I'd never really thought about this, but how much productivity is lost from reboots and shoddy software? I saw this article that talked about not paying employees for time lost due to reboots and restarts of your computer. To me that's outrageous, and it's not something I think happens in other industries.
I don't think that a carpenter gets pay deducted when he's changing butane in his nail gun. I don't think that a mechanic gets charged for restarting the equipment he uses to check exhaust or alignment. Does a doctor stop charging you while he's changing the films in an xray machine? Or while they're rendering? Equipment doesn't always function at the speed of humans.
To be sure employees can cause reboots with their actions. They install unstable software or perform actions that cause the computer to freeze up. And to be sure they sometimes do something they know will cause issues because they aren't paying attention or it slips their mind. But that's part of having employees.
I think docking pay for people while they wait for equipment to reset, especially corporate equipment is something that is immoral, and I hope it will not stand up in court. It would seem the corporations have to provide equipment that not only can do the job, but can do it at a speed and level that the company desires. If you want developers to spend less time compiling, buy them quicker machines. If customer service personnel should be on the phone less, make sure their computers can keep up.
I don't know how we want to pay for work completed, but I can't believe the docking someone's pay for computer reboots is the way to do it. I know I wouldn't work for someone that had this policy; would you?
Steve Jones
The Voice of the DBA Podcasts
The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.mevio.com to get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted, and you can get feeds from there.
or now on iTunes!
- Windows Media Podcast - 17.5MB WMV
- iPod Video Podcast - 17.2MB MP4
- MP3 Audio Podcast - 3.6MB
Today's podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.
I really appreciate and value feedback on the podcasts. Let us know what you like, don't like, or even send in ideas for the show. If you'd like to comment, post something here. The boss will be sure to read it.