IT in Europe has had it

[Mich the Tester]

Or am I being too negative?

We have numpty agents who've BJ'd their way onto the 'preferred suppler list' of clientcos and know nothing about the people they're trading, clientco 'purchasing departments' who know less than nothing about less than anything, EU tax regulations getting in the way of small, competitive business initiatives which survive on delivering to the client what he wants, where and when he wants it, and now IBM Europe have announced they're ending 'flexible working' and 'working from home' because their 19th century management practises can't cope with it.

Given these miserable circumstances, does European IT have any chance whatsoever of remaining competitive? Can we hope to do anything innovative that can actually sustain our economies?

Or are we royally fuqqed? Is it time to just give up and do something else before European IT goes the same way as British shipbuilding, iron and steel, coalmining etc, i.e. down the pan never to return?

[threaded]

Yeps, it's time to get out.

[BlasterBates]

I think you need to retitle that to:

Dutch IT has had it.

I don't think anything has changed. There are no EU tax regulations except on VAT.

I'm not quite sure about this homeworking, but in Switzerland you can only do homeworking of your home is in Switzerland.

That's fairly normal, just tax authorities making sure they can plug billions pound black holes.

The Germans wouldn't countenance that because they like to play around with their tax system and make it enormously complicated.

All EU countries have bilateral agreements on tax.

[MrMark]

IT is moving east, both within and without of Europe. A lot of outsourcing work is actually going to places like Rumania and Bosnia.

[BlasterBates]

...and Rumania is in the EU.

[Platypus]

and now IBM Europe have announced they're ending 'flexible working' and 'working from home' because their 19th century management practises can't cope with it.

Link please ?

[TheFaQQer]

IT in Europe hasn't had it.

IT in Europe for the small business / independent contractor has nearly had it. Time to think of a plan B.

[Mich the Tester]

IT in Europe hasn't had it.

IT in Europe for the small business / independent contractor has nearly had it. Time to think of a plan B.

Isn't it small businesses and independent contractors that lubricate the machinery of the big dinosaurs ?

Kill off the small businesses and the big ones will die their own death. I already have the impression that most big IT firms in Europe are propped up by government contracts but don't really produce anything very competitive.

[Moscow Mule]

My client co has got rid of all the contractors except me (in my area) at the mo as I'm the only one left doing chargeable work.

As soon as folk start buying universal banking systems again, they will be after some more contractors...

[HairyArsedBloke]

As soon as folk start buying universal banking systems again, they will be after some more contractors...

Well, if/when they break up the banks, there be some potential demand.

Also, Tesco signed a deal the other day, but that was with a septic firm that outsources all it's global stuff to India.

So maybe it's time to dust off Plan B.