I have been out of the military since 1997 and I have always had a few reservists working in my staff. None of them has ever had any kind of trouble for the weekend drills and the yearly training. In fact, many of my fellow managers with military background usually see that as a plus.
I would try to test them with two games. Try first something based on reflexes like maybe a pinball game, a 3-D shooter, etc.
The second game should be something with a steep learning curve and more goal oriented, like a real time strategy game or any of the Maxis sims series.
Over years I have come to rely on these separate kinds of games for different reasons. If I need to cool off, I am stressed out, sick, etc., I play a 3D shooter. These games are intensive enough that I cannot think about anything else for as long as I am in the game, which helps me to relax after an hour playing. If I need a timeout from a technical challenge at work (I'm a programming manager) I play something that forces me to think harder, like maybe a Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 skirmish with more than 2 opponents. Usually after I am done with the game I can go back to my problem and attck it from a different angle.
They are both corporate officers at the same level as the COO but slightly under the COO and the CEO.
In my last 3 jobs, the CTO and CIO are nearly identical but their scope is different. The CTO will be making decisions on the corporate technical infrastructure, while the CIO deals more with the soft side, like databases, information services offered within and outside the company, etc. If we were eBay, our CTO would be choosing the next server farm while the CIO would be managing the information architecture of the auction website, user databases, etc.
A few years ago it was impossible to get authorization to buy any kind of gear unless it passed mil specs for EMP hardening. As the government started allowing more COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) these requirements were scrapped.
Yes, if you shoot one of these shells at a US brigade or division you won't fry their old electronics systems, but think of all the new cheap laptops and PCs that they rely on. All these will be fried. Think also of cheap GPS receivers...
In my area we do a "CD burning party." The day you turn in a 2-weeks notice your desk is clean, your PC is clean and you can literally walk away from the office for the last time.
If you are qualified then you have to take it.
Up or out.
We have a great organization, and I just took over my department. My boss got promoted to lead the division and she asked that anyone interested in taking over should go see her. I am the second in the department so I walked into her office and told her. Her answer: "I am glad you did, because you are the main candidate for the promotion."
Instead of throwing me to the lions she gave me a couple months to learn the added duties/responsibilities/etc. My promoion came through on the exact day she promised.
There are two problems here. First, employees don't want more responsibilities. I have to promote somebody to my old position or I will have to hire from the outside. The only qualified person to take over my old job has a rotten attitude towards supervisory jobs, so I can't promote him. That means I either promote one of the guys that is half as qualified, or I hire an outsider.
The second problem is that managers don't train their assistants to be able to take over their job. If you are a manager you should cross train your people to take over some of your responsibilities. That keeps you from trying to do everything instead of just manage your people.
If you don't take a promotion in my team I will make sure it shows on your next review as a refusal to take on more responsibilities. We do web development. If you want to spend the next 10 years doing web development instead of progressing to team lead and manager then you better go freelance because we can't afford to raise your salary for these 10 years while you keep doing the same job.
I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. Two official languages, Spanish and English. We have had to deal with the "americanization" of Spanish in Puerto Rico since before I was born. School teachers would throw bits of chalk (they hurt if you aim just right) and hardwood rulers at us if we mixed up the languages. The problem is that we were going to school learning both languages and it is normal for any kid to mix-and-match, especially since English is simpler in structure than Spanish.
On top of that we had a big Puertorrican community in NYC and other big urban centers and when these people came back many either forgot Spanish or did not teach their children the language.
My wife is also Puertorrican and we speak both languages in the house, but we have a house rule that whatever comes out of your mouth must be in a single language at a time, so we don't confuse our two-yr old son. And for all I care, I never bother even discussing something technical in Spanish, since it takes me twice as long to explain myself. It sucks because we both went to college in Puerto Rico and all the technical/science/math stuff was in English, so we don't even know the proper terms in Spanish.
Oh well...
Day care is pretty damn expensive around here. Many women stay at home because if they go to work then most of their salary will go to day care. That's the case with my wife right now, if we could afford day care then she could go to work and I could telecommute without worrying that I'll be distracted and my little boy will decide to climb on the fridge or something and then do a free fall jump.
The more hours you work in a row the more the wear and tear on the programmer. Any programmer can work 50-hr weeks indefinitely but once you go over the 60-hr mark you are starting to wear down the programmer.
The other problem is that programmers that are salaried don't see jack until and if they get some kind of bonus. Back when I was a network controller I got paid for every hour I worked, but now that I make twice as much I get paid the same for 40-hr weeks than 70 hrs. And the inflated salaries are a myth.
Earning $70,000/yr sounds kickass until your 6th weekend in a row programming and you start turning in timesheets with more than 130 hours in a 2-week pay period.
Eat my lunch at the desk then take a nap for one hour
Work from 3:00-4:30PM, then workout
Maybe watch TV, play Red Alert 2 or Crimson Skies and work on and off til midnight
At midnight I post all my source to a stage server so the client can test in the morning and also send two emails. One is a status report on whatever I managed to get done. The second email is to tell the boss and the team if I am going to stay at home the next day
Sometimes I won't leave the house at all, but at least my 2-yr old son makes enough noise to keep me from sitting in front of the computer for 12 hours in a row. And I have been known to drive to the office because I am bored of being in my home office. The one thing I know for sure is no mattee how busy I am I have to get out of the house even if only to take a walk, otherwise I get cranky as hell.
I spent a year as a web developer waking up at 5:30AM so I could beat the traffic, work my 8 hours and then drive back home. Everything I did in the office could have been done from my home office. My second half of that year was even worse, I had to drive 30 minutes, then take 3 separate metro lines to reach the contract site. Same story in the afternoon. This project was the same deal, I could have done everything just fine from home.
I left that job and my new company (6 months already) is the complete opposite. We have employees that have been telecommuting for over 5 years! I decided to leave the option open so whenever I feel like working home nobody bothers me, plus if I switch to 100% telecommuting I lose my office space and the workstation over there.
I am pretty happy with telecommuting and the fact that the company pays for my cable modem as a perk, but the most important thing is that since the telecommuting is part of the company culture nobody gives a damn about where you are going to work at any time during the week.
Of course, telecomuting is not for everybody. If you can't work without supervision, then don't waste your time. And if you are the one trying to decide wether or not to send your employees to work home, make sure they have the proper equipment and bandwidth or they will start bitching to get issued a laptop or things like that. We only issue these laptops to people that are 100% telecommuters and don't have office space.
Of course, more perks would be nice. Our main office is located in Bethesda, Maryland, a terrible place to find a parking spot at any time during the day. The company will pay up to $70 for a parking garage card, so in our case in particular you can park a block away for $70/month (so you literally park for free since the company pays for the card) or you can park in a garage in front of the building for $100/month, in which case you put $30 out of your pocket.
Some of the other perks I have seen are plain silly, and the truth is that I used to get pissed off whenever the people that were supossed to be working on my project spent 2 hrs in the break room playing foosball. We had a saturn delivered to us on the day of the release but after the first week the execs started frowning at us playing at lunch, they expected us to eat our lunch in front of our pcs while coding.
Another company used to bring bagels on wednesday. In the begining the idea was pretty damn good, we were working night shifts and the bagels would arrive 30 minutes before the day shift arrived. They would show up with 2 huge bags of bagels and a few dozens of dunuts.
Then cost-cutting came. First they switched to another supplier and they sucked. Then the morons decided to experiment with muffins instead of donuts without asking anybody. The end result was a fiasco.
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Pedro
Pedro
They are both corporate officers at the same level as the COO but slightly under the COO and the CEO.
In my last 3 jobs, the CTO and CIO are nearly identical but their scope is different. The CTO will be making decisions on the corporate technical infrastructure, while the CIO deals more with the soft side, like databases, information services offered within and outside the company, etc. If we were eBay, our CTO would be choosing the next server farm while the CIO would be managing the information architecture of the auction website, user databases, etc.
Pedro
A few years ago it was impossible to get authorization to buy any kind of gear unless it passed mil specs for EMP hardening. As the government started allowing more COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) these requirements were scrapped.
Yes, if you shoot one of these shells at a US brigade or division you won't fry their old electronics systems, but think of all the new cheap laptops and PCs that they rely on. All these will be fried. Think also of cheap GPS receivers...
Pedro
Pedro
Up or out.
We have a great organization, and I just took over my department. My boss got promoted to lead the division and she asked that anyone interested in taking over should go see her. I am the second in the department so I walked into her office and told her. Her answer: "I am glad you did, because you are the main candidate for the promotion."
Instead of throwing me to the lions she gave me a couple months to learn the added duties/responsibilities/etc. My promoion came through on the exact day she promised.
There are two problems here. First, employees don't want more responsibilities. I have to promote somebody to my old position or I will have to hire from the outside. The only qualified person to take over my old job has a rotten attitude towards supervisory jobs, so I can't promote him. That means I either promote one of the guys that is half as qualified, or I hire an outsider.
The second problem is that managers don't train their assistants to be able to take over their job. If you are a manager you should cross train your people to take over some of your responsibilities. That keeps you from trying to do everything instead of just manage your people.
If you don't take a promotion in my team I will make sure it shows on your next review as a refusal to take on more responsibilities. We do web development. If you want to spend the next 10 years doing web development instead of progressing to team lead and manager then you better go freelance because we can't afford to raise your salary for these 10 years while you keep doing the same job.
Pedro
Pedro
Day care is pretty damn expensive around here. Many women stay at home because if they go to work then most of their salary will go to day care. That's the case with my wife right now, if we could afford day care then she could go to work and I could telecommute without worrying that I'll be distracted and my little boy will decide to climb on the fridge or something and then do a free fall jump.
Pedro
The more hours you work in a row the more the wear and tear on the programmer. Any programmer can work 50-hr weeks indefinitely but once you go over the 60-hr mark you are starting to wear down the programmer.
The other problem is that programmers that are salaried don't see jack until and if they get some kind of bonus. Back when I was a network controller I got paid for every hour I worked, but now that I make twice as much I get paid the same for 40-hr weeks than 70 hrs. And the inflated salaries are a myth.
Earning $70,000/yr sounds kickass until your 6th weekend in a row programming and you start turning in timesheets with more than 130 hours in a 2-week pay period.
Pedro
Sometimes I won't leave the house at all, but at least my 2-yr old son makes enough noise to keep me from sitting in front of the computer for 12 hours in a row. And I have been known to drive to the office because I am bored of being in my home office. The one thing I know for sure is no mattee how busy I am I have to get out of the house even if only to take a walk, otherwise I get cranky as hell.
Pedro
Pedro