Sentenced to a cell(phone)

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | December 15, 2005 | Marilyn Gardner

[gondramB]

The way i deal with xcessive phone callers is to

1. Use voice mail. Get people in the habit of being called right back if I am available.

2. Encourage email use for non urgent matters.

[proxy_user]

This really depends. If you have responsibility for a production system that is supposed to be running 24/7, of course Ops will and should call you if there's a problem.

But if you have no such responsibility, you can route to voice mail.

[randog]

As a publicist at Pace University in Pleasantville, N.Y., Cara Halstead Cea must be available by cellphone around the clock.

And yet the guy that fries her french fries at McDonald's gets 16 hours a day + 2 full days a week that he isn't at his employer's beck-and-call. So who's the slave?

[dhs12345]

3. Get rid of the thing.

[proxy_user]

It's surprising what kind of slaves you can get for $100K a year.

[Redbob]

What, there's a class for people too stupid to turn their cell phones off?

[gondramB]

"This really depends. If you have responsibility for a production system that is supposed to be running 24/7, of course Ops will and should call you if there's a problem.

But if you have no such responsibility, you can route to voice mail."

That is an excellent point.

I remember long ago when I was the most junior process engineer at a film plant I once got a late night call.

Production guy: How much does a cubic foot of water weigh?

Me: (Half asleep) About 1000 kilograms per cubic meter

Him: How much per cubic foot?

Me: 64 pounds

Him: Uh Oh.... click

I never did figure out who he was or what he had done... they apparently covered it up nicely.

[gondramB]

"It's surprising what kind of slaves you can get for $100K a year."

And for a lot less... That's why it blows my mind where I here about people dropping 50K at a strip club. They really should just purchase or at least rent to own.

[proxy_user]

My calls are much less alarming. Usually it is a Tivoli alert that some file system has reached 95% capacity. I tell them which log files to delete, and go back to bed.

But I really hate it when some guy in Singapore or Tokyo is getting a strange error message.

[randog]

I make more than that and haven't turned on my cell phone in about two weeks.

[kpp_kpp]

"They get called in the middle of the night. The phone is always ringing about minute issues. They ask me, 'How do we deal with that?' "

there's this button, on mine it is right on top, that if you depress it for a second or two it shuts the thing right off. amazing invention.

much more convenient than going and yanking every phone in the house out of the wall.

my wife doesn't appreciate my use of that feature nor does she seem to know how to operate the off button on her's -- but i wouldn't have one w/o it.

[Serb5150]

I deal with it by not having a cell phone.

[Xenalyte]

"Most of the complaints are about how it intrudes on their home life," says Ms. Mandel, of Lawrence, N.Y. "They get called in the middle of the night. The phone is always ringing about minute issues. They ask me, 'How do we deal with that?' "

Here, I can explain it in very short words, so everyone will understand.

You turn it off.

There. Easy!

[Xenalyte]

That lack of attention, whatever the reason, can have serious consequences. Nippert-Eng points to out-of-control children on reality shows such as "Supernanny" and "Nanny 911" as warning signs. "Children are starting to engage in very destructive behaviors to demand parents' attention," she says.

Those shows must be edited all to hell. I have never seen a cell phone on one.

What I have seen is an abundance of parents who refuse to discipline their children.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...of course Ops will and should call you if there's a problem.

Of course, you need people on site who can properly define the word 'problem'. I've gotten some very late night calls for severely stupid, non-critical issues.

[Sonny M]

I have 2 cell phones and a pager.

I also have the common sense God gave a screwdriver to turn them off when I don't want to be bothered.

Their is a reason for voicemail.

I also thank the good lord I'm not like one idiot I know who is afraid to go places if the cell phone reception is bad because he might miss a call.

[Xenalyte]

Totally true story.

One of my co-workers at a prior job called Tech Support at 11:30 on Sunday night because "all capitals are coming out."

Explanations were not accepted, nor was advice over the phone. IT actually had to send a tech to press her Caps Lock key.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

IT actually had to send a tech to press her Caps Lock key.

Holy crap. Who was this co-worker? Martha Stewart?
"No I will not press a key on my keyboard. You must do it for me. Now."

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

"One of my co-workers at a prior job called Tech Support at 11:30 on Sunday night because "all capitals are coming out."

"Explanations were not accepted, nor was advice over the phone. IT actually had to send a tech to press her Caps Lock key."

Good grief. If I were the IT guy, I'd've disabled her account. If I were the supervisor of the IT shop, I'd be in her boss' boss' office Monday morning, jumping up and down on top of his desk, screaming obscenities at the top of my lungs, and telling him that either (a) the b**** gets fired, or (b) his entire division's getting locked out of the network until she is.