On Oct 22, 2007, at 2:38 PM, Jon Brock wrote:
Color me disbelieving.
<snip>
I think in the 30+ years I have been around OS360 and MVS and z/os,
there has never been an operator mistake of a typo.
</snip>
Not buying this, either:
<snip>
I have seen operators make errors but the OS has caught all of
them and no harm was done.
</snip>
Jan's take is correct: outlawing mistakes does not mean they won't
happen. (They're "mistakes," see.) It also doesn't do much for
protecting your system integrity; nor does it signify any sort of
effective management.
Demanding 100% correctness from your people on pain of termination is
not only futile and irrational, it can be counter-productive.
I'm not saying that errors should be taken lightly, but expecting that
you'll never see someone type "V 110E-1107,OFFLINE" instead of "V
1103-1107,OFFLINE" is not realistic. And simply advocating a
sacrificial firing or two doesn't really help. It's awfully easy
to be
free with someone else's livelihood.
Jon,
I find operators (in general) are an honest and a good lot. If they
do make mistakes they generally step up to the plate and take
responsibility.
The places I have worked not just anyone can sit at a console, you
must earn it. That means going from a print jockey to a tape jockey
to a master console jockey. Along the lines if they make mistakes the
average to poor ones never get promoted. So a master console type is
extremely competent at his/her job. I have yet to see someone at a
console that was not competent to do their job. Competent = no mistakes.
I tend to judge people (operators) as to their position on the food
chain. I have seen shift managers that do not fit into the competency
issue, so I treat them *generally* less than console types.
The above goes for non military type situations or union situations,
that is a whole different ball of wax.
Operators (especially console operators) are extremely competent and
if they screw up, IMO, they need to be fired.
Ed
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