December 6, 2018 at 10:53 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Automation at Work
December 7, 2018 at 4:11 am
On a case-by-case basis, There is a place and a time for automation at work. The daily repetition of checking the logs, reviewing the available disk space, verifying backups give me the foundation for actually knowing my databases and how they function from day to day. Correct, effective automation makes me lazy. Imperfect automation misses upcoming problems. Give me a half year or so, and then I'll start crafting the daily routines that best suit our databases.
Cheers!
December 7, 2018 at 5:51 am
We need to figure out some automation for our deployments but don't have the resources to spend on it. I know once we have something implemented it will introduce new tasks to monitor but ultimately it will free up some valuable time for other important efforts.
Any suggestions on where to begin would be welcome.
thanks
December 7, 2018 at 7:24 am
Another programmer went to great lengths to conceal the contours of his fully automated $50,000 per year job from his boss.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/agents-of-automation/568795/
What's sad is that this petty little schmuck could have easily been earning 2x his current salary as an automation engineer. His employer probably knew he showed up to work each day and did nothing, but they figured it was worth the money just to keep him around on retainer.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
December 7, 2018 at 7:36 am
For every job I get, I do my level best to eliminate it. I combine processes, improve efficiencies, eliminate redundancies, increase automation. Every time I do this, instead of getting rid of my job, they give me more work. I get a reputation as a cost cutter and problem solver. About every five years, I hear that automation is going to take my job. I have been hearing that for a quarter of a century. Instead of that, the new technologies make me faster and more efficient. At the same time, clients want more IT and they want it better, faster, and cheaper. I don't see any change to this anywhere in the near future. There is plenty of work for us to do.
December 7, 2018 at 7:47 am
GeorgeCopeland - Friday, December 7, 2018 7:36 AMFor every job I get, I do my level best to eliminate it. I combine processes, improve efficiencies, eliminate redundancies, increase automation. Every time I do this, instead of getting rid of my job, they give me more work. I get a reputation as a cost cutter and problem solver. About every five years, I hear that automation is going to take my job. I have been hearing that for a quarter of a century. Instead of that, the new technologies make me faster and more efficient. At the same time, clients want more IT and they want it better, faster, and cheaper. I don't see any change to this anywhere in the near future. There is plenty of work for us to do.
This is more often the case than not. There are still a few in management who think the guy who slogs through a 60 hour work week doing everything manually is a hard worker but that mentality is dying out.
December 7, 2018 at 8:01 am
Great Article! I wholeheartedly agree with this work philosophy and have lived it for many years. The KEY IS to find a manager / company who is philosophically compatible, otherwise you are bucking large forces that can wear you down. It is a win-win situation for both employer and innovator - and the status quo is the only thing that is at risk. While I am not at all ignoring the threat to people who want to cement their positions with existing roles and responsibilities - a certain amount of soft skill is required to demonstrate that you are releasing impacted people from mundane tasks - to perform higher level work. To address the impacted - I list the new tasks that are now available, that pay better, that contribute more, and that make a person more valuable to a variety of employers. (Note: My suggestion for more value added work was not for any severed employees, but for people the work would impact that remain in place...)
December 7, 2018 at 8:32 am
deb_bee - Friday, December 7, 2018 5:51 AMWe need to figure out some automation for our deployments but don't have the resources to spend on it. I know once we have something implemented it will introduce new tasks to monitor but ultimately it will free up some valuable time for other important efforts.Any suggestions on where to begin would be welcome.
thanks
Azure DevOps might be the place I look at it's become easy to use, free, and doesn't requite many computing resources from you. I'd actually start with a Hello World in GitHub and they have a task there to set up a pipeline
December 7, 2018 at 8:38 am
jarick 15608 - Friday, December 7, 2018 7:47 AMThis is more often the case than not. There are still a few in management who think the guy who slogs through a 60 hour work week doing everything manually is a hard worker but that mentality is dying out.
I hope so. It's silly to have people doing basic things, and it's rare I find someone that couldn't be doing more thinking work if they have time.
December 7, 2018 at 9:03 am
That said I have seen manual processes that existed solely because noone thought to try to improve them, I've also deployed said automations and that straight up cost people their jobs 🙁
December 7, 2018 at 9:21 am
Like this article! I've seen and am seeing that 10th century models of work. Kinda sad. I'm witnessing lots of work that's being done, only because that's how its always been done. I suspect that there's hidden motives for maintaining really old processes.
I do like the idea of embracing automation, to improve and do more. Let's call it thoughtful automation, with a view towards the idea that automating what I do today, can free me or others to do more tomorrow. Thank you for that challenge, Steve.
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.
December 7, 2018 at 9:33 am
ZZartin - Friday, December 7, 2018 9:03 AMI've also deployed said automations and that straight up cost people their jobs 🙁
If they had nothing productive for those workers to do, that probably means that their business is failing from lack of product development and sales. As for the workers, if you don't have anything valuable to contribute, you should expect to be laid off.
December 7, 2018 at 10:19 am
Automating repetitive processes is basically a good thing but should never take human observation completely out of the loop. Expected patterns work well, but there are far too many times that an outlier, perhaps unanticipated when the process was created, causes unexpected behavior on the part of the automated system. Someone needs to follow along and be able to stand back and recognize when something 'is not rright'
A somewhat humorous example of this (I may have referenced this story before) occurred a while back with an automated speed camera system. System would snap a picture, read the plate and send the ticket. Simple.
Until one day a maintenance truck happened to be parked in front of the camera. Every speeder triggered the camera, which took a picture of the truck. Hundreds of tickets were issued to the owner of the truck...the system had not anticipated this 'black swan' and never even questioned how a single truck could speed past hundreds of times in one day.
On a far more serious nature, a program error without sufficient human oversight and ability to step in resulted in 440M loss to Knight Capital within minutes time, destroying the company financially before any human could identify and 'pull the plug' on the process.
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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