Preparing to Be Disconnected...Completely
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Like Scott, I find being connected and knowing that nothing has gone wrong more relaxing than being disconnected and getting anxious over all the ways that disaster could have struck.
I get an e-mail from our Veeam server which tells me that the backups were a success. This normally arrives close to bed time, and seeing that e-mail header saying "[Success] 16 VMs" helps me get to sleep. I'm even thinking of changing the e-mail header so it says "Goodnight and sleep tight Carnival Boy xxxx".
Obviously, when it fails it's not so great. But if I worked in an environment where lots of bad things happened I might need to rethink my always connected attitude. In that environment I might need a disconnected holiday just to unwind.
However, whilst most colleagues know that if I'm on holiday I'd rather not be disturbed, there are a few now who phone and text me with minor shit. This is starting to wind me up. So I've decided to get a second phone and will only tell 3 trusted colleagues the number. So they know that if the shit hits the fan they can text me on this secret number and say "check your main phone!"
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Being Fired is always a risk. Death is a risk, Walking is a risk. But why are you worrying about stuff like that unless there's a big chance of it happening? There's no point in worrying about things out of your control.
Human nature. When not "on vacation" I have the constant knowledge that nothing bad has happened. This is the nature of having grown up in the era of telephones. You know if the phone hasn't wrung, nothing really bad has happened. Take that away and it is a brake in the ecosystem that you have every moment of your life from birth to death. It's a comfort, an assurance that every part of life has.... until we do an "unplugging" thing once in a while where we create the inability to have that assurance.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Like Scott, I find being connected and knowing that nothing has gone wrong more relaxing than being disconnected and getting anxious over all the ways that disaster could have struck.
I get an e-mail from our Veeam server which tells me that the backups were a success. This normally arrives close to bed time, and seeing that e-mail header saying "[Success] 16 VMs" helps me get to sleep. I'm even thinking of changing the e-mail header so it says "Goodnight and sleep tight Carnival Boy xxxx".
Obviously, when it fails it's not so great. But if I worked in an environment where lots of bad things happened I might need to rethink my always connected attitude. In that environment I might need a disconnected holiday just to unwind.
However, whilst most colleagues know that if I'm on holiday I'd rather not be disturbed, there are a few now who phone and text me with minor shit. This is starting to wind me up. So I've decided to get a second phone and will only tell 3 trusted colleagues the number. So they know that if the shit hits the fan they can text me on this secret number and say "check your main phone!"
I can handle disconnecting from the emails and most of the stuff. I can happily go off the grid, not get alerts and that sort of stuff. I can completely stop working, believe it or not. It's rare, but I'll do it. But I need to still have something, even if only a phone and knowing that someone is out there on the other end making sure that if there is really something bad happening that I'll get told. Then, as long as the phone doesn't ring, I can disconnect.
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From someone who is addicted to the great blogosphere, a week without internet is nuts...when I was in Alaska, I found every wifi cafe I could, be that a McDonalds, etc. It was still hard. Still, in some ways it's kinda nice.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
However, whilst most colleagues know that if I'm on holiday I'd rather not be disturbed, there are a few now who phone and text me with minor shit.
This annoys the crap out of me. It has always happened a lot with me. I've never spent the money on a second phone plan as I've never gotten phone stipends/reimbursements for the work use of my personal phone. But, yeah that's the worst part. Honestly I don't think everyone in the company should have IT folks personal Cells nor should it be on a list for people to call/text as it has been in my case. It would make more sense if stuff had to be filtered through managers/CEOs. Owners. etc first before bothering someone who is off of work.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
However, whilst most colleagues know that if I'm on holiday I'd rather not be disturbed, there are a few now who phone and text me with minor shit.
This annoys the crap out of me. It has always happened a lot with me. I've never spent the money on a second phone plan as I've never gotten phone stipends/reimbursements for the work use of my personal phone. But, yeah that's the worst part. Honestly I don't think everyone in the company should have IT folks personal Cells nor should it be on a list for people to call/text as it has been in my case. It would make more sense if stuff had to be filtered through managers/CEOs. Owners. etc first before bothering someone who is off of work.
The handy thing is that in the US, you are guaranteed that vacation time. So if the company has people doing that, you are on full pay and haven't started your vacation yet. You have to be willing to enact the employment protection laws, but federal law is extremely clear on the sanctity of your break and vacation time. Making you work means you are working and they have to pay you, they have no choice.
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@scottalanmiller said:
The handy thing is that in the US, you are guaranteed that vacation time. So if the company has people doing that, you are on full pay and haven't started your vacation yet. You have to be willing to enact the employment protection laws, but federal law is extremely clear on the sanctity of your break and vacation time. Making you work means you are working and they have to pay you, they have no choice.
What law are you referring to? If it's paid time off they can still ask you do to work. Of course in VA there are different labor laws for governments. For example they didn't have to pay us over time, as the state law allows government organizations to not pay and just add time to your future time off (but of course they don't have to grant your time off request). It's odd for sure.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
The handy thing is that in the US, you are guaranteed that vacation time. So if the company has people doing that, you are on full pay and haven't started your vacation yet. You have to be willing to enact the employment protection laws, but federal law is extremely clear on the sanctity of your break and vacation time. Making you work means you are working and they have to pay you, they have no choice.
What law are you referring to? If it's paid time off they can still ask you do to work. Of course in VA there are different labor laws for governments. For example they didn't have to pay us over time, as the state law allows government organizations to not pay and just add time to your future time off (but of course they don't have to grant your time off request). It's odd for sure.
Federal US labor law protects your compensation earned. Vacation time is part of that. If they make you work during it they have to still pay you for the vacation AND pay for you working. It's part of basic compensation law.
IT is famous for allowing companies to break the law and believe that they are not protected. And companies have learned to leverage this. But your compensation is yours and it is sacred. Once earned they cannot take it away. And states have no power to override federal law, thankfully.
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But states will TRY to override federal law. I had friends who worked for an agency whose only job was to sue states for violated federal highway laws. Several states, notoriously NY and NJ, tried to make local laws that conflicted making the highway simply illegal to use. The US DOT had to sue them. But sue them they did.
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@scottalanmiller Try Canadian employment law, you southerners treat employees like slaves! One of the reasons I have not moved to Seattle / Portland.
Edit: and look to Europe for a much better system for employees
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Computer Employee overtime exemption.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/fs17e_computer.pdfI always thought this little exemption was complete garbage. Does any other country do this?
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller Try Canadian employment law, you southerners treat employees like slaves! One of the reasons I have not moved to Seattle / Portland.
Edit: and look to Europe for a much better system for employees
It's not as bad as it often sounds. The law protects US workers far more than most workers are willing to leverage it. The sad part, though, is that the more than people allow it to happen the more than everyone else thinks that they don't have the rights that they do.
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@s.hackleman said:
Computer Employee overtime exemption.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/fs17e_computer.pdfI always thought this little exemption was complete garbage. Does any other country do this?
That only means you can be FLSA Exempt, not that you automatically are. I've never been an FLSA exempt employee. There are minimum pay per hour of $27.63 for that as well, which is why I haven't been an exempt employee.
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@thecreativeone91 I have fallen close to this grey area in the past. I just don't understand why working on a computer should make a difference from a federal labor law standpoint.
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@s.hackleman said:
@thecreativeone91 I have fallen close to this grey area in the past. I just don't understand why working on a computer should make a difference from a federal labor law standpoint.
It's because only certain types of jobs can be exempt (salaried employees) There's a full list here: http://www.dol.gov/elaws/esa/flsa/screen75.asp
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@s.hackleman said:
@thecreativeone91 I have fallen close to this grey area in the past. I just don't understand why working on a computer should make a difference from a federal labor law standpoint.
It's the "anti white collar" employment laws. White collar jobs are specifically punished compared to blue collar ones in most cases.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@s.hackleman said:
@thecreativeone91 I have fallen close to this grey area in the past. I just don't understand why working on a computer should make a difference from a federal labor law standpoint.
It's the "anti white collar" employment laws. White collar jobs are specifically punished compared to blue collar ones in most cases.
It's gotta suck worse for farm hands though.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@s.hackleman said:
@thecreativeone91 I have fallen close to this grey area in the past. I just don't understand why working on a computer should make a difference from a federal labor law standpoint.
It's the "anti white collar" employment laws. White collar jobs are specifically punished compared to blue collar ones in most cases.
It's gotta suck worse for farm hands though.
That's generally true. I come from farm country and they have it hard. But when you compare to electricians or plumbers who often get extensive breaks, guaranteed overtime, high pay, often can hold contracts ransom, aren't living in fear of losing their jobs for not producing visible productivity every second of every day, don't have to explain and defend their value all day long, don't have to spend tons of free time working hard just to stay abreast of their field, don't get paged out while on vacation.... IT has it pretty hard.
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You know though, I know a lot of farmers that think that farming is nicer than IT.
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Ugh. At the county I had to write an monthly essay to "defend my time" to justify why I was working, why the should pay me, and what I accomplished during the month. It sucked. especially in months you may not have tangible results, when testing things and planning.
