Striking It Rich

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ROLM Corp. in Santa Clara, a manufacturer of computerized telephones and computers for the military, has been a pioneer in developing a new corporate life-style that encourages worker loyalty and innovation. The company built a $1 million sports complex at its headquarters that is used by two-thirds of the staff members. They can stretch their muscles on Nautilus body-building equipment, take lessons in aerobic dancing and Kung Fu and then relax in a Jacuzzi or a tanning parlor.

To keep workers intellectually fresh, ROLM gives each employee three months of paid time off for every six years of service. Most people use the time to travel. One engineer crossed the Sahara Desert during his sabbatical, another trekked to Mount Everest. Says Executive Vice President Robert Maxfield: "When our people return from sabbaticals, they bring back a fresh attitude. They don't settle into the old ways of doing things."

At Tandem Computers, which built the first fail-safe computer systems in 1974, employees gather every Friday afternoon with President Treybig, 41, for a beer party around the company swimming pool. The sessions help keep everyone informed about what is happening inside the company. Other companies in the valley have started similar gatherings.

Another way to keep creative workers from wandering is to give them a stake in the company. Tandem widely distributes stock options to employees at all levels so that they can participate in the growth of the firm. So far 25 of Tandem's 3,000 employees have earned $1 million through company stock ownership, 100 have earned $500,000, and 1,000 others $50,000 each.

Sudden wealth can transform the way the entrepreneurs live and work. A few unabashedly flaunt their new riches. WJ. (Jerry) Sanders III, 45, who delivered milk and dug ditches while growing up in Chicago, started Advanced Micro Devices, an early semiconductor manufacturer, in the dining room of his home in 1969. Today he owns houses in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles and in Malibu, and has a Bentley, a Ferrari and a Rolls-Royce. A year ago, Sanders rented San Francisco's Civic Center to treat 7,000 workers to a $350,000 party. Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell owns two yachts: the 41-ft. Pong, which he has lent to a friend, and the 44-ft. Sea Rat, which he uses himself.

Many young risk takers regard their accumulated wealth as a yardstick of success rather than as an end in itself. K.P. (Phil) Hwang, 45, emigrated from Korea in the early '60s and worked as a busboy and waiter while attending Utah State University. In 1975 he used $9,000 in family savings to found Tele Video Systems, a company that makes computer screens and keyboards. Although Hwang is now a multimillionaire, he says that his wife still fusses over utility bills and turns down the thermostat at home.

A few serpents, however, have begun to crawl into northern California's economic Garden of Eden. Though renowned for their liberal personnel policies, some Silicon Valley employers are under attack for their treatment of hourly production workers. Assembling circuit boards or inspecting chips is a tedious dead-end job that has attracted thousands of Mexicans, Filipinos and Vietnamese immigrants. Many earn wages of less than $5 an hour, low by industry standards.