I'm hearing a lot of employers complaining that they can't find good Perl talent.

But I'm not hearing much complaining from Perl programmers about not being able to find jobs. For the most part, they're a long suffering, quiet, peaceful, sober group. I guess in that regard I'm an oddball.

What I am seeing is Perl programmers taking jobs doing other things.

Since they don't complain, I don't know their reasons. Does C++/Java/Python just pay better?

But I do recall that a lot of Perl employers have been complaining for a long time. Most Perl programmers I know were forged in the fire of long work days, ambitious schedules, and short sighted, aggressive management. Huge things got built quick, but if anything, that led the developers to be taken for granted instead of valued as professionals.

No one needs to be worshipped as a god, but if you give up your evenings, weekends, and a lot of nights to do something technically spectacular, it behooves your employer to realize and recognize what a rare gem you in a highly competitive industry. Ratcheting up performance requirements and treating employees like suckers is only going to drive the good ways away.

So I guess I'm used to hearing management complain -- "we're losing money [because we're not making money we could [i know!! Why do you think I'm doing all nighters?]]", "how come I don't have this thing? It should be obvious that I would have wanted it! [we'll do it next!]".

I think the "me first" attitude of a lot of Perl shops was toxic and still is. (If I interviewed with you, I didn't think your shop was toxic.)

Unlike a lot of Perl shops, Perl programmers, I think, turn a key eye towards how to productively solve a problem with minimal fuss.

If Perl employers wanted to similarly use keen intelligence to solve the hard problems they face, here are a few ideas for doing that.

Hire novice programmers. 99% of the job listings out there are for Senior talent, but, guess what, 99% of programmers aren't senior -- yet. Get the few senior programmers you do have to mentor, part time, as one of their duties. Make a day for it -- "Mentor Mondays" -- where they help other less senior programmers instead of whatever they would be doing. That 20% tax could double or triple your senior workforce in a few years. That's a good investment. Some of them will take the free education and move on, but a lot of them will stick around.

Work with telecommuters. I know everything thinks telecommuters are scum, and this is hard to do right, but rather than hard-lining and saying "no", put a price on it. Do you need to hire five people and you're paying each $100,000? Make all five positions remote-contractor so that they aren't shut out of in-office meetings (I hate that), let them fire up a Skype or IRC channel to collaborate on, hire a few extras (contractors), pay them all $50,000 instead, and let them work from Orcus Island in Puget Sound or whereever they are. If they get stuff done, it's fantastic value for both of you. If they don't, well, you hired a few spare, so don't renew the contract, and then hire some other ones.

Hire a highly skilled people person who is tech savvy as a manager, and don't make them write code. The second point makes this more important. For every remote worker who was lazy and didn't do his or her work from home, I've seen miserably mis-managed, who weren't given the resources they needed, no one would help, every request got wedged, and basically got thrown to the wolves. Sometimes they limp along even though they have to figure out every single last thing themselves and the code base is a train wreck. When everyone including the manager is living in fear of being fired if they don't personally meet performance quotas, people turn into jackals, and that's bad for the team. No one stopping to help a new guy for five minutes is ineffecient. If someone is remote, you can't stand behind people and breathe down their neck until they stop and tell you why apparently the whole entire thing doesn't work at all. Hiring someone who just makes sure that programmer needs are met means that things can operate efficiently. If the local team and the remote team don't have good channels of communication, which is usually the case, this person bridges the gap.

Hire contractors for projects. Hire good people when you see them, period. Either you're really trying to find good people or you aren't. Which is it?