Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Busy Status Bar

busy.bar

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 546 posts

Re: Busy Status Bar

#481

Post by wvh »

TehShrike wrote: post #476
rgrmrts wrote: post #459

This is a neat idea (and good looking product), but unfortunately the issue is the people who tend to interrupt you in the office ignore all explicit signals in my experience. Wearing noise cancelling headphones is an accepted sign of “in the flow, pls don’t interrupt” yet some folks feel like it doesn’t apply to them. Or they’d just stand next to your desk waiting for your attention. I’m pretty jaded (and probably s…

It depends on the office culture. The last time I worked in an office, I used a red/green busy signal like this, and people would generally respect it.

It really does depend on office culture. Some people might be more reasonable if you communicate directly. I don't think it would go down well everywhere if you state "Hey! No talking to me if Mr. Smurf is on the table!"... Mr Smurf might have an unfortunate accident sooner rather than later.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#482

Post by nine_k »

gosub100 wrote: post #473
rgrmrts wrote: post #459

This is a neat idea (and good looking product), but unfortunately the issue is the people who tend to interrupt you in the office ignore all explicit signals in my experience. Wearing noise cancelling headphones is an accepted sign of “in the flow, pls don’t interrupt” yet some folks feel like it doesn’t apply to them. Or they’d just stand next to your desk waiting for your attention. I’m pretty jaded (and probably s…

I don't think you have the right to tell your coworkers to leave you alone. Part of working means collaboration and if you're unwilling to do that, you don't belong on a team. You're not doing brain surgery that will permanently alter the life of some helpless patient. you're not meticulously stacking the last card on top of a 10 ft house of cards exhibit where tens of hours of work will be completely lost if your co…

It's about politeness. If somebody took care to produce a sign asking to avoid interruptions, I will think twice whether my inquiry is both urgent and important. If it is not, I will postpone it. If it is, I'll beg for pardon but interrupt.

But no, a context switch required for uttering a few words can absolutely topple the tower of concentration somebody has spent last half an hour building. Certain occupations, engineering among them, require ingesting a large amount of context and making sense of it before productive work can start. My lack of patience with a question which I could answer with 10 minutes of research (or asking someone else) may cost my colleague an hour of lost productivity. Being mindful of this helps everyone, including yourself when the roles are swapped.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#483

Post by zwnow »

Uptrenda wrote: post #457
zwnow wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you are some cerrah i highly doubt this.

No one who is in engineering would say something like this. I can only conclude your job is auxiliary to engineering. In which case: I don't think someone who isn't an engineer should be talking about what is and isn't possible with respect to how engineers work. It's also a good idea that when engineers do tell you how they work -- not to ignore everything they say. Since Afterall -- you're not actually the one doin…

I am a software engineer and most of them I have met throughout my career do not work on tasks that require 24/7 silence. Basic communication is important for every task and if you cant handle that you are simply not suited for the job.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#484

Post by throwaway83yqr »

simonask wrote: post #480
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a special place in hell for PMs who can't wait for daily standup to get your status update. There is an even more special place in hell for PMs who schedule an additional regular status update meeting.

Wait, I thought PMs were explicitly not allowed in standups, and that standups are explicitly not status meetings.

And poker planning is just a tool that is used internally in the team to fill in the sprint, and not promises to sales

Re: Busy Status Bar

#485

Post by VyseofArcadia »

simonask wrote: post #480
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a special place in hell for PMs who can't wait for daily standup to get your status update. There is an even more special place in hell for PMs who schedule an additional regular status update meeting.

Wait, I thought PMs were explicitly not allowed in standups, and that standups are explicitly not status meetings.

You should tell my PM and manager this.

Also, what else are standups even for? Everything I've read or seen IRL is some bullshit about using them for teams to "align" or "sync up" or "share progress" or nine other euphemisms for status updates. Let's call a spade a spade.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#486

Post by farts_mckensy »

gosub100 wrote: post #473
rgrmrts wrote: post #459

This is a neat idea (and good looking product), but unfortunately the issue is the people who tend to interrupt you in the office ignore all explicit signals in my experience. Wearing noise cancelling headphones is an accepted sign of “in the flow, pls don’t interrupt” yet some folks feel like it doesn’t apply to them. Or they’d just stand next to your desk waiting for your attention. I’m pretty jaded (and probably s…

I don't think you have the right to tell your coworkers to leave you alone. Part of working means collaboration and if you're unwilling to do that, you don't belong on a team. You're not doing brain surgery that will permanently alter the life of some helpless patient. you're not meticulously stacking the last card on top of a 10 ft house of cards exhibit where tens of hours of work will be completely lost if your co…

I hope you're not a manager, because this is horrible guidance. For starters, there are some neurodivergent people who really get thrown off by interruptions, especially if they are really focused on the task at hand. It is entirely unreasonable for you to expect that your coworkers should be available at your beck and call. And you are totally ignoring the fact the countless studies showing that workplace interruptions cost companies money.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#487

Post by ghotli »

simonask wrote: post #480
VyseofArcadia wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a special place in hell for PMs who can't wait for daily standup to get your status update. There is an even more special place in hell for PMs who schedule an additional regular status update meeting.

Wait, I thought PMs were explicitly not allowed in standups, and that standups are explicitly not status meetings.

Oh. Sounds like you're referring to Agile and Standup with capital letters. In my experience people talk about agile-with-a-capital-A and standup-with-a-capital-S and those two don't really match what actually happens in the real world, at least in my experience.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#488

Post by yard2010 »

gosub100 wrote: post #473
rgrmrts wrote: post #459

This is a neat idea (and good looking product), but unfortunately the issue is the people who tend to interrupt you in the office ignore all explicit signals in my experience. Wearing noise cancelling headphones is an accepted sign of “in the flow, pls don’t interrupt” yet some folks feel like it doesn’t apply to them. Or they’d just stand next to your desk waiting for your attention. I’m pretty jaded (and probably s…

I don't think you have the right to tell your coworkers to leave you alone. Part of working means collaboration and if you're unwilling to do that, you don't belong on a team. You're not doing brain surgery that will permanently alter the life of some helpless patient. you're not meticulously stacking the last card on top of a 10 ft house of cards exhibit where tens of hours of work will be completely lost if your co…

> You're not meticulously stacking the last card on top of a 10 ft house of cards exhibit where tens of hours of work will be completely lost if your concentration strays to show your face to another human being and utter a few words.

You have no idea.

Thank god we have this WFH thing now. I can build this house of cards without anyone interrupting me saying I'm not building a house of cards.

Re: Busy Status Bar

#489

Post by billbrown »

eastbound wrote: post #417
Aurornis wrote: post #289

This is at least the 3rd version of this product idea that I’ve seen in the past decade. Certainly the nicest design! The first time I saw this was some friends of friends who were trying to make it into a startup. They quickly discovered that their users liked the idea of a busy light for the office, but didn’t like to update it on or off throughout the day. So after the first few days people just defaulted to leavi…

I’m constantly looking for a physical worktime chronometer. I’d like to track how much I work, and leave after my 7 hours, or log extra time if I overdo it. The only things I’ve found were impractical objects, or apps that cost $10-50 per month because they’re designed for consultants who bill their time. Apps are not accurate while one is in meetings, since the computer is off. The thing is, even for consultants, th…

Maybe Timery? I've never tried it since I learned about it while laid off but I will definitely use it when I get a job.

https://thesweetsetup.com/apps/best-time-tracking-app/

Re: Busy Status Bar

#490

Post by PaulRobinson »

pmarreck wrote: post #472
PaulRobinson wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing this every day is a problem. Doing it 1-2 days/week is the difference between being able to get some focus time to deliver something of value, and just being an internal search engine. My job has lots and lots of calls. I am happy to leave most of my calendar open. But most mornings, and at least one full day every 2 weeks is mine, and no, you can't have it, you're not entitled to it, it's important to me I hav…

1 day every 2 weeks?!?!

I'm more in project management these days. It makes me laugh when an engineer says "I didn't get any work done today, as it was all meetings" - means I don't work for 20-30 hours/week.

The trick is balance for the role. For engineers it should be a lot more focus time, for PMs and managers it should be a lot more managers, but you should still be able to block out calendars for focus time if you need to - just not all day, every day, forever.

Post reply on HN