Re: [OT] Musings After Go-Live

In article <3i1vqjFjaeooU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Pete Dashwood <dashwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
><docdwarf@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:d9ebmd$4n7$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[snip]

>> Add to this mixture the fact that these are
>> peoples' paychecks being dealt with here, just about everyone looks at
>> those closely and many are prone to make at least quiet murmurmings if the
>> numbers are not to their liking.
>>
>:-)
>Or even not turn up for work... <gasp>

What? Come now, people don't work for mere money, they work for The
Challenges!...

.... and I am the King of England.

>
>> (Interchange from a meeting: 'You mean we've been paying these folks
>> *wrong* for the past fifteen years? How did that happen, why didn't
>> anyone *say* anything?' 'We coded that according to the specs that came
>> down in the '88 revision... and not too many people are going to say
>> anything if their paychecks are larger than expected.')
>>
>
>ROFL! I absolutely LOVED this... Says a lot about system audits, checks and
>balances (pardon the pun) and the testing and handover procedures...
>especially liked the defense "We did it according to spec.".... So, I have
>to ask: If the person writing the spec had included in it that certain
>checks, for certain amounts, would be produced under certain random
>conditions, and these checks just happened to be payable to said spec writer
>(or cronies), would this then have been programmed into the system also? If
>the answer is "yes", then I'd like to know if there is any chance of getting
>a job there; if the answer is "no", then the defence above is invalidated.

Well... yes and no. I've mentioned in other postings how some folks' pay
gets handled... differently than other folks'; if interested you can
search for 'negative deduction' in the archives. There was another job I
worked on where I was asked to put together a program to report on who was
scheduled to come up on their twenty-, twenty-five- or thirty-year
anniversary of employment in six month's time so they could be given a
special pin and a Longevity Memo or somesuch... but it would be just as
easy for a manager to read this report and say 'Hmmmmm, here's another
pension liability to get rid of.' Ugly situation, to say the least, and
possibly worthy of discussion in another thread.

(Consider: my Respected Father's Elder Sister - may she sleep with the
angels! - well... she used to be his Elder Sister until *he* got so old
that a woman could not be older than that... was fired by R H Macy's after
working there for nineteen years and three months, as were many of her
co-workers. Nowadays in the US such firings are illegal, back then they
weren't.)

[snip]

>> Still with me?
>
>Hanging on every word... :-)

That's good noose... errrrr, news!

>(Seriously, it is very interesting and well
>written...)

Interesting is in the mind of the beholder, of course... as for 'well
written' it is just ex tempore, you'se jes' easily amused.

[snip]

>> My code has rendered the work this sub-group does unnecessary. Today is
>> their last day on-site.
>>
>
>Completely understand how you feel. Been there. Console yourself with the
>fact that you did a job and did it fairly and to the best of your ability.
>The fact is that if you hadn't, someone else would have.

Ow... you *do* realise, don't you, that this 'If I didn't then someone
else woulda' has been a rationale employed by strikebreakers and scabs
ever since... well, ever since there have been strikebreakers and scabs.

>Also there is no
>doubt that when the sub-group started this service, it wasn't going to be
>for life...

Life is temporary, aye.

>
>I think most of us have (certainly the ones with any imagination, never mind
>sensitivity) agonised over stuff like this.

Such a 'sensitivity' appears to preclude a position in the Upper
Management or Executive realms... those people close entire factories and
offshore departments at the drop of a hat.

[snip]

>> On the one hand... hey, that's the consultant's life, the work comes, the
>> work goes, time to find another job. On the other hand... my work has
>> caused other folks to have to look for new jobs. This makes me feel...
>> odd.
>>
>At least you are considering it. Time to quit when you become so completely
>dispassionate that it never even occurs to you.

Or... see above about Upper Management and Executives.

[snip]

>> ... the other guy? He doesn't come back on Wednesday.
>>
>> --end quoted text
>
>I hope he finds another job and is wiser next time.

There's always another job, aye.

>
>Really interesting post, thanks for sharing it.

Glad you enjoyed.

DD

.

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