The story of the CFO and CEO : "What happens if we train people and they leave?"

Mike7

From Internet Storm Center

[FONT=&amp]CFO: What happens if we train them and leave?[/FONT]
[FONT=&amp]CEO: What happens if we don't and they stay? [/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]CFO: Good thought. Let's just outsource them. We'll cut training expenditures because that's on the outsourcer. We'll cut headcount and we'll cut benefits costs. We won't be paying for people not working because they're on vacation or claiming to be sick. And you will love this part, we can cut people from HR because we won't have so much headcount! Win-win![/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]CEO: While our people costs will go down and the skill pool will go up, we will be paying more in consulting costs than we would for having the employees. But if we manage staffing correctly, the direct costs could be break-even and we'll have just-in-time staffing available rather than just-in-case staffing levels. And no more bad press when we do layoffs because we won't have any. We'll promote it as cost containment in this era of rising costs. Win-win-win![/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]CEO: By the way, just how many people do you have working in Finance and Accounting anyway?[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]CFO: Ummmm...
[/FONT]

trojin

I like this "Ummmm...."

Danielm7

I can completely relate to this. My current group director (big org chart, he's a layer between the other directors and C levels) feels that some training is OK but won't cover the certs related to the training fearing that they'll use it to leave. This makes people grumpy, then you get unsatisfied employees... which makes people want to leave.

This year budgets were tight, all conferences that involved any costs (could do free local BSides, etc) were cut and other training was cut. The big executive meetings that happen on tropical islands are all still on, but everything for the operational layer was denied. People are pissed and suddenly all those recruiter contacts that I have become a lot more appealing.

TechGromit

Danielm7 wrote: »

This year budgets were tight, all conferences that involved any costs (could do free local BSides, etc) were cut and other training was cut.

Damn, I'm so thankful for where I work now, Taking my third SANS training course in two years, not to mention I got to go to BlackHat last year with training included, as well as onsite Checkpoint firewall and industrial defender training. I attended B-sides Philly last year, I was going to take a vacation day, but my boss told me I could attend it on the clock and paid for my travel and meal expenses to boot. There have been cut backs however, our meal allowance is capped at $75 a day now and we lost our desk side support contractor, oh the horror.

Danielm7

Yep, it's silly. Two years in a row they made cuts then ended the financial year with hundreds of thousands left unspent in our group budget. "I guess we need to plan better next year" ... grumble, hah.

fabostrong

Earlier this year I had a job offer to start out doing desktop work with a path into security. I do desktop/system admin work at the company I currently work for.

The company that made the job offer, I asked if they'd pay for security certs and they said they'd pay half up front and half after I've been there for a year. While I understand that from a business aspect, it still sucks. It made me feel like they were one foot in, one foot out with me and here I was taking a risk by changing companies.

When I put in my two weeks notice at my job one of the things they offered was to pay for whatever certs I wanted. Training, materials, exam costs, whatever which I thought was pretty cool. One of the main reasons I stayed.

jcundiff

TechGromit wrote: »

Damn, I'm so thankful for where I work now, Taking my third SANS training course in two years, not to mention I got to go to BlackHat last year with training included, as well as onsite Checkpoint firewall and industrial defender training. I attended B-sides Philly last year, I was going to take a vacation day, but my boss told me I could attend it on the clock and paid for my travel and meal expenses to boot. There have been cut backs however, our meal allowance is capped at $75 a day now and we lost our desk side support contractor, oh the horror.

same here, last year, did a FS-ISAC course and BlackHat with training course... This year, its BlackHat (with training) and FireEye summit. Plus, the majority of my tuition reimbursed at WGU. Always nice to have a company that values you as an employee

TechGromit

jcundiff wrote: »

This year, its BlackHat (with training) and FireEye summit. Plus, the majority of my tuition reimbursed at WGU. Always nice to have a company that values you as an employee

I'm happy I got the opportunity to experience Blackhat once, but I really thought the conference itself was a waste of money. The training was valuable, but I really did not feel the conference itself was worth the price tag. Also if I'm dropping 4 grand or more on training, I want a certification to go along with it. Don't get me wrong I thought the training I attended was great, but without a certification, it's really nothing I can show an employer I'm qualified.

UnixGuy

Awesome stories that will NEVER happen. It's usually one smart arse who will decide who things go, and others won't disagree because of their limited (lack of) knowledge in other domains.

it doesn't matter if it makes financial sense in 5 yrs time, as long as it makes financial sense now. They will either move on in 5 yrs or they will cover it up and find new 'innovative' way

Welcome to IT

dhay13

I paid for my Sec+ and my company reimbursed me after the fact. My company bought and paid for my CISSP voucher up front. I have to stay 12 months from date of purchase or I have to re-pay the CISSP voucher, which is around June. If I leave before then then I am fine with re-paying the $600 since my next job should make that up in one paycheck.