I've been on-call 24/7 as a part of my job for almost seven years now. I probably get one seriously important call a week after-hours (not evening, but late at night), and maybe one clueless call every other week.
There's also a particular function I perform (DNS) as part of the overall Unix sysadmin job that requires a couple of quick five minute, "Let me grab the laptop and put that in for you," calls each week if the second-tier support guys forget to do proper planning, or a customer springs changes on them at the last minute.
I avoid having the problem of people calling by thinking about the importance of uptime and it's direct relationship with my sleep and ultimately my sanity, when setting up critical systems.
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance -- cliche' but it works.
Being on call 24/7 for seven years started as a willingness to help out as only one of two technicians at a site for a previous employer. I wanted people to see me (the new junior tech at the time) as "helpful".
Add a little bit of the old clue-bat to the picture to the willingness to give up some personal freedom and "life" to the company (or as I like to see it, to the people who really needed my help), and all of a sudden I'm the "go to" guy for many things at the office during normal business hours!
Totally by accident, I ended up with two promotions and quite a bit more money. I guess upper management there also had a firm grip on the clue-bat. WHAP WHAP WHAP... "Hey you guys, see that guy willing to help out? Sure he's getting a few pages at night, but he's also making double your salary now... and no, there's still no extra pay, per se, for carrying pagers."
And I'd have to say that in my current position, I'm now completely acclimatized to having the pager (well, e-mail to the cell phone and the phone itself paid for by the company) attached to my hip 24/7. The job, the pay, the opportunities for advancement -- all from a general willingness to just get things done day or night.
Maybe this is old news for many doing the work out there who read/. -- I hope the new guys with the shiny new Certifications and no experience are listening.
Find a manager clueful enough to recognize hard work and make them look good while getting important things done. Simplicity in and of itself, but not the simplest task in the world!
Stop worrying about what you'll get paid and get things done. The money will come. If it doesn't -- or you can't live on the salary -- leave and find someone who has a need for a clueful and willing techie.
There's no reason someone willing to work hard in IT should be hard-up for a reasonable paycheck. And whining about being on-call isn't going to help in a scenario where you're not getting "paid enough" to be on-call. That's either your own bad attitude showing or your company's unwillingness to pay appropriately for the job.
Tear the napkin into small strips of a given width, preferably into many very small strips, and lay them out in a multi-sided polygon as close to a circle as possible, end-to-end.
Voila... the perimeter is much bigger than your original square (or rectangular) napkin.
Assuming that they're trainable is assuming that they are "bright and knowledgeable" people...
Many aren't, otherwise they'd be doing the geeky jobs. Or running their own companies.
Why don't we ever see stories in the press about how difficult it is to hire good managers these days?
There are some very bright people running companies out there. Don't they notice the quality issues caused by hiring poor managers and giving them responsibility over qualified IT staff?
Intelligent readers will understand that reporting on Microsoft's business practices, serves as a reminder for all that too much of the "user" world believes PC=Windows, even after they've been publically accused and their sleazyness has been shown to the world.
Whether or not posts like this one are relevant and necessary depends on how important one feels it is to tell the truth about how Microsoft gained that status. They constantly show evidence of a severe superiority complex within their collective thinking.
Does it get old hearing that they're megalomaniacal? Yes. Is it the fault of/.? No.
This news article simply shines a flashlight into the minds of people so focused on their own technology that they just can't fathom using something else, even if it works better for the intended purpose.
The thing we all need to learn is that we can't start acting the same way, which today is
I've seen a number of folks mention eBags but not their North Face backpacks. A friend has one of these. You order the backpack and an "official" North Face laptop insert which fits nicely...
I don't have one yet, and the model he has doesn't appear to be available anymore, but I'm still looking.
His has a number of pockets for geek stuff (a common theme, I see!) and the added plus of some bungee cargo webbing that will hold just about anything on the outside back of the pack.
It also has the waist strap for support on those "heavy days" (oohhh... booo... hiss...) and looks a heck of a lot nicer than most backpacks designed for PC's, because it wasn't.
The insert's made out of nylon and has some kind of attachment to the inside of the pack which I haven't been able to get in there and look at yet.
(Hey, the things full of STUFF every time I see it!)
I'm going to buy one as soon as I find a similar model... I have a Port laptop bag and hate it.
No more heavy obnoxious Port laptop bag with no space for anything else other than the laptop for me. That thing's twice the size of most backpacks and I can barely bring along both the floppy drive and the CD-ROM when mobile.
Company issue, go figure.;)
p.s. Disclaimer: eBags is a customer of mine, but I don't receive any direct compensation for anything they sell (other than if they're successful, I am too!) I personally shop there regularly and really like their selection and prices. They're always adding new stuff to the site, it's fun to watch.
I just noticed (and e-mailed RedHat's generic webmaster mailbox about) the fact that even though RedHat claims to carry SlashDot news on their portal site, the two "negative" articles about RedHat posted today on/. are nowhere to be found!
Sounds like their PR/Marketing engine is in as high a gear as Microsoft's usually is! Congratulations, RedHat. You've now truly, "Known thine enemy."
Slashdot Mirror
There's also a particular function I perform (DNS) as part of the overall Unix sysadmin job that requires a couple of quick five minute, "Let me grab the laptop and put that in for you," calls each week if the second-tier support guys forget to do proper planning, or a customer springs changes on them at the last minute.
I avoid having the problem of people calling by thinking about the importance of uptime and it's direct relationship with my sleep and ultimately my sanity, when setting up critical systems.
Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance -- cliche' but it works.
Being on call 24/7 for seven years started as a willingness to help out as only one of two technicians at a site for a previous employer. I wanted people to see me (the new junior tech at the time) as "helpful".
Add a little bit of the old clue-bat to the picture to the willingness to give up some personal freedom and "life" to the company (or as I like to see it, to the people who really needed my help), and all of a sudden I'm the "go to" guy for many things at the office during normal business hours!
Totally by accident, I ended up with two promotions and quite a bit more money. I guess upper management there also had a firm grip on the clue-bat. WHAP WHAP WHAP... "Hey you guys, see that guy willing to help out? Sure he's getting a few pages at night, but he's also making double your salary now... and no, there's still no extra pay, per se, for carrying pagers."
And I'd have to say that in my current position, I'm now completely acclimatized to having the pager (well, e-mail to the cell phone and the phone itself paid for by the company) attached to my hip 24/7. The job, the pay, the opportunities for advancement -- all from a general willingness to just get things done day or night.
Maybe this is old news for many doing the work out there who read /. -- I hope the new guys with the shiny new Certifications and no experience are listening.
Find a manager clueful enough to recognize hard work and make them look good while getting important things done. Simplicity in and of itself, but not the simplest task in the world!
Stop worrying about what you'll get paid and get things done. The money will come. If it doesn't -- or you can't live on the salary -- leave and find someone who has a need for a clueful and willing techie.
There's no reason someone willing to work hard in IT should be hard-up for a reasonable paycheck. And whining about being on-call isn't going to help in a scenario where you're not getting "paid enough" to be on-call. That's either your own bad attitude showing or your company's unwillingness to pay appropriately for the job.
Voila... the perimeter is much bigger than your original square (or rectangular) napkin.
Many aren't, otherwise they'd be doing the geeky jobs. Or running their own companies.
Why don't we ever see stories in the press about how difficult it is to hire good managers these days?
There are some very bright people running companies out there. Don't they notice the quality issues caused by hiring poor managers and giving them responsibility over qualified IT staff?
Whether or not posts like this one are relevant and necessary depends on how important one feels it is to tell the truth about how Microsoft gained that status. They constantly show evidence of a severe superiority complex within their collective thinking.
Does it get old hearing that they're megalomaniacal? Yes. Is it the fault of /.? No.
This news article simply shines a flashlight into the minds of people so focused on their own technology that they just can't fathom using something else, even if it works better for the intended purpose.
The thing we all need to learn is that we can't start acting the same way, which today is
I don't have one yet, and the model he has doesn't appear to be available anymore, but I'm still looking.
His has a number of pockets for geek stuff (a common theme, I see!) and the added plus of some bungee cargo webbing that will hold just about anything on the outside back of the pack.
It also has the waist strap for support on those "heavy days" (oohhh... booo... hiss...) and looks a heck of a lot nicer than most backpacks designed for PC's, because it wasn't.
The insert's made out of nylon and has some kind of attachment to the inside of the pack which I haven't been able to get in there and look at yet.
(Hey, the things full of STUFF every time I see it!)
I'm going to buy one as soon as I find a similar model... I have a Port laptop bag and hate it.
No more heavy obnoxious Port laptop bag with no space for anything else other than the laptop for me. That thing's twice the size of most backpacks and I can barely bring along both the floppy drive and the CD-ROM when mobile.
Company issue, go figure. ;)
p.s. Disclaimer: eBags is a customer of mine, but I don't receive any direct compensation for anything they sell (other than if they're successful, I am too!) I personally shop there regularly and really like their selection and prices. They're always adding new stuff to the site, it's fun to watch.
I just noticed (and e-mailed RedHat's generic webmaster mailbox about) the fact that even though RedHat claims to carry SlashDot news on their portal site, the two "negative" articles about RedHat posted today on /. are nowhere to be found!
Sounds like their PR/Marketing engine is in as high a gear as Microsoft's usually is! Congratulations, RedHat. You've now truly, "Known thine enemy."