000, and I was wondering "How much has changed, and how much has stayed the same?"

In January of this year, I must have been paying attention to other news because ComputerWorld and other techie publications ran articles sounding like "Y2K: Ten Years Later" target audience moi http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/331221/y2k_10_years_later/?fpid=2. Obviously, the hype of a disastrous non-computer world did not happen and it was a non-event. But what it did bring into focus for those of us in the IT field, was that our technical skills gave us powers which were transferable. We went to the highest bidder. We expected "packages" and to be treated well. It also launched the global effort to contract associates with technical skills. This contract work world would have happened in time, but Y2K jet set it to take place rather quickly. That's because developers were making so much money, and once on the corporate payroll, upper-management strategized how to reduce the cost immediately.

The ballooning of the housing market, and the balloon events of Y2K in my personal life, seem to be an analogy, a fable, for this IT market-place. A market inflating too quickly is going to burst. Many of us counted on the exponential growth in the value of our homes, and many of us counted on salary growth as well. But when the competition for your jobs goes to H1B/international workers for 1/2 your hourly rate, then the bubble bursts. Refer to this article http://community.dice.com/t5/Tech-Market-Conditions/Have-U-S-Workers-Priced-Themselves-Out-of-the-Job-Market-Join/td-p/146574.

Bottom line, it's better to rent the tank and blow them up at the venue. Or have them delivered. If you are chasing the wave, or riding the bubble, that is fine, but don't count on it, know it's going to bust and don't bank of that salary hike, or home equity for retirement. This is sooooo better said than done, right?