July 10, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Utilty
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July 10, 2010 at 4:30 pm
When turning the employees loose, or empowering them to create solutions or make decisions - management must be prepared to support the employee. Without that support - the employee will not truly feel empowered and may not try to create any solutions. Without support, there is a lack of appreciation. Employees need appreciation and support to help them feel like they are a true asset and that the solutions provided are valued.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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July 11, 2010 at 9:01 am
I completely agree, without support, there is no empowerment. I think management here should "guide" the employee with support, but also provide the check that this might not be worth doing or be wasting time. And that they aren't overly detracting from other duties, but you also need to allow some time from other duties as well. One issue Atlassian has had is many people don't take them up on other projects because they don't want to have delays or issues on their main tasks.
It's a balance, but without providing that support, I wouldn't think this would last at all.
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July 11, 2010 at 11:35 pm
Absolutely wonderful editorial, Steve. Unfortunately, I've found that many IT shops ARE exactly the same as some water and electric companies... you can't actually get to anything with a pulse and when you do, they treat you as if they're doing you a favor or are annoyed that they have to help "yet another stupid user" or are annoyed simply because they have to do a bit of work for a change.
For you folks in "service areas" like IT... snap out of it. Do like Steve's article says and you won't have to worry so much about future layoffs. And if you don't think that someone like me won't or can't record the conversation with you without your prior knowledge, you've got another thing coming. 😉
--Jeff Moden
July 12, 2010 at 7:05 am
While not being formally part of IT, I work for the same big boss and get pulled in to assist. While it's granted that IT should be a "utility" that just works, now days in many smaller companies we are stretched thin and expected to provide more service and put in many more hours than the folks we support with less appreciation. To have time to do any "special" projects is a dream for many of us in this economy.
July 12, 2010 at 8:05 am
I agree whole-heartedly with Jeff. IT is there to serve. Too many people forget that.
Oh, and another thing, I certainly hope I provide service that is MORE stable than the electric company.
If my databases went down that much, I would not have a job;-)
Mike
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July 12, 2010 at 3:30 pm
mbricker-600840 (7/12/2010)
I agree whole-heartedly with Jeff. IT is there to serve. Too many people forget that.Oh, and another thing, I certainly hope I provide service that is MORE stable than the electric company.
If my databases went down that much, I would not have a job;-)
No kidding, my thought when I read that was that Steve must not have my phone company.
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July 12, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Keeping production database servers with hiundreds, sometimes thousands of databases up 24/7 365 days a year is not even close to the same as the service electrical or water companies provide. For one thing, there is the manpower differemce. Hundreds, even thousands of people work at those companies to keep those services up constantly day to day. At most IT shops you might have one or two DBA's to maintain that same kind of service window, not to mention, some of your DBA's that might be on vacation, sick day, leave of absence, etc. Then the responsibility will usually fall to just one person. Sure you can automate things to help keep you informed about your database servers that will definitely help you keep on top of things, but comparing keeping 40-100 database servers up 24/7 with maybe 2-3 DBA's to electrical and waters companies with literally thousands of employees is like comparing apples to oranges. 😀
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July 12, 2010 at 10:49 pm
jcrawf02 (7/12/2010)
mbricker-600840 (7/12/2010)
I agree whole-heartedly with Jeff. IT is there to serve. Too many people forget that.Oh, and another thing, I certainly hope I provide service that is MORE stable than the electric company.
If my databases went down that much, I would not have a job;-)
No kidding, my thought when I read that was that Steve must not have my phone company.
Cell phone reliability is nowhere near land line service, but having dealt with lots of lines at some companies, we almost never had phone issues. At my house, over decades, I almost never had phone issues. Same for power, water. There were times, but rare compared to how many times I needed the utility and it worked.
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July 13, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Steve Jones - Editor (7/12/2010)
jcrawf02 (7/12/2010)
mbricker-600840 (7/12/2010)
I agree whole-heartedly with Jeff. IT is there to serve. Too many people forget that.Oh, and another thing, I certainly hope I provide service that is MORE stable than the electric company.
If my databases went down that much, I would not have a job;-)
No kidding, my thought when I read that was that Steve must not have my phone company.
Cell phone reliability is nowhere near land line service, but having dealt with lots of lines at some companies, we almost never had phone issues. At my house, over decades, I almost never had phone issues. Same for power, water. There were times, but rare compared to how many times I needed the utility and it worked.
My point was not about how many times water or electricity goes out. My point is one of service... when they do go out, I've had some really good service and some really bad service and the bad service needs to be repaired... quickly. It's also incredibly frustrating to have to spend a half hour on the phone answering a bunch of stupid questions posed by an over-apollogizing IVR that won't let you through to a pulse until you happen to get to a certain point on some genius' mark on a too-long FLD (Fault Location Diagram).
--Jeff Moden
July 14, 2010 at 8:57 am
Service has been good and bad, in all industries for me. I think it has been bad at times when utilities become complacent. Just like government workers, they feel they are entitled to the job, tired/bored, and forget they have customers.
I have seen some organizations really start to take pride in their work and do a better job. I think that it's unfair to label utilities as problematic from a service standpoint with a broad brush. Plenty of DBAs are painted like this for impeding work, being jacka**es, etc.
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