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Keeping the Lights On
An anonymous reader wrote to mention an IBM article examining the role that older workers, experienced with legacy systems, should play in system maintenance. From the article: "Many enterprises still execute critical business operations ... via older software systems that run on large, mainframe computers rather than individual PCs. To meet changing business needs, these companies continually update, extend, and integrate their systems. Paradoxically, many of these companies also have policies that threaten the single greatest source of knowledge about their older systems: their most senior personnel. Although the aging workforce represents a vast pool of talent and experience, these businesses neither actively recruit senior workers nor provide incentives to retain those on staff.1 Instead, they mistakenly assume that they can hire younger, lower-paid people to perform the same tasks."
I, for one, welcome our new grandpa-tech overlords
. . . hire Sid.
... because it will never compile with your typo rate ...
... and nobody's going to hire a kid whose english makes perl look good.
I would hate to work at a place that had you on documentation. You overuse commas and refuse to break things up into logical paragraphs.
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WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
I have been asked for years, "What if you get hit by a Mack truck?"
Try this reply for the hell of it: "I won't give a sh8t if your customers can't reach you, I'll be playing harps in paradise."
Table-ized A.I.
If Y2K finally came to us in the form of management indifference and negligence on the altar of efficiency?
After years of laying of senior employees,
... if they've been getting their senior employees laid it might be worth putting in a few years.
I dunno
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Consider it this way: a company's tech guy gets hit by a truck, they have two candidates to hire from:
Candidate A: Has no knowledge of the platforms being used in the company, has no experience with similar systems.
Candidate B: Is familiar with the platforms and has extensive experience with similar systems.
Who will the company hire?
That one is easy. As you get older, spend a few hours a week trolling around in a mack truck for Candidate As.
I recall one company asking their sole programmer on their key product this and what would happen to their software maintenance. He replied "I don't care, I'll be dead"!
An engineer who jumps on the lathe and starts welding
Welding... on a lathe? Such an engineer is either very, very talented or someone to avoid at all costs - quite possibly both.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.