How many web employees does it take????

[Shirley Clifton]

I am the webmaster for a very large corporation and have been the sole employee
for over 1 1/2 years. We now have 4 domain names that I have developed sites
for (two of these are large sites)and are looking to build many more co-branded
sites within the next year.

My problem is that I can't seem to make my company understand that this effort
deserves a 'team', not a sole employee. No one in my company understands
the inner workings of web design and seem to think that building, maintaining
and promoting a corporate website is a 'piece of cake'. I have done all
of this by working 10-12 hours per day at least 6 days a week. It is budget
time for next year and I need to convince them that they need to hire more
people.

To help me build my case, I need information on what other companies provide
as far as staffing for their websites,(how big the websites are, how big
the company is (#employees) and job titles for those people....webmaster,
web assistant, database manager, project manager, etc).

Can anyone point me in the right direction to obtain this kind of information
or can anyone on this list let me know what their company does?
Thanks.
Shirley

[Frederiek]

Hi Shirley,

I don't think it's of any use to know what kind of "team" other companies
might have to convince your boss.
As you're the expert in your company on the matter, you should be able to
determine what exactly is needed to continue the development in terms of
required (extra) knowledge, the number of staff it would take to acquire
that knowledge, and how much it would cost, trying to minimize the costs
as much as possible.

You'll be more convincing if you can argument the needs in knowledge and
how to gain this, than by telling them they need to hire people.

Good luck.

cya
Frederiek


"Shirley Clifton" <saclifton@mail.com> wrote:
>
>I am the webmaster for a very large corporation and have been the sole employee
>for over 1 1/2 years. We now have 4 domain names that I have developed
sites
>for (two of these are large sites)and are looking to build many more co-branded
>sites within the next year.
>
>My problem is that I can't seem to make my company understand that this
effort
>deserves a 'team', not a sole employee. No one in my company understands
>the inner workings of web design and seem to think that building, maintaining
>and promoting a corporate website is a 'piece of cake'. I have done all
>of this by working 10-12 hours per day at least 6 days a week. It is budget
>time for next year and I need to convince them that they need to hire more
>people.
>
>To help me build my case, I need information on what other companies provide
>as far as staffing for their websites,(how big the websites are, how big
>the company is (#employees) and job titles for those people....webmaster,
>web assistant, database manager, project manager, etc).
>
>Can anyone point me in the right direction to obtain this kind of information
>or can anyone on this list let me know what their company does?
>Thanks.
>Shirley
>
>

[Ken Dinsmore]

I can empathize with your situation, I am also in a 1-deep position. What
I would do is just break it down for them by the numbers. So many pages,
images scripts etc. that take so many minuts to maintain etc. Doing that
will show them just how hard you work. Of course that may not convince them.
In that case you may want to hint at the fact that there are lots of other
jobs out there which may or may not pay more, but also may provide you with
a better working environment. If on the other hand, you are totally reliant
on this job and don't even want to hint that you could leave, you might ask
them to think about what they would do if you ever "went under a bus" as
an English friend of mine likes to say.