way way OT: wireless on planes (aside)

[Bill Vermillion]

I know you'll find it hard to believe, but on Sat, Dec 18 01:11 ,
GCC Consulting actually admitted to saying:"

> > > Planes are my escape from my clients and give me quiet time
> > > to work without interruption. I don't want them to be able
> > > to reach me when I'm traveling. Yes, I can shut it off. But
> > > If calls are allowed, they complain that I am unresponsive
> > > to their calls if I can talk but turn it off.

> > So do you respond to the phone when you are in the toilet or 
> > in some other inappropriate situation.  It should be 
> > reasonable to anyone that there are times you will be 
> > unavailable and they will have to leave a message.

....

> > in the way we use our cell phones.  I refuse to answer 
> > call-waiting, the person who called me first has my 
> > attention.  The person who called me second can leave a 
> > message and be next on my list (or however far down they fall 
> > in the scheme.)  I feel that many people use this technology 
> > to "jump the line" asserting that they think they are the 
> > most important person and my current customer can wait on them.

> > I refuse to drop everything to answer an email.

And when you are in the middle of a thought processes working on a
problem mail interuptions can be bad.  I always turned off mail
notification on MS machines and run with   mesg -n  in Unix
systems.   If it's important they can use the phone.

> > Just because they can send something quickly does not require
> > that I answer quickly. You take your chances. Email's
> > convenience is that the person at the other end does not have
> > to answer at the moment you send a message. If you want that
> > pick up the phone.

> > Of course I do not suggest that Richard or any person that 
> > was involved in this posting falls in this rude category, but 
> > just was annoyed by Richard being worried that his customers 
> > would insist on his answering the phone at 36,000 ft (or 
> > however high planes fly).  His customers struck me a rude.

> > Let us rebel against this intrusion into our lives.  Work is 
> > not supposed to be 7x24x365 - that is unreasonable.

It all depends on what you do.  For a good share of my work life
I had responsibilites that made me available on a 7x24 basis.

And call waiting means that I will interupt a call to find out what
the other call is - and depending on the urgency I may get rid of
the first caller.  But people who know me and know what I do expect
this.

Sometime in the last century I worked in broadcast - small market
then - and even if I was in the middle of reading a 15 minute
newscast - if one phone rang you ansswered it NOW.  You turned off
the mike and listeners would hear silence when you answered.

Thankfull every time it was only a test.  If it were real in a few
moments you'd hear all of the stations in your area go off the air
or go on the same frequency as we would be under threat of attack.

No all of us have the luxury of turning off whatever outside of
what are considered normal business hours.

And one night I got a call about 11PM that our nettwork was down.
Most of the night it was on an off with up to 3 technicians 
[and those guys had been up since early AM], and finally everyting
got up around 7AM.  There were going to be about 500 machines with
no networking at a trade show if that didn't get up and running.

> Just a response.  

> Most clients understand that there is a proper time for calls.

> However, some are very self centered and only care about
> themselves. I think we all have one or 2 such clients.

I don't think I have ever had any like that which I kept for long.

> If and when I use the call waiting feature is usually to tell
> Ithe calling party 'll get back to them.

> But this is based on the type of conversation I'm having.

Same here.

....

> The other client yelled at me one day because he was having an
> minor problem with his system. When I told him I would be at
> his place as soon as I got another clients system up, he said I
> should come to him he didn't give a "rats s...t" about my other
> clients problem. He wanted his problem taken care of. Now this
> is someone I have known a long time and have family history
> with. His father & my uncle were partners and my father worked
> for them for a while.

All of mine know that if I'm at their site and someone else has a
real emergency, I will leave them and go to the site with the
highest priority.  It also makes them realize that if they have a
super-emergency they get top priority.   If clients don't
understand than I don't need them.  Life is too short as it it.

> I have clients who call at 7:30AM or 11PM. Some of them have
> offices that work around the clock. Some just work late. The
> calls go with the territory. It's been this way for the 25
> years I've been doing consulting.

And when I get what are considered after-hours calls these people
will apologize for calling me.

Also when I worked in radio I was the PD and the owner - without
asking me - hired a new morning man - and every few months the
phone would ring at about 5AM and say "Bill, I'm too sick to make
it in to work".   At that time, I'd get dressed hurridly and drive
to be there at 6AM to run the morning show.   And all of his
'sicknesses' IMO were just him partying too late at night with
another new girl friend(s). 

Those wree the only times that I had non-normal calling times that
I hated to respond too.

But that was part of the life I had for myself.  And I alway got
to HATE Chritsmas.  Starting before Thanksgiving almost every
commercial starte with "The perfect gift for Christmas" no matter
whether it was a new set of tires for the husband or some other
item that was really not something you'd give as a gift.

Working on Christmans day for at least 75% of the days for about
15 years and working in an area where Christmas was $pelled with
dollar $igns gives you a new perspecitve. Stan Freberg's "Green
Chri$tma$" capture that quite well.

> For the most part, I don't mind.  It pays the bills.

And keeps the good customers coming back.

....

> I've had beepers and phones for over 30 years. My daughter
> bought me my first beeper. She wanted to be able to reach me.
> My customers/clients loved it. For a while, after I got my
> first cell phone, I had both. Got beeped, had the option to
> call back. Now it's strictly cell phone - my office away from
> my office (cell phone & laptop).

That's enough connectivity for anyone.

After I got away from radio and later things that depended so 
much on exact time - and in broadcast it's the only place I can
think of where if you are 15 seconds late for work thousand of
people know it - I changed so I do NOT live on the clock.

Watching the clock, and writing down the times commericials started
and ended meant you looked at the clock continually - and were
writing down times perhaps up to 100 times per hour.

I finally gave up and I don't even wear a watch.  I'll get where I
need to go when I get there - and even if I did sitting in a car
for an hour or two stopped dead in traffic is about the least
productive thing I can think of.  The only time I now go to the
client is when it needs hands-on work [usually something physical]
or a face-to-face meeting.   The further computer I'v worked on was
about 12,000 miles away.  Any further and it will have to wait
until we get to inter-stellar communications.

We all make our choices.  I've done work at places that had staff
programmers, working under direciton of someone above them, and I
think that would only be slightly less boring that being a bank
teller, or some other job that you tend to repeat the same things
day after day.

That's why I like working as I do.  A good many of the problems 
are new challenges that make you think.  And without that I'd have
to find something else that tends to stretch the brain cells
regularly.

Bill
-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com