[OT] Video Of The Day

[gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 05/13/2009 08:29 AM, John Abreau wrote:
> Sure, it's obviously a parody. I'm just saying it's kind of like
> watching a bully
> beating up a blind guy. The IT dork with an attitude is one of those ne=
gative
> stereotypes that is harmful to our profession.
>  =20
I do agree. As a developer and software engineer contractor, I've worked =

in a number of different businesses, and I've found that there is always =

an interesting pecking order. In a line business (one where the business =

is non-technical), both the computer operators/system managers as well=20
as the programmers are generally treated as geeks.  At Burger King, out=20
IT director was given a lot of static because some guys would come in=20
late or take lunches at non-standard times, so the idiot decided that=20
everyone had to come in by 9AM. There was no consideration that some of=20
us had to come in at night to fix problems. But, the 9-to-5 accounting=20
people see staff arriving at 10AM, and maybe going to lunch at 2PM.

At Raytheon Data Systems, we were an engineering shop, and the hardware=20
engineers were the top of the pecking order as they walked on water=20
followed by the software engineers. The computer operations people were=20
the lowest on the totem pole. It didn't help much when the chief=20
operator drove around in a VW painted as a Kool Cigarette ad. The=20
applications programmers were just a bit higher than the operators, but=20
still not really considered as human.   Of course, there was the union=20
people from millrights to manufacturing people. Also, at RDS, was the=20
badge color. A number of people transferred from other divisions had=20
various clearances, and that was reflected on their badges. There was=20
almost a revolution when management decided that they were not going to=20
renew any clearances as RDS did not do any work that required higher=20
than confidential.

The bottom line is that the IT guys (operators, system managers, ...) do =

a lot of work and are generally not appreciated.

--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846