The Covid years were horrible for me in Australia. We were working for a Defence Contractor (USA company).
We weren't allowed to work remotely. Our Australian management wouldn't argue in our favour, so a 45 minute commute through road blocks with Police and Armed forces checking your right to travel through the Melbourne "ring of steel". Management and admin staff all worked from, however, we had to mask up in the office, maintain "social distancing", plaster hand-sanitiser on at frequent intervals, measure forehead temperature to make sure we weren't infected. Absolute farce. The same organisation doesn't allow USB sticks to be inserted into desktops or laptops connected to the network. Some certified USB drives were allowed but the public servants wouldn't hand them over. Public servants worked from home. Not so the ones who get the job done. I retired in late 2021 and haven't regretted a single day since. I would say my best work was done when working from home when an employer allowed it. So good to get away from the background noise of the office. In the late 70's I was lucky enough to work away from mainframes. Some Z80 assembler, 6502 Assembler and a variety of micro operating systems such as CP/M, MP/M, NorthStar Basic, Apple IIE and Cromemco System/3. We broke in Microfocus COBOL when it was a fledgling product. My best IT job was the first one. UK multinational, ADABAS, PL/I, Assembler and some great and very smart mentors. The next role wasn't so great and that was IBM, I thought I was going to the dream job, ack no. The job has given me lots of world travel. West Coast USA, UK, Australia and Indonesia. On Tue, Feb 21, 2023 at 1:03 PM David Spiegel < 00000468385049d1-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: > Hi Leonard, > You said: "... a manager who thought if he couldn't see you, you weren't > working ..." > This is the government mentality I referred to earlier. Here is one > other weird fact .., the per capita insanity (in Yiddish M'shugaas) > rises from municipal to state/provincial to federal. (I've worked at all > 3.) > If anyone wants, I've got all kinds of crazy stories to tell (just like > everyone else, I'm sure). > > Regarding the uncooperative colleagues, I worked at a place where the > SysProg-in-chief decided that I would not be permitted to run DFSFSMSdss > in TSO (to make application backups to disk), because, I might impinge > on someone else's Address Space. > (TSO Tape mounts were out of the question, which didn't bother me.) > This veto was after his underlings saw no issue with my request, but, > had to get his "blessing". > This person had no clue what Virtual Storage means, let alone its > implementation. > > Regards, > David > > On 2023-02-20 20:08, Leonard D Woren wrote: > > 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://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fideas%2Farchive%2F2020%2F05%2Fnever-go-back-office%2F611830%2F&data=05%7C01%7C%7C2ab92f9bdf0d4e07f61c08db13a8300b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638125385402690889%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=gYtkt8%2B2AElM3xVnuV9bp36O2Anpqa9lBlfc%2Bc%2Fskoo%3D&reserved=0 > > > > > > 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. > >> > >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > >> send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- Wayne V. 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