Devil Phones

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Many of us are on call 24/7 for systems problems.

This is a part of our lives.

I'm hear to preach against the sin of "phones with a walkie-talkie function"!

We've got Nextels with the demonic "Push To Talk" function.

This means they will constantly have my phone beep (or vibrate in my case) WITHOUT the ability to (or necessity of) actually leaving a message.

I no longer answer these after hours because they are the trivial and pointless things that really can wait until Monday, or can be fixed by "Did you reboot it?"

It's currently the weekend.

It's almost ten PM.

Random people have been beeping me off and on all day.

They've yet to actually CALL and leave a message.

Yes, they have my number.

They are idiots.

Comments

[superbus.livejournal.com]

I fix this with two ways:

1) I tell people that if they're to talk to me over the weekend, something had better be catastrophically down. I'm not talking "I can't open my file, and it's due", because that's poor planning on the luser's part, but "the AD went down, and banks are screaming".

2) If that's the case, they need to either leave a message or an email. I specifically ignore my walkie-talkie function, and inform everyone as such. Of course, we don't have company bought phones, so it's not like someone can order me to pay attention to every luser with a problem.

[tecie.livejournal.com]

Generally we keep all of the phone numbers in a restricted location, and only (hopefully) clueful people can call from ops, the helpdesk, and colleagues in need of an extra hand on something.
Ops hasn't been TOO bad with me -- they've mastered the concept text messaging my phone and waiting 10 minutes before calling.
It sucks the big one when people think you're their bitch 24x7. The two painful ways to fix it are locking your contact info down in a way similar to the aforementioned method, or stop answering your phone until they agree to pay you for your time -- including extra for anything over 40 hours.

[superbus.livejournal.com]

The problem with that - and we learned this lesson at my last job - is that a lot of people in charge view IT as nothing but a cost, so anything extra, you should happily do; after all, it's either that or unemployment. And all it takes is ONE asshole who's in the right ear before you really ARE their 24/7 bitch.

Prime example: my last job was as a sysadmin/JOAT at a lumber company. Some asshole kept calling me up during the weekend, asking me stupid questions; he essentially wanted me to teach him how to use Excel (which I don't even use; whenever I get to a computer at any job I use, the first thing I do is nuke Office and install Open Office). I informed him that I was available during the week for this type of work, sent him an email with a link to Microsoft's Excel help site, and asked him not to call me again unless it was critical.

I got a call at home that night from his boss, who was a VP. He screamed at the top of his lungs that this man's job was important, and in my position, my job was to make him feel comfortable enough to do his job. I couldn't get a word in edgewise. The GOOD news is that I was the low man on the totem pole, and I was able to call my boss at home and explain what had transpired before I went in (that asshole ordered me to go back to work and sit there until his spreadsheet was done. BTW, we were salary, so this would have been a useless Saturday night), and he told me not to worry about it, he would deal with these idiots, and he'd see me on Monday. He did tell me to take my cell-phone number out of my signature.

The BAD news is that a few weeks later, that company ended up outsourcing their entire IT operation; I was gone three weeks later, and my boss didn't last another week. I think that last incident was a lot to do with that.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

And if the outsourcing company was at all competent, your old company would have found their IT costs tripling soon afterwards. Mmm, karma.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

And if it wasn't competent, the cost would still triple and they wouldn't get anything done.

But they'd be very good at holding hands.

[superbus.livejournal.com]

Their costs have soared, to the point where there are rumours that they're going to try to bring everything back to how it was, including the staff, meaning my boss and I would get our jobs back. Costs are up for them, and things are worse than they were under us, and even worse, they're now virtually locked into Microsoft (we were talking about a full Unix/Linux migration when we got canned).

I would tell them to go forth and multiply, as would my boss; we're both much better paid than we were, without the bullshit.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

See, that's what I do not understand.
You're paid to be there, X number of hours per week, starting at Y and ending at Z... so you have no contractual obligations to be available outside of those hours, leastways, not without notice and especially not unpaid.
[or at least, I presume y'all contracts looking like that.]

And your phones have 'off' buttons, right?

It isn't that hard to connect the dots is it?

[canray.livejournal.com]

"And other duties as needed, when needed, at the discression of..." is typically added to far to many things. :-(

[mouser.livejournal.com]

The operation is 24/7. In case of server crash or serious failure of some type I DO have to be notified.

They just can't seem to understand that "stoopid" is not an emergency.

[canray.livejournal.com]

Then educate them as to what a real emergency is:

"See, me stepping on your fingers is not an emergency. You don't go to the emergency room for it."

*Pulls out Cluebat*

"Now, if I were to break those fingers, then it'd be an emergency!"

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

"Now, if I were to break those fingers, then it'd be an emergency!"

Nah, that's just a stern reminder - and they can bloody well splint their own fingers with Popsicle sticks when you're done.

It's an emergency when you apply the clue-by-four right between the eyes -- and end somewhere around their kneecaps.

[kayfox.livejournal.com]

There is a SOC that a CS rep can apply that would essentially turn off Direct-Connect...

And how do I love it? Let me count the ways!

I find it funny how iDEN is a digital (radio) trunking system and not a cell phone system, but look how far Nextel has pushed it.

[wolfsong.livejournal.com]

You can also set a filter in your phone to restrict incoming DirectConnect so the person gets User Not available

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Dude, you rock! I hadn't tried that with the Profiles!

[sami-rdwd.livejournal.com]

I despise those phones! My exfiance who worked at an ISP had one and I can remember one morning about 7am, him getting ready for work and the phone being about 2 feet from my head on the bedside table. It beeped once and then his coworker shouted into the phone for him. I snatched the phone up, groggily marched into the livingroom and declared "the damn thing's talking again..." and nearly threw the phone at him.
I still cringe when I hear people on campus using the walkie-talkie function on their phones.