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PCs Use More Sick Days Than People

Posted by michael on from the pcs-need-nyquil-too dept.

lunarscape writes "ZDNet is running an article about the 'absentee' rate of PCs in various UK workplaces. According to the article, while the average employee was out sick seven days a year, the average PC was inoperable due to a virus nine days a year. The article also discusses junk e-mail's impact on productivity, with one business reporting that 99.84 percent of all incoming mail is spam."

25 of 306 comments (clear)

  1. My computer is perfect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It never has any problems and is always worki

  2. Traffic stress by SIGALRM · · Score: 5, Funny

    42 percent say they found it less stressful fighting their way through rush-hour traffic than finding legitimate e-mails among the spam

    Living in Seattle, they might think differently.

    --
    Sigs cause cancer.
    1. Re:Traffic stress by paranode · · Score: 5, Funny

      Is there less spam in Seattle??

      :)

    2. Re:Traffic stress by Alexis+Brooke · · Score: 5, Funny

      Bah. Try sorting through your e-mail while sitting in rush-hour traffic. And do it with a rabid wolverine in your underwear. Then talk to me about stressful.

      --
      This is a special excite .sig
      This
  3. Weird comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't really remember the last time I got sick, but I'm pretty sure the treatment was not to re-image myself.

    1. Re:Weird comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      knowledge != intelligence

      I am sick and tired of listening to "nerds' spout out this nonsense. Just because you can compile a kernel or know how to program in 10 different languages does not mean you have some high level of intelligence.

      Intelligence is about application of logic. Intelligent people have more of a capacity to understand logic. I am not saying the slashdot croud isn't generally more intelligent than your typical person but computer dorks in all my cs classes think that they are all a genius (while they have trouble with calc 1 and other liberal arts courses). I see this in hundreds of posts on slahsdot. Most people here are mediocre. Just because you are a nerd does not mean that you have attained a more enlightened state. It just means that you have interests in something society unjustly characterized as "special" or "complex." Just about anyone can learn how to do most of the crap we know how to do. They just don't enjoy it as much. And so I Ramble On....

      I can't stand elitists.
      I wish i was registered so i could see how much i am flamed.
      T

  4. 99.84% pure pork fat by brokenwndw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    99.84 percent of all incoming mail is spam

    Is that one of the 86.55% of all statistics which are made up on the spot?

    1. Re:99.84% pure pork fat by Elecore · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe that company is Microsoft, and they classify all support e-mails as "SPAM".

  5. sick days. by Guano_Jim · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bah. It's a proven fact that 40% of sick days are taken on Mondays and Fridays. Why should my PC be any different?

    --
    3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
    1. Re:sick days. by AnonymousKev · · Score: 5, Informative

      The moderators really need a -1: Didn't Get The Cultural Reference option. I believe the parent was refering to a Dilbert cartoon (Dilbert used to "40% fact" to alarm the Pointy-Haired Boss.)

      --
      Anonymous Kev
      Proudly posting as AC since 1997
      (Finally got a dang account in 2004)
    2. Re:sick days. by nebaz · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh. (looks sheepish). Ok.

      --
      Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
  6. Should we be suprised? by Collestonpie13 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What would you excpect with most corparations running Windows adn IE?

    --
    Coffee, you can sleep when you're dead!
    1. Re:Should we be suprised? by bbdd · · Score: 5, Interesting

      one of the networks i manage runs windows and ie, and if it had a downtime of 9 days per pc, i would be replaced in short order. with 30 client machines, that would be at least one machine down for 270 days!

      the last machine down was for 2 days, due to needing a new part that i didn't keep on the shelf. (can't stock them all!) i ended up just replacing the whole machine, since i couldn't get the part faster. thats the only machine that's been down for longer than an hour during the past year (maybe longer). and, it was due to hardware failure, not windows/ie.

      the windows risk is manageable, but it does require extra cost and work to mantain. in this case, the company is willing to tighten things down to keep the machines running well and keep the less-experienced users out of trouble. call it big-brother if you want, to them its good policy to keep business running.

  7. and the avg Mac or Linux system? by ezavada · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How many days were they "absent".

    I bet it was a lot fewer than 9, especially if most of those "absences" were because of viruses.

  8. OS's by blackmonday · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I didn't RTFA (this is /.), but I wonder what the breakdown is for diferrent operating systems: Linux, Mac OSX, OS 9, Windows flavors.

    Where I work the primary reason for PC's going down is hardware, not software.

    1. Re:OS's by lacrymology.com · · Score: 5, Funny

      LINUX is that geeky guy that never takes days off, but instead sits in his lonely office with the lights turned off pounding out incredible amounts of code in record time.

      OSX is that hot geek woman that tries really hard to show everyone that she's not just a piece of meat, but instead has a brain. She never takes off either.

      OS9 is that old guy on the edge of retiring who doesn't give a $hit about doing the job. He goes to the doctor alot because of cruft, complains about new technology, and talks about the old days to anyone that'll listen. He takes off quite a bit to visit the urologist.

      WINDOWS is that guy who managed to get far in the company by taking pictures of the president of the company with a goat. He doesn't really do a lot on his own, but instead steals most of his ideas from the hot chick and the old guy and presents them to his superiors. He takes off all the time to play golf, visit his mistress, and to sleep off hang-overs.

      -m

      --

      #
      # Modus Ponens
      #
  9. Not really sick days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    These PCs are spending more and more time binge drinking on the weekends. Macs are notorious for ending up dancing with a lampshade on its head.

  10. Yeah its always taking sickies by Timesprout · · Score: 5, Funny

    My PC just cant handle its liqor at all. Damn Mac boozes all night and gets up in the morning no problem though. Its killing me trying to keep up.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  11. This is a poor test... by marnargulus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In the survey only 2,500 people were polled. That's an insanely small number to post concerning such a wide spread thing as computers. That is like taking a group of 100 people in New York and using that as a representitive sample. An online poll could have gathered more like 50,000 on a well traveled site.

  12. Paid Sick Days? by scoser · · Score: 5, Funny

    If my office computer doesn't use its sick days, can it use that money for upgrades?

  13. This sounds way high by L.+VeGas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nine days?

    That's the problem with averages. They can be calculated in so many ways. I know that I've never had a workstation down for nine days out of a year.

    --
    Best Windows Freeware
  14. Wuh Oh by lhpineapple · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looks like the machines are beating us! Come on folks, we've got some catching up to do!

  15. Unreal... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    9 days?? I mean, I slam MS as much as the next guy, but the AVERAGE is 9 days???

    How long does it take a tech to reimage a PC?

    Or even reload an OS??

    Are these shops with no Virus Protection at all???

    That number is so far out as to be totally unreal...

    Heck, I don't use anti-Virus software at home, just safe email practices and Firefox instead of IE, and I have yet to get an infection (Deleted plenty of attempts tho..); and my PC has never been out of service more than the few hours it takes to run a housecall scan for Virus checks..

    desiv

  16. I like PC down days at the office... by Kenshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    I like those days at the office when PCs are down. It's far more enjoyable fixing those problems than doing actual work...

    --

    Does it make you happy you're so strange?

  17. Computer downtime/Sickness/Safety connection... by bogusbrainbonus · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Hmmm, this is intesting. I know that Toyota and a bunch of other major car companies have figured out that it is cheaper to immunize your employees against the flu/other sicknesses, instead of paying their wages while they're home sneezing.

    The same thing goes for safety, I know at Mercedes they're all about safety and injury prevention, which therefore prevents them from paying workman's comp without getting any value from the worker.

    So this data implies that computer trouble has become as much as a problem as sickness is, I wonder when some company is going to take a major initiative to fix this.

    And you know (, I don't wan't to blame it on windows directly, but sometimes I wonder... How many major auto companies use windows products? Ok, time to stop before I starting getting flamed...