I am the only IT person at our facility. We have approximately 200 total employees. Approximately 10 percent are frequent to heavy users. Another 5 to 10 person use the system sporadically. We run three shifts, up to seven days a week.
The way it works with myself and factory maintenance personnel at our site, is via an on-call system. In my case there are a couple of people cross trained enough to know enough about systems to be talked through a problem, that way I can take a vacation once in a while.
As far as pay is concerned we get hourly pay for call-ins (standard 1.5 nights and Saturdays and double-time on Sundays), plus mileage to and from wherever. Although if possible I try to take care of the problem via phone or chat/e-mail (if the connections aren't effected.) I can even handle some of the problems through remote connection to the network.
The only pain is filling out the call-in and mileage forms. Nice thing is I get call-in pay even if it can be fixed remotely, sans mileage of course. I still would have liked to have sent them the mileage bill, for the time they called me on the last day of my vacation seven states away. (Handled that one over the phone, [un]fortunately.)
Card's book focuses on a controlled version of this type of viewing technology. I believe where only historians (and the government) are able to view the past. He also incorporates the theories of time travel regarding changes to the past causing all points thereafter to cease/diverge. Definitely a good read, portions of it could make a good preface to the storyline of "Light of Other Days."
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I'm guessing he was a fan of Robert A. Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
I am the only IT person at our facility. We have approximately 200 total employees. Approximately 10 percent are frequent to heavy users. Another 5 to 10 person use the system sporadically. We run three shifts, up to seven days a week.
The way it works with myself and factory maintenance personnel at our site, is via an on-call system. In my case there are a couple of people cross trained enough to know enough about systems to be talked through a problem, that way I can take a vacation once in a while.
As far as pay is concerned we get hourly pay for call-ins (standard 1.5 nights and Saturdays and double-time on Sundays), plus mileage to and from wherever. Although if possible I try to take care of the problem via phone or chat/e-mail (if the connections aren't effected.) I can even handle some of the problems through remote connection to the network.
The only pain is filling out the call-in and mileage forms. Nice thing is I get call-in pay even if it can be fixed remotely, sans mileage of course. I still would have liked to have sent them the mileage bill, for the time they called me on the last day of my vacation seven states away. (Handled that one over the phone, [un]fortunately.)
Card's book focuses on a controlled version of this type of viewing technology. I believe where only historians (and the government) are able to view the past. He also incorporates the theories of time travel regarding changes to the past causing all points thereafter to cease/diverge. Definitely a good read, portions of it could make a good preface to the storyline of "Light of Other Days."