Conference 7.286::digital

that one is easy:

Because it's fun to work with our products to build other products.
             ***

And because when you have marvellous tools, you are happy to use them,
even if you have nothing to make. So you just *play* with them to see
how they work, or to see what you can do with them.

Didier

In Software Services, we are measured almost entirely on the
amount of money we bring in per fiscal quarter from consulting and
other customer services.  Each of us has a number (a "budget")
to hit, based on the (usually aggressive) financial goals set
by the company.  Depending on the situation, this number may
or may not reflect the fact that a normal work week is 40 hours 
long, or that people sometimes get sick or go on vacation.

Our salary reviews are based primarily on our abilities to meet
these financial goals.  As a programmer, I am not measured by
my technical skill but by how much money I can get out of the
customers.  This is, of course, an indirect measure of both skill
and customer satisfaction with DEC as customers are unlikely to pay
$80 to $100+ per hour for incompetence.

At least in my unit, extra effort does not go unnoticed.  I and
others have received good increases commensurate with extra effort
put in (I even managed to get two reviews within a 3-month period).
The problem is finding any time to spend it!

			Bob A.

Re .1 

I would agree that it's fun. Certainly some would contest the values of an 
individual whose free evenings are spent prowling NotesFiles; I often doubt 
my own judgements on that score. Nevertheless, the long hours are the 
result of some real enjoyment. I don't think I would do it if I felt that 
I had to. Given the freedom to wander, to inquire, to ponder has been the 
greatest benefit of my time at Digital. I've had jobs which offered great 
amounts of overtime, paid and unpaid, but never have I been given the kinds 
of resources (terminals, the E-Net, Notes under every rock) with which to 
explore all types of knowledge. It's the next best thing to being back in 
school.

kh
                                   -30-

I don't have a computer or terminal at home.    Sometimes I think that
it would be nice to have one, especially when it gets cold in the office
(the facilities people turn off the heating at 16:15 here and this part
of Bedford is poorly insulated).    So all this noting is done from the
office and I work very long hours as well.   Why?
Answer = profession satisfaction.    I don't work...I have fun and get
paid for it.    Fun is finding solutions to technical problems.   Work
is fighting bureaucracy, writing memos, reports, being frustrated.   In this
job I spend more time doing "work" as in my definition, so I have less
energy for fun.

I've always put in more than the minimum, which probably has something to
do with my divorce, but at that time I was in a new job and had a really
tough problem to sort out.    So, instead of becoming an alcoholic I
commuted between bed, office and occasionally the pub (because I like beer).
It took me 6 months to get over the divorce and during that period I 
frequently put in 12-16 hour days.      I also made something of a silk
purse out of a system which was a sow's ear before ie it didn't work.

Another reason is that I have a compulsion to finish what I've started
while the ideas are in my mind, since if I go home at 5.30 I'll spend
half the next day working out where I was the previous day.

Computing is fun but, like heroin, addictive, so at weekends I go cold
turkey.   I almost NEVER come to the office at weekends and on holiday
(or vacation if you prefer) I must have a physical and mental challenge
or else do absolutely nothing except listen to music and read.

Everyone in the computer industry is wierd :-).    A colleague once
said to me that I was the most normal person in the business that he knew.

The rest of you must be really kooks :-).
Howard

Re -1:

``most normal person in the business that he knew''

Judgement call, I guess, about what's normal anymore. (Not to challenge 
anyone's claim to normality, just to recognize that if we're all wierd, 
doesn't that redefine the norm?)

$ Set Process/NoPontification

kh
                                   -30-

re: -.1

I was going to use "straight" because that was the word used at the time,
but that has a different conotation in the US than in the UK.

re: .3
	Karl, I don't remember where is LEZAH:: but I believe its in New
England. You can't realize what has been the discovery of Notes as a tool
to know, meet, work, get help and make friends from France to the Engineering.

I would NEVER have been (so I have been told) successful in my job as a VMS
engineer in the TSC without all the help I got through Notes.

I have been told already that I'm a bit too noisy in notesfiles and I have 
tried to calm down my wish to reply to all notes that interest me.
Even the two persons from VMS eng. and AI eng. who are attending DECUS France,
that I met yesterday evening at the VMS magic session knew me. But generally
the feedback I get is that I try to be helpful when I receive requests, and I
do receive requests. Try to understand that we are completely alone here in
Europe. People in Geneva HQ are not interested in engineering issues; they
are marketing/sales people. The story of the Toolshed in GVA01 is significant.
[they stop managing it as they were no requests from anybody. But they didn't
know they were no requests because the STC guy in Geneva didn't reply to 
mail asking for registration. And the guy didn't because he was doing the
job as a midnight activity. (I know all that because I went there and asked
them])

Anyway, I don't consider your .3 as a personal flame, if it is one. What I wish
to point out is that Notesfiles are OUR OXYGEN in engineers land over here.
                                    **********

So I don't see anything wrong to 'have fun' participating in notes.

Didier

[We got a power hit while I was in the middle of writing an earlier reply.
Will have to spend some time figuring out how to make VNotes/Edit/Recover
happen.]

Re -1

Lezah is indeed in New England, Marlborough. Didier, I hope that you realize
the contribution you have made to all who Note. Your welcomes and works have
done wonder for us all. Noting, as you well know, become more than a casual
hobby. It has for many become an indispensable part of work. A few hours
with Notes is often more productive (and fun) that similar hours laboring
over a desk in silence. (Actually, I listen to a radio with headphones while
at work, but you get the idea.) The contacts, personal and professional,
made as the result of the Net far surpass anything on the outside world.

It's worth pondering what has become the norm, however. Little in my background
(B.A. in American Studies) prepared me for this style of work. Sure, other
professions have long hours, esoteric conversations, and the like. But the
speed and intensity of communications is something truly unique. Family life
(I have a wife, two kids, two dogs, four cats) gets a bit twisted because
of the Pro I have at home. There's still a lot to work out.

Be assured, Didier, that Notes are Oxygen to everyone.

kh
                                   -30-

Personal answer....

	I go into work every morning at 7am. (usually if I do not have to 
be elsewhere). I try to leave by 4 pm in the afternoon, because I have to 
travel 66 miles one way to get home, and on a highway where crazy people 
drive.

	I come home, and log back onto the terminal and do about 3 or 4 
more hours of work. There have been weeks where I have gotten up at 5 am,
and not went to bed until 3 am the next morning for 6 days in a row. Why?
not because I am a workaholic, but because I enjoy my work. Also, because I 
am on a schedule that no sane person would have agreed to, but I told my 
boss that I WOULD make it happen. So at times I must put in more than a 
normal range of hours to insure strict deadlines are met.

	Notes: They are my sanity!!! I used to be really heavy into WRU, 
but have outgrown that one almost completely. Now except for one 
unprofessional notefile (and occasionally into WRU), I read only 
professioanal notes, and the increase of knowledage that I am gaining can 
not be measured for a long time to come.

	I agree with Didier in the networking. I needed some information 
from Valbonne, and one call to Didier got the information quicker than I 
could have ever gotten it. (thanks again!). I have also been able to get 
other people information that they needed form contacts that I have been 
able to establish from only being in DEC eight months. Plus I have valuable
information that I have been able to pass on to people over the pond that 
might not get that information for MONTHS! All this was done thru noting.
I try to go into notes for at least a full hour a day. It is the only 
recreation I am getting now-a-days, and it has a calming effect that you 
would not believe.

	As I said this is just a personal answer.....Why do I do the extra
work? Not for the recognition I can assure you! I do it because I get into 
my job. I do it because I know that because of me, a department in DEC this 
Q1 will be able to work smarter not harder. I do it because it gives me the 
best feeling to see that things are actually being accomplished, and know 
that I am the driving force behind it. I do it, because to be able to see 
the eyes of my users, to see when they discover that I have just saved tham 
HOURS of work, it is worth a millions kudo's.

Gale

i find that looking around the notes on my own time and reading others'
thoughts on being a DEC-folk has reinforced soemthing i have a hard
time quantifying -- where else could/would i do this just for the fun of it?
i am NOT a technical person - came to DEC with very little exposure to 
systems of any sort, but took to everything i could get my hands on.  fought
and connived a VAX account for myself, even got my own terminal and modem at
home and may eventually be somewhat of a resource on some of the more
technical aspects of what people might consider a very non-tech function
(personnel).   the point is that if i had to/wanted to look for another
job it is evenly 50/50 whether i like being a personnel-type more than being a DEC-type.  

nuff said?

/rene

    Although the original note is rather old my feelings on this subject
    only reinforce those already posted here.
    
    I joined the company in June 1987. At Christmas the company put
    on several functions, for the employees and another event for
    their families. The Christmas lunch seemed an afterthought compared
    to the other social events run by our Sports ans Social committee
    (of which I am now Secretary). All this 'giving' really took me
    back.
    
    The previous LARGE multinational which I came from (no name dropping
    but Sylvester the cat would call it UNITHYTH) were not anywhere
    near as generous.
    
    Not only do these little extras give a different perspective to
    the company and make it different to the others but the relaxed
    atmosphere for working in promotes extra work from the employees
    especially here in the design site in Galway. It is not unusual
    to see cars outside the door until midnight.
    
    Perhaps the personnel attitude is "the more you put into your employees
    the more you will get out of them" it would certainly appear to
    be the case.
    
    The company does however have its drawbacks but it would only spoil
    the sentiment of this note if I mentioned them.
    
    
    O.k I will mention one :
    Modems at home. These are not freelly available and can only be
    given out with good reason. The restriction is not only financial
    but there are only a limited number of phone lines into the building.
    
    Any way the next time your passing through the corridors of power
    and Ken walks by, say hello from us over the pond.
    
    Bye.