February 18, 2010 at 9:28 am
Revenant (2/18/2010)
Fascinating... neither the editorial nor any of the previous posts mentions beer. Do I understand correctly that the subject is the Friday late-afternoon routine?🙂
That's a different day:
"Payday came and with it beer." -- Rudyard Kipling
...unless you also get paid on Friday. 🙂
Rich
February 18, 2010 at 10:45 am
I have worked at a couple of places where meetings were banned after noon on Fridays. The purpose was to allow folks to get closure on their work week and not to start something that would probably have to be re-hashed in a meeting on Monday.
That being said, I do subscribe to the "A clean desk is a sure sign of a sick mind" theory. I keep an organized situation on my desk, but it is by no means "clean".
I try to do two things on Friday afternoons. One, I close out misc. requests and detail where I am at on larger efforts and two, I do not start any non-emergency projects/efforts.
February 18, 2010 at 10:51 am
I've tried to clean things off many Fridays, and it's a great policy. However a few places I've worked designated Fri night as release night as most of the world is taking off, so it was a time to prep for releases and finish working on Friday afternoon before working that night. We often got off earlier during the week, so it was a Wed/Thur early whistle for us.
Now I tend to leave things for Sat or sun morning, which is a nice quiet time for me to work most weekends. That's when I take advantage of Ski-Thursdays! (not getting it this week 🙁 )
February 18, 2010 at 11:25 am
I have worked at places where an employee's desk always looked like it was up for sale every afternoon. It kind of gave management the image that the person was not very busy, so when the first round of layoffs came guess who got nailed? You got it. Friday afternoons are good for cleaning if you can do it, barring emergencies of course, but I would not concentrate so much on making this a daily habit in a lot of shops I have known. People nowadays are just looking for reasons to cut staff. Just make sure you are not leaving sensitive info laying about, that would be more of my emphasis,rather than making your desk look like it is up for sale at the end of every day. 🙂
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
February 18, 2010 at 11:59 am
Heh, leaving early on friday means leaving when everybody else does. It is nice to do so though.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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February 18, 2010 at 12:28 pm
We will soon be forced to move to a 'flexible workspace' where everyone hotdesks and therefore has to set up in the morning and put away before they go home in the evening.
leaving aside any other considerations, we expect the loss of productivity/time spent setting up/putting away to be significant. It remains to be seen whether we see a psychological benefit from a 'tidy' end to the day, or just added stress trying to get cleared up in time to catch the train :hehe:
February 18, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Mike B-269836 (2/18/2010)
I have worked at a couple of places where meetings were banned after noon on Fridays. The purpose was to allow folks to get closure on their work week and not to start something that would probably have to be re-hashed in a meeting on Monday.That being said, I do subscribe to the "A clean desk is a sure sign of a sick mind" theory. I keep an organized situation on my desk, but it is by no means "clean".
I try to do two things on Friday afternoons. One, I close out misc. requests and detail where I am at on larger efforts and two, I do not start any non-emergency projects/efforts.
Guess I am one of the sick minds. A clean desk is a necessity. That being said... I agree with most stated above. One additional thing I do on a nightly basis (especially of Friday) is to end the day with an accomplishment. This gives a great feeling once you leave the office. Failure to accomplish anything during the day results in the negative feelings and random thoughts as described above.
Joe
February 19, 2010 at 6:02 am
I definitely agree. Overall, it helps to give a fresh look when Monday rolls around. And if someone drops something off late on a Friday, it'll be something to look at and finish on Monday.
Larry
February 19, 2010 at 7:59 am
Lawrence M. Meklemburg (2/19/2010)
And if someone drops something off late on a Friday, it'll be something to look at and finish on Monday.Larry
Database issues that get dropped off late on Friday often can't wait until Monday to be looked at. This is the responsibility/pay that comes with being a production DBA. It would be great if we could always put database issues off till Monday, but it just usually never works out that way. 🙂
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
February 19, 2010 at 8:59 am
We all know that some can wait and some cannot wait. And there are some database changes that you would never make over a weekend.
February 19, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Lawrence M. Meklemburg (2/19/2010)
there are some database changes that you would never make over a weekend.
My post stated just looking into the issue before Monday, not necessarily making database changes over the weekend. However, sometimes times issues turn out to not require db changes, but do require research and diagnosis that may need to be done urgently to rule out other things, and they may definitely not get me out of the office at 6PM on a Friday night. 🙂 Or give me time to make my desk look like it's up for sale. 🙂 Also, the boss might waiting for a response or status Friday evening as well, but not necessarily need db changes to be accomplished that night. But again as you state, some deeper issues (like corruption for just one example, or a failed data drive) can't wait over the weekend, particularly if the functionality of the system is impaired. It does happen and I have had many happen in my career. Other than not leaving sensitive info laying about, tidying up my desk is a low priority for me and my boss. 🙂
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
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