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work
Today marks 5 calendar years at my current employer. It's my longest stretch of single-employer employment yet.
I haven't heard anything, so I assume the party must be a surprise...
And what am I doing to celebrate?
Well, it's coming up on 3 AM, and I haven't left the office yet.
I'm not sure if this a Chandler spring break or a Ross spring break.
When I graduated with my undergraduate degree, I had lousy grades, some significant history -- though limited formal training -- with technology, and a lousy job as a secretary at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh.
Back then, you could actually read newsgroups regularly, as spam had not quite hit, and one of the groups I watched with interest was misc.jobs.offered.entry. For whatever reason, it his me that I should be able to find this in Google Groups. Sure enough:
Date: Jul 2 1995, 11:00 pm
Subject: BOSTON-Unique Oppy - Liberal Arts grads who love computers - Train OTJ
To: misc.jobs.offered.entryOPENENVIRONMENTCORPORATION
OpenEnvironmentCorporation is seeking individuals for the following
positions. These positions are full-time, permanent positions in our
Boston, MA offices. OEC offers software development toolkits that
facilitate rapid development of three-tiered client-server applications.
Our customers are Fortune 500 companies, and our company is fast-paced and
rapidly growing. OEC is an equal opportunity employer. We are located in
Allston, a ten-minute walk from Harvard Square.THE POSITION
OpenEnvironmenthas a unique opening for a bright, motivated individual
who is "computer literate" and wishes to train on the job for a technical
position. We are seeking a person with strong organizational skills and
a love of learning. S/he must be energetic, willing to learn, with a "can-do"
attitude.The initial responsibilities for this individual will involve
setting up and maintaining a software and hardware purchasing and inventory
system. Through this, he or she will have an opportunity to learn about
Unix and PC hardware and software, work with the Systems Engineers, and
use his or her strong organizational skills. Over time, we intend to train
this person in system administration tasks and have him/her serve as the
dispatcher for hotline requests.The salary range is in the low to mid 20's depending on experience and
technical knowledge.Requirements:
Bachelor's degree
Excellent organizational and communication skills
User-level familiarity with PCs and common PC applications
Fearless attitude about learning complex technology
Willing to "work his/her way up"HOW TO APPLY
Please send resumes and an optional cover letter to:
. . .
"low to mid 20's" was $23K. Fortunately, shortly after I arrived, the two full-time sysadmins supporting our complex development environment (we made DCE-based enterprise middleware) left, and I was dropped into the fire. $23K became $32K in a few months, OEC was purchased by Borland, and I eventually moved on. It was a good job. I learned a heck of a lot, and I got plunged deep in the world of developing complex web applications, before they had really taken off.
SILICON VALLEY USERS GUIDE: How do I get my sysadmin to do anything?:
No one sets out to be a professional systems administrator -- do you ever see kids wearing toy pagers playing sysadmin? For those fluent with computers but uninterested in writing huge software programs, it's a pretty good job. Except for the part where they have to deal with you.
...
- Say hello. Even when you don't need something. You say a big Hi to the pretty lady at the front desk every time you pass. Why not treat the tech guy the same? Sure, he doesn't say anything back. Don't be fooled. Sysadmins are like cats -- he won't acknowledge you, but he's mentally keeping score.
- Don't question what he does all day. Systems administrators are like firemen and cops. If you don't have a couple of bored ones hanging around, you'll be sorry when there's an emergency.
Much of this is just a caricature of sysadmins. However, the most important points here, which management overlooks time and again in nearly every organization, are that there is often no visible work output from what we do and often we're working even when it may look like we're not. It's important to remember that it's when it seems we have nothing to do that we're doing our jobs best. Trying to fill that "underutilized" time simply prevents the ongoing smooth running of operations.
I don't blog much about work. It would probably bore people even more than what I regularly post. However, here's a quick note about something that came up today at work.
In the IT Division, in which I work, we apparently have what is considered a high number of ergonomics injuries. The numbers didn't seem high to me, but apparently they seem high to the Department of Energy. As a result, we spend an exorbitant amount training people to stop doing stupid things. Amazingly enough, despite how much people are trained, they continue doing stupid things. My guess is people who aren't as closely watched by the government as the organization I work for also do stupid things. My friends I've spoken with in the private sector say they typically never get lectured about safety. Their injuries likely just get brushed under rugs. The stockholders don't really care.
As it happens, I'm in the first group of a new program in IT. Originally, it was called Workers Observing Workers. "Workers snitching on workers," I pejoratively said. Apparently, WOW didn't go over well. So, Friday, while I was out of the office, I received an email telling me that today I had "WWW - Training." I found that odd; at the risk of sounding arrogant, I'm not sure there's anyone at the Lab I figure would be qualified to train me on the World Wide Web. I was mistaken.
Observing became watching. Workers Watching Workers was the training I was to attend. I'm not sure which sounds less evil or invasive to me, but for whatever reason, I think I prefer observing over watching. No matter.
The presentation started today, and the program is now Workers Helping Workers. With under 2 hours of training, I am apparently now qualified to observewatchhelp my fellow employees. The goal? See if they exhibit poor ergonomic practices, and if so, suggest they do better. As of today, one-fourth of the division is trained to do so. Over the next two years, everyone will be trained.
Going into the presentation, my first question was, "What are my obligations under this program?" That was answered quickly. We have absolutely no responsibility to assist our fellow workers. I figure I can treat this as a punishment system. If I spot someone working with poor posture or bent wrists or staring at a monitor that is sitting too low, I can decide whether I like that person or not. If not, I can gleefully sit back, comfortable that great pain awaits. If so, I can jump into to save them from the eternal physical hell they've started to create for themselves.
The second thought to go through my mind was what led me to blog about this. What liability does jumping into help and advising expose me to? If I instruct a coworker how to do something better, but based on my training, it's entirely wrong and that person suffers great injury, am I not partly liable?
What about my employer? Now that I've been trained and sent off to do this, surely any corrective actions I suggest are performed by me acting as an agent of my employer. Do they really want 120 ergonomics "experts" running around dispensing advice?
Note that we're not snitching on workers, after all. We're observing and then "helping." We're not only empowered to do so, we're being nudged to do so. With less than 2 hours of training. With effects we were told could be debilitating.
I guess it's all good if it keeps the lawyers working.
I'm unlikely ever to win a Nobel Prize. As a result, I've got to take in the excitement of winning when it even comes near me. With this year's winners announced, I've got my shot!
I don't blog much about work; it just doesn't seem like a good thing to talk about. But here's a blog that sort of addresses work, and even shows me at the office.
My employer just notched up another Nobel Prize in physics via George Smoot, making him our 11th, and 10th for actual work done at the laboratory. (Our director has a Nobel in physics, but it was for work done at Stanford.)
Then, the news came today that the Nobel prize winner in Chemistry, Roger Kornber, "did do some of his prize-winning research at the Advanced Light Source. Kornberg used the crystallography facilities at ALS beamlines 5.0.2 and 8.2.1 to identify some of the substructures of RNA polymerase in action, the protein that converts DNA into RNA through the process known as transcription. Kornberg and his group were among the first to capitalize on the crystal automounter robots at 5.0.2, which enabled them to screen numerous crystals to find the best."
I spent my first year at the lab supporting the collection and processing systems at beamlines 5.0.2 and 8.2.1. I still support their servers (but I, fortunately, don't have to touch them very often.) This is me figuring I'd make the systems problems irrelevant at beamline 8.2.1.
It's almost like I won myself. Almost. Sort of.
For those regular readers, you might have noticed I've been pretty silent recently. I've been somewhat bogged down in things. Things were pretty hectic at work leading up to the end of the fiscal year (and a project to get out that I was project manager on.) Plus, there's been a lot going on at school. OCI was happening, and for the most part, that seemed like a topic best not blogged about. Plus, the Advocate of the Year Competition is ongoing, and that required a brief and preparation for oral arguments.
So, I'm taking a short breather right now...
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