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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:	The Digital way of working

Moderator:	QUARK::LIONELON

Created:	Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5321
Total number of notes:	139771

156.0. "Is there a Sanity Clause?" by CSTVAX::MCLURE (Vaxnote your way to ubiquity) Fri Jul 18 1986 14:45

    	It appears that a small scale battle has just begun over the
    "cleanliness" of a particularly hard-pressed group of artists who
    are located in our lab here at the Stow facility. 

    	The old IVIS lab, long since inactive due to a halt in Sales
    Training IVIS course production, has recently seen a flurry of
    activity as a group of 10 to 15 artists and technical support people
    have been working around the clock preparing for the B.E.S.T.
    (Business Enterprise Solution Training) 4-week seminar which starts
    Monday and is being held at the Boston University campus.

    	With a total of 8 Pro-350's, as well as 3 LCP01 printers, the
    lab has been experiencing alot of heat build-up do to inadequate
    ventilation.  To complicate matters, the air-conditioning system
    here is on it's last leg, and facilities is hesitant to run it at
    night or on the week-ends.  As a result of the heat build-up, much
    hard work has been lost due to system failures on the Pro-350's.

    	In combatting the heat build-up, the door to the lab has been
    propped open to allow a fan to blow cooler air from the hallway
    into the lab.  This helps, but occasional system failures still do
    occur when everyone is computing at full blast.  Now, imagine an
    open room full of artists (some of who have been working over-night
    to get the job done) complete with a tape-player playing "Talking
    Heads" music (one of my personal favorites), dressed in blue-jeans
    or contemporary fashion clothing (no ties), with a table of doughnuts,
    coffee-cups, fruit, etc. in the middle of the lab (away from the machinery),
    a couple of waste-baskets full of print-outs as well as garbage, and
    a floor which hasn't been vacuumed since 1985.  Both the garbage and the
    floor have been issues which were never quite resolved since the old
    IVIS course production era, but we (usually me) used to empty them	
    whenever it got real bad.

    	Because of the problems ventilating the lab, several higher
    level facilities managers were called in to investigate the matter.
    Upon entering the lab, the facilities manager announced himself, and
    proceeded to explain the situation in these terms: "We have a real
    problem in this facility, and the problem is YOU (people).  This
    room is a pig-stye and you people had better clean it up right away,
    or I'll shut down the power to this room!!!  We have customers who
    walk by here and this is not the way WE run this facility!!" etc.

    	The first proposed "solution" to this matter seems to be that we
    should move all 8 of the Pro-350's, 3 LCP01's, all associated equipment,
    the Ethernet connections for all 8 Pro-350's down to the basement and
    out of the customer's sight (whoever they may be).  But the problem is
    that it is a temporary situation, and two weeks from now, it will be
    as quiet in there as it has been for months (besides, there simply isn't
    enough time to shut everything down and move it because most of the stuff
    has to be ready by Monday.  Another solution might be to take any
    customers who might be offended by such hard-work to a part of the
    facility where there is no hard-work being performed (the facility
    manager's office?).  You really wouldn't understand until you come to
    visit the Stow facility (where even the janitor's are almost required
    to wear a tie).

    	It all centers around the fact that we can't hope to ventilate the
    lab without at least keeping the door propped open, so that even after
    we have gotten rid of the tape-player, the garbage, and combed our
    hair, etc. the door will still be open and the facilities manager
    will still be trying to shut us down.  Shutting us down would be a
    little like what happened in the movie "Ghost-Busters" (when the EPA
    official had the power shut down to the Ghost holding tank) because
    the LCP01's require power even when they are turned off to maintain
    their printing fluids, etc.  This issue is by no means over, I expect
    that it will evolve into a semi-major political battle between Sales
    Training and the facilities folks.  Does anyone have any suggestions
    for a peace-keeping measure which might satisfy both the clean-freaks
    and the sweating artists?

    						-DAV0

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
156.1	Ask for some maturity?	ABACUS::ROSS	CoBallers and Berries	`Fri Jul 18 1986 16:49`	10
	Suggestions: 1. Keep the place clean 2. Advise bathing regularly to the sweating artists 3. Figure out whose fault it is that so much extra work must be done on such short notice and complain to that person's boss 4. Be professional... DEC is not some "hangout" for artists. Sounds like a battle between rebelling children and strict parents.
156.2	!@#$%^&()_+_)(&^%$#@!	CSTVAX::MCLURE	Vaxnote your way to ubiquity	`Fri Jul 18 1986 17:27`	44
	re: -1, > 1. Keep the place clean We're trying. There has been an ongoing issue of whether labs ever get any house-cleaning (as in janitorial) attention in this place without being specifically requested each time. I can't count the number of times I've had to take the garbage out myself when I used to practically live in there programming IVIS courses. Do YOU have to take out your own garbage? I imagine not! > 2. Advise bathing regularly to the sweating artists The temperature of this lab (even when the door stays open) can climb to well above 100 degrees (even in the wintertime). I'd like to know just how many showers you recommend taking to keep from sweating in this heat! Besides, we're not talking about beatniks here, these are highly trained graphics artists running some fairly sophisticated software on a complex network of workstations. > 3. Figure out whose fault it is that so much extra work must be done on such short notice and complain to that person's boss This is easy. Sales Training management wanted the world. As usual, we are trying to give it to them. Complaining gets you about as much attention as commenting on the weather around here. 4. Be professional... DEC is not some "hangout" for artists. All I'm asking for here IS a little professionalism. Maybe I'm wrong, but somehow I don't think that marching into someone's lab and announcing that the people in their are your "#1 problem" because the room looks like a "pig-stye" and then threatening to shut off the power to the room is too professional. > Sounds like a battle between rebelling children and strict parents. Which group is which? -DAV0
156.3	STOW, huh? Remember the "GRASS" memo?	ATLANT::SCHMIDT	I Use VMS. My Cereal? Raw Bits!	`Fri Jul 18 1986 18:23`	21
	Ken Olsen says (paraphrasing now) that the managers are here to ensure that the productive people CAN BE productive. Applying that in this case, I think you need to see that THE_GUY_WHO_WANTS_THE_WORK_DONE speaks to THE_GUY_WHO'D_ PULL_THE_PLUG. Let them fight it out -- that's what they get paid for. You're paid to be an individual contributor, not to be a messenger shot for delivering the message. Stay out of it as best you can, to the point of politely refusing to discuss this with MR_PLUG_PULLER. Rather, refer him each time to MR_WANTS_WORK (who is presumably the guy directly or indirectly paying your salary). By the way, make sure you keep MR_WANTS_WORK (as well as any other of YOUR managers) fully informed. And be sure to put it all in writing if you think the situation is going to explode. Atlant
156.4	I second the emotion...	JOET::JOET	Thela hun ginjeet	`Fri Jul 18 1986 18:25`	5
	re: .3 Well put. -joet
156.5	After the smoke clears...	CSTVAX::MCLURE	Vaxnote your way to ubiquity	`Fri Jul 18 1986 19:07`	43
	re: 156.3, Good advice Atlant. I guess I'm just trying to prevent a scenario that I see developing over the week-end where all of the artists are frantically trying to finish-up what they are doing and I am called on the phone to come and help them get the power turned back on. As far as whether THE_GUY_WHO_WANTS_THE_WORK_DONE meeting with THE_GUY_WHO'D_PULL_THE_PLUG, well they already clashed horns. In fact, I wasn't even in the lab when the incident occured, I was busy meeting with THE_GUY_WHO_WANTS_THE_WORK_DONE. It was then that THE_GUY_WHO'D_PULL_THE_PLUG interrupted our meeting and politely asked me to leave the room so that he could meet with THE_GUY_WHO_ WANTS_THE_WORK_DONE. It was at this point that I investigated the matter because the artists were all wandering around with fear in their eyes and were afraid to even be seen near "the lab" because they might get fired for not emptying the garbage every five minutes or something. Simply wonderful for morale at a critical time such as this. > Ken Olsen says (paraphrasing now) that the managers are here > to ensure that the productive people CAN BE productive. I wonder what Ken would say about the role of the facilities manager? > You're paid to be an individual contributor, not to be a > messenger shot for delivering the message. Stay out of it ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > as best you can, to the point of politely refusing to ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > discuss this with MR_PLUG_PULLER.... It's not MY job! I suppose (in some ways) that this is similar to the advice given to German citizens in WWII as their friends were all being led off to the trains... Oh well, it's Friday. I'm sure everthing will probably work out ok in the end. I just got a little unnerved by the handling of the whole thing. -DAV0
156.6	We all have the same mission	ODIXIE::VICKERS	Don Vickers, Notes DIG member	`Fri Jul 18 1986 23:10`	21
	Atlant's advice is exactly correct. It's easy to go off into 'pout mode' in a situation such as the one that you've wandered into here. As pointed out before, you will not accomplish anything worthwhile by fighting with Mr. Plug. We ALL should have the same goal and that is to improve Digital. Mr. Plug is trying to do that and so is Mr. Work. It's just that they have conflicting sub missions. In the mean time you and your artist types are caught in the middle. One thing to ask Mr. Work for would be for him/her to arrange for more and larger fans as well as arranging for additional janitorial support for your sty. Crash efforts like you're in never look particularly pretty. The Stow facility is certainly very pretty so that makes it worse. Just remember that we are ALL on the same team. Don't make it a fight. Keep the faith, Don
156.7	Everything's Cool	CSTVAX::MCLURE	Vaxnote your way to ubiquity	`Sat Jul 19 1986 11:34`	14
	There's a nice cool sea-breeze this morning which should help keep things (and people) cool. As far as the condition of the lab, it's all nice and clean now (it even has a nice flower arrangement in the center of the room). I don't foresee any more problems. As far as the purpose of this note, well...it started out to be sort of a humorous account of how crazy things can get during crunch- mode (note the title: taken from the Marks Brothers famous line), but somewhere along the line, it kind-of turned into a flame. Sorry if it ignited anything flammable. I'm sure someday we'll all be able to sit back and laugh at all this, but in the meantime, we're just going to try to keep cool. -DAV0
156.8	Trivia.	NIPPER::HAGARTY	The Penultimate Rat...	`Sun Jul 20 1986 22:53`	8
	Ahh Gi'day... As an aside. I thought "BEST" was last used (a couple of years ago) as an acronym to mean "B$ST" which stood for (wait for it) "Billion Dollar Sure Thing", a goal for SWS (or was it SPS) to be a billion dollar revenue earning entity by 1985 (or whenever).
156.9	What's in a name?	CSTVAX::MCLURE	Vaxnote your way to ubiquity	`Sun Jul 20 1986 23:41`	18
	re: -1, BEST (Business Enterprise Solutions Training) is only another example of how acronyms can really confuse the h*ll out of a person. Personally, I think acronyms should be illegal, but then you would fall asleep wading through enormous amounts of repetitive text. Of course, we might not have this problem if everyone wrote in some sort of symbolic language like Japanese... Anyway, this is the latest definition for BEST, but you have to remember that Sales Training does not neccessarily coordinate their acronym creation with the rest of DEC. Hopefully, now that I have tried to turn some of the Sales Training organization on to Vaxnotes, that some of this coordination will take place fairly painlessly. -DAV0 p.s. Former Sales Training Programmer/Analyst (4-2-84 to 7-28-86)
156.10	vote with your feet?	ALIEN::MCCULLEY	Hot Stuff, or just a Flamer?	`Tue Jul 22 1986 14:23`	5
	If I'm interpreting the last line of .9 correctly it seems that the situation might've had at least one side-effect - wonder what the long term effects on the health of that organization will be? (and if my interpretation is correct, good luck with your new endeavors!)
156.11	Not exactly the straw that broke the camel's back...	CSTVAX::MCLURE	Vaxnote your way to ubiquity	`Tue Jul 22 1986 15:24`	25
	re: -1, > -< vote with your feet? >- If you mean to ask: "am I leaving Sales Training because of this incident?" the answer is no. My decision to leave was made 3 months ago and is/was based on a variety of reasons, but mostly because I was no longer doing the sort of programming I had signed on to do (IVIS). While my new job has nothing to do with IVIS either, it is at least graphics-related as well as being software engineering - as opposed to the group which absorbed me when the Sales Training IVIS group died (Ed. Services MIS - or specifically Sales Training MIS). Besides, I really don't blame Sales Training for this incident, I feel the fault lies more in the facilities realm here for not being more flexible (as well as respectful) of our needs (as well as the needs of the Sales force) for the B.E.S.T. seminar. I can't get down on facilities in general either (I have alot of friends and aquaintances who work for facilities here), but there are always exceptions to every rule. There I go again...fighting my manager's battles for him. -DAV0 p.s. My new position starts Monday in the High Performance Systems and Clusters group located in Marlboro (MR01) - I will be doing printing and plotting software for all the latest equipment.
156.12	I was there... 8-)	EXIT26::SAARINEN		`Mon Jun 10 1991 15:12`	23
	I was one of those "artists" who worked on BEST in that little Lab room in Stow. I chuckle now at how we did all that work for Sales Training and busted our collective butts, worked 23hours, slept on conference room tables, worked in 105 degree heat, equipment failures and the last minute changes from clients who wanted one word changed in a bulleted word slide....some of you were too much... ;-) We were slaved during that Summer, and for the most of it we worked over 80 hours a week...throughout the summer. But we did it! I know we shocked a number of the "Sales" people with our jeans and T-shirt attire, in "Stow"...;-). But what the hey...they got there slides and all in all, the 10 of us who were there most of the time, had a great comradeship, and worked thru what most of Digital wouldn't have put up with in a second. It was one of the best times I had at Digital...where I know I played a part in making something happen that gave value to the company. 5 years later I now have 13 days and a wakeup til I get laid off. I';; remember that time in the Lab in Stow during the summer of '86 as one big intense working party, and one of the best times I had with my 8 1/2 years at Digital. -Arthur