[geeks] Now for something completely geek

[Phil Stracchino]

Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> From: Joost van de Griek <jvdg at sparcpark.net>
>> I wish there were more suits that understand how you can make people *want*
>> to put in a little extra. And that their job is to shield the *actual*
>> workers from crap from up-high.
> 
> When I managed about 10 software testers a few years ago, I had a policy of NOT asking anyone to work overtime unless it was absolutely neccessary, which it turned out was about once every quarter (testers all worked on independent projects and managed their own timelines). My policy was tht if I asked, it was important - other managers used their employees spare time to make friends in other departments.
> 
> And yes, I viewed deflecting flak frm higher-ups as "Job One" - praise from other groups went directly to the employee(s) involved from the other groups, complaints were made to me directly, and I worked the issue with the employee myself.

When I was in release engineering at Cygnus, it was known that at EOQ,
things would get totally crazy and we'd spend a week to two weeks
working close to around the clock.  But nobody minded, because for the
rest of the quarter, we worked when there was a release to work on, and
pretty much did what we wanted if there wasn't.

"Anything on the board today?"
"Not a thing."
"Let's go play ice hockey."


-- 
 Same geek, same site, new location
 Phil Stracchino                     Landline: 603-429-0220
 phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net         Mobile: 603-216-7037
 Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker, Free Stater