I would consider a land line to be far more reasonable than a cell phone if I were telecommuting.
-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Tom Brennan <t...@tombrennansoftware.com> Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2019 12:27 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Attitude of companies toward mainframers working from home? When I worked on site for many years around some of the best sysprogs in the business, such as Skip Robinson and Stuart Holland, about the only technical benefit was the ad-hoc meetings. I might have a question in my head and I'd just yell over the cubicle walls. Or someone would call me or ask a question at my desk that I couldn't answer, and Skip or Stuart (or someone else) would hear and pop up and join in the conversation. So I always envisioned some kind of communication system that would simulate that environment at home. Maybe have a mic and speakers always on, for example. Or a video of the back of my head that the boss could check (I think the main reason managers don't want people working from home is because there's no way to check on what people are doing). Neither of those are great ideas of course, but you get the picture. I don't do much real sysprog work anymore but basically everyone I work with is at home or traveling. That's because we're spread out across the USA. The two offices I could drive to are about 2-3 hours away - no thank you. Basically, I'm expected to answer the phone and have a screen up if I'm home, respond reasonably quickly to emails, attend screen-share meetings, etc. The TV is on a lot here, but I just put it on mute when the phone rings. And of course there's the dog barking or other home activity that I have to contend with. But I have a rule that I never take my phone or laptop to the bathroom :) I have a decent cable internet connection which is up at least 99% of the time, but my cell phone always got 1 bar at home and would often disconnect multiple times in the middle of meetings. A few months ago I bought a cell phone signal amplifier (about $300 so it's not trivial - antenna on roof, cable to small box about 10 feet from my desk) and wow... works great and no more disconnects. On 8/21/2019 1:45 PM, Charles Mills wrote: > I am doing a favor for a friend who is writing a blog article on the above > subject, with an emphasis on the effect of the shrinking mainframe personnel > pool. (This is NOT some disguised headhunter pitch. Reply to the list or to > me personally. I will take full responsibility for "sanitizing" your e-mail > address and so forth out of what I forward to my friend.) > > Does your employer allow mainframe sysprogs and developers to work from > home? > Any particular restrictions or qualifications? > Have they changed their policies specifically to address the shrinking > mainframe personnel pool? > Roughly what percentage of your colleagues work from home? > > Thanks! > > Charles > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
