When I started as the primary and basically only real sysprog at a
small shop almost 40 years ago, it tooks weeks to get up to speed
because the junior guys there resented me being brought in to be their
supervisor, and wouldn't tell me anything. The previous lead guy was
being kept on as a part-time consultant until I could get up to speed,
but he was nearly useless. "Where's the IOGEN source?" "I don't
know." Sigh.
This article is almost 3 years old and was written when COVID-19
vaccine was just a hope, yet in my opinion it's still mostly valid:
Never Go Back to the Office
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/never-go-back-office/611830/
What I remember of working in an office, other than commutes being
horrid resulting in people starting their workday in a bad mood, is
people getting to the office, getting their coffee, standing around
socializing for 15-30 minutes, and then maybe starting useful work.
The last time I worked in an office was at a small start-up for a
manager who thought if he couldn't see you, you weren't working. But
for some reason he didn't notice the guy without enough to do who
spent a major chunk of his time transcribing books.
In lieu of having coworkers at arm's reach for helping supply
information (where's the IOGEN?), now there's Jabber, or the mess
called Slack, or Microsoft Teams, etc, plus WebEx, Zoom, etc. And
old-school email.
Tom Brennan wrote on 2/20/2023 8:19 AM:
In the 80's I purposely bought a house only 12 minutes away from
where I planned to work until retirement. But this is Los Angeles
so that 12 minutes eventually turned into a painful 30-45 with few
work-from-home options. When I got outsourced and got a new job, I
remember calling the owner of the new company asking what office I
should work at and he basically replied, "What in the world are you
talking about - I don't want you wasting time driving." Now that's
a modern attitude!
On 2/20/2023 7:46 AM, Bob Bridges wrote:
Yeah, I commuted half an hour one-way on the interstate for a good
many years and took it for granted. I would have said it didn't
cause any stress. Then my wife talked me into buying a house in a
different location, and suddenly I was commuting ten minutes by
back roads...and I realized I'd been wrong, it really did make a
difference.
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