November 22, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Nakul Vachhrajani (11/19/2010)
Personally, I hate the idea of having the office along with me during commutes and at home (that maybe because I have been lucky to have a max. commute time of around 30 minutes one-way). If I am on call, I see the benefit in having something smaller than a full-size laptop (gives the freedom to get out of home!); but when not on call, I would much rather spend some quality time with the family or pursuing other hobbies.
Much agreed
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
November 22, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Grant Fritchey (11/22/2010)
Jeff Moden (11/22/2010)
I just don't ever want to be that "productive". Down-time is very important to me.What is this "down-time" of which you speak?
Heh... yeah... I know what you mean. I had to look it up in the urban dictionary myself to make sure I used the strange combination of words correctly. 😛 And, I almost got some sleep last week. Yep... I know... I keep using strange words that a lot of DBAs just aren't familiar with but, I want you to know, they're not a myth... such things actually DO exist. :hehe:
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
November 22, 2010 at 7:35 pm
WayneS (11/22/2010)
Jeff Moden (11/22/2010)
I just don't ever want to be that "productive". Down-time is very important to me.Yes, but I refer back to what Steve posted above:
If a device is an additional tether on top of a long day, that's an issue. If it lets you flex your time around, then I think it helps.
Understood... and it certainly helps Steve and Grant and a whole bunch of other people do their job's very well. I just don't ever want a job that I have to flex my time around like that.
For example... when I'm in a user meeting, someone else can fix the production problem. I don't need to take the 5 minutes on a smart phone to do it. 😉 I cover for others the same way.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
November 22, 2010 at 10:13 pm
I've been trying to think of why exactly I feel these devices are oversold for many circumstances (I do not use one, but some on my team do, and virtually all the managers in our company do). Here are a few examples: Our network admin is tremendously overworked (he only recently got a second person to help). Whenever I have a meeting with him, his phone is constantly pinging with different alarms, or he is taking calls to work through some kind of problem. From his point of view, he sees himself as being 'productive', but it comes at the expense of our jointly agreed upon meeting being interrupted numerous times, all because of him. Each time, I wait for him to finish, then recap where we were, then we start up again as soon as his mind is on the task at hand. This 'multi-tasking' of his (a more correct phrase would be simply interruptions) is imposed on me, and our meeting is less productive because of it. It is an 'improvement' on his availability, however.
A similar phenomena occurs with one particular manager. I cannot have a discussion with him without him taking any number of telephone calls or emails. From the time point of view alone, our meetings take at least twice as long as they ought to, because he is doing two jobs 'at the same time'. I have no doubt that he thinks he is doing the right thing, but I find it tremendously disrespectful of my time.
Companies often have policies that cellphones be turned off during meetings, but the situations I have described could only be addressed by either 1) a company having a policy of cell phones being turned off during any interaction with another human or 2) the cell phone enthusiast voluntarily declining to be distracted from the task at hand by his/her ringing device. No company would dare implement option 1) and I have met very few smartphone users with the maturity or discipline to do 2).
November 23, 2010 at 2:43 am
At some of the companies that I worked at in the past (UK), they loved these things. For the server/network admins especially. These guys spent a lot of time in server rooms, data centres and in-transit to these places, so helped make wasted time useful.
For the SQL side of the things, I used to have emails pushed to my iPhone (personal phone - I like the apps, personal email, browsing, ipod, movies, etc), but very quickly got annoyed with the constant beeping because of work emails in the evening, etc. I spend most of my working time at my desk other than when I go out for lunch, a meeting or home.
So I would see very little benefit from a work one... Was asked a most of my UK companies to carry a blackberry, I said fine, but I will turn it on in the morning when I get to the train station and off when I walk in the door at home.... their response was well then there is no point. Just seems like a method of "eeking" out all the "free" work they can.
Here in Switzerland, they have VERY strict laws on the number of hours worked, compensation, excessive working, etc (unlike the UK) so doubt they will be that popular here. I know my boss has a blackberry, but he hardly uses it.
November 23, 2010 at 4:17 am
DavidL (11/22/2010)
I've been trying to think of why exactly I feel these devices are oversold for many circumstances (I do not use one, but some on my team do, and virtually all the managers in our company do). Here are a few examples: Our network admin is tremendously overworked (he only recently got a second person to help). Whenever I have a meeting with him, his phone is constantly pinging with different alarms, or he is taking calls to work through some kind of problem. From his point of view, he sees himself as being 'productive', but it comes at the expense of our jointly agreed upon meeting being interrupted numerous times, all because of him. Each time, I wait for him to finish, then recap where we were, then we start up again as soon as his mind is on the task at hand. This 'multi-tasking' of his (a more correct phrase would be simply interruptions) is imposed on me, and our meeting is less productive because of it. It is an 'improvement' on his availability, however.A similar phenomena occurs with one particular manager. I cannot have a discussion with him without him taking any number of telephone calls or emails. From the time point of view alone, our meetings take at least twice as long as they ought to, because he is doing two jobs 'at the same time'. I have no doubt that he thinks he is doing the right thing, but I find it tremendously disrespectful of my time.
Companies often have policies that cellphones be turned off during meetings, but the situations I have described could only be addressed by either 1) a company having a policy of cell phones being turned off during any interaction with another human or 2) the cell phone enthusiast voluntarily declining to be distracted from the task at hand by his/her ringing device. No company would dare implement option 1) and I have met very few smartphone users with the maturity or discipline to do 2).
That's absolutely a problem, but it's not the fault of the phone. You could go back 15 years and he'd have a pager on his hip, constantly going off. When you set up monitoring systems, you have to go for a signal to noise ratio that lets you get work done AND deal with important stuff. Sounds like he needs a major sweep through his monitoring suite to tune it.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
November 23, 2010 at 8:39 am
Grant Fritchey (11/23/2010)
DavidL (11/22/2010)
I've been trying to think of why exactly I feel these devices are oversold for many circumstances (I do not use one, but some on my team do, and virtually all the managers in our company do). Here are a few examples: Our network admin is tremendously overworked (he only recently got a second person to help). Whenever I have a meeting with him, his phone is constantly pinging with different alarms, or he is taking calls to work through some kind of problem. From his point of view, he sees himself as being 'productive', but it comes at the expense of our jointly agreed upon meeting being interrupted numerous times, all because of him. Each time, I wait for him to finish, then recap where we were, then we start up again as soon as his mind is on the task at hand. This 'multi-tasking' of his (a more correct phrase would be simply interruptions) is imposed on me, and our meeting is less productive because of it. It is an 'improvement' on his availability, however.A similar phenomena occurs with one particular manager. I cannot have a discussion with him without him taking any number of telephone calls or emails. From the time point of view alone, our meetings take at least twice as long as they ought to, because he is doing two jobs 'at the same time'. I have no doubt that he thinks he is doing the right thing, but I find it tremendously disrespectful of my time.
Companies often have policies that cellphones be turned off during meetings, but the situations I have described could only be addressed by either 1) a company having a policy of cell phones being turned off during any interaction with another human or 2) the cell phone enthusiast voluntarily declining to be distracted from the task at hand by his/her ringing device. No company would dare implement option 1) and I have met very few smartphone users with the maturity or discipline to do 2).
That's absolutely a problem, but it's not the fault of the phone. You could go back 15 years and he'd have a pager on his hip, constantly going off. When you set up monitoring systems, you have to go for a signal to noise ratio that lets you get work done AND deal with important stuff. Sounds like he needs a major sweep through his monitoring suite to tune it.
I understand that in the very strictest sense the root cause of the problem is the person, not the technology. However some technologies tempt a little, and some tempt a great deal. In the case of pagers, they would beep, and the person might be inclined to search out a telephone -- often not at hand -- and call in to see what was going on. This version requires a fair bit of effort by the pagee to be led into temptation (oops, I meant allow the interruption to intensify). A smartphone, however, introduces the interruption at a point much further down the road, and it appears to me to be much more difficult for the average joe to say to him/herself "I realize that xyz is emailing me with a followup question on abc, but actually I am speaking with Dave about how to better xxxx, so I'll just get back to him in a moment".
November 23, 2010 at 8:40 am
grahamc (11/23/2010)
At some of the companies that I worked at in the past (UK), they loved these things. For the server/network admins especially. These guys spent a lot of time in server rooms, data centres and in-transit to these places, so helped make wasted time useful.For the SQL side of the things, I used to have emails pushed to my iPhone (personal phone - I like the apps, personal email, browsing, ipod, movies, etc), but very quickly got annoyed with the constant beeping because of work emails in the evening, etc. I spend most of my working time at my desk other than when I go out for lunch, a meeting or home.
So I would see very little benefit from a work one... Was asked a most of my UK companies to carry a blackberry, I said fine, but I will turn it on in the morning when I get to the train station and off when I walk in the door at home.... their response was well then there is no point. Just seems like a method of "eeking" out all the "free" work they can.
Here in Switzerland, they have VERY strict laws on the number of hours worked, compensation, excessive working, etc (unlike the UK) so doubt they will be that popular here. I know my boss has a blackberry, but he hardly uses it.
Touchdown (and maybe others) on the Android allows you set the times at which it will synchronize with Exchange. I did my boss a favour and trialled it on my personal phone and it worked just fine. If he asks me to make it permanent, then he'll also have to pick up at some of the tab for my data plan and I will continue to disable sync outside of normal work hours.
We also have pretty strict laws in Canada, but few people are aware of them. Those employees that are aware of them are generally too afraid to rock the boat and that leads to employers that make what I think of as unreasonable demands.
November 28, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I currently have a Windows Mobile 6.5 device that I use for performing some administrative functions when I am in meetings and I did not bring my Notebook PC. I have pretty much decided that the problem with using the Smartphone is that the screen size is just too small to replace a Notebook PC. It is more than fine enough to perform simple administrative tasks on an as needed basis.
James E. Freedle II
Viewing 9 posts - 46 through 53 (of 53 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply