If you’re atheist or of a religion that isn’t relevant then why do you care? There’s no spiritual meaning. It’s just a day off. Get off the fence and own your convictions.
Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
131–140 of 207 posts
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, that sounds very holistic in theory, but in practice just doesn't work out. A few days ago I suddenly had my french press for coffee suddenly shatter and almost blast hot coffee over my upper body. How am I supposed to start that call with "Hi, I'm jorvi and I made a mistake"..? It's not like that is a unique situation either. And you can guarantee that if you tell customer service "I made a mistake", and it…
"Hi, I'm jorvi and seems I made a mistake or something, my french press just exploded in front of me! Can you help me figure out what went wrong?" is one way of putting it.
[deleted]
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#133Yeah, we discourage production changes starting first or second december week, and start freezing changes third december week until it's frozen solid fourth december week until second week of january. December tends to be hell for our customers, so stability should be a priority there. And honestly, no one wants to work on holidays. So lets just wrap everything starting in december, maybe use the third week for some…
Holiday oncalls are a fun tradeoff. On one hand, no one should be making any changes (and if they do, they'll have some explaining to do), so it's more likely to be calm. On the other, traffic patterns are weird, and it's time off where you'd rather not be tethered to your phone. What's universally bad is being oncall when the code freeze ends or the week leading up to the freeze.
Major Major Lesson learned in the trenches.
Business offices cut their chilled water supply back to minimums (or nothing) over holiday weekends & breaks.
If you're running a server closet, even if you have a dedicated Liebert HVAC, when the chilled water cuts.. you will overheat.
I learned this over the course of three consecutive Thanksgivings.
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Blame doesn't really help solve or prevent problems. Root cause, blameless analysis with awareness and new tests and mitigation does. Also, career-wise, you won't become an IC9 by admitting to making a lot of mistakes. It's best to just solve them as fast as possible.
Are you IC9?
[flagged]
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#135[deleted]
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#136[deleted]
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#137Always be kind, and say it’s your fault. If you don’t do it for the sake of the person you are asking for help, do it because it works better. That’s the most practical advice [0] ever given by Hans Rosling [1], the Fact master himself: > In fact, I have the secret to how to get the best help immediately from any customer service, like the phone company or the bank or anything. I have the best line, it always works.…
Blame doesn't really help solve or prevent problems. Root cause, blameless analysis with awareness and new tests and mitigation does. Also, career-wise, you won't become an IC9 by admitting to making a lot of mistakes. It's best to just solve them as fast as possible.
I find laying of blame to be the most egregious waste of time, for work as well as personal issues. People who insist on it are, by and large, not people you want to spend time or money with.
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#138Always be kind, and say it’s your fault. If you don’t do it for the sake of the person you are asking for help, do it because it works better. That’s the most practical advice [0] ever given by Hans Rosling [1], the Fact master himself: > In fact, I have the secret to how to get the best help immediately from any customer service, like the phone company or the bank or anything. I have the best line, it always works.…
I think this works great sometimes, but I've been in plenty of situations where "I messed up" leads to being railroaded into the "boilerplate tech support" discussion tree. "Did you try doing X", "Did you confirm that Y is Z", "Make sure your VPN is working, try installing a new config", and finally "That's strange, double check all your parameters, there may be a typo in there somewhere"
My dad once took apart his motorcycle to change out a cylinder seal. He put it all back together and it wouldn't start. The mechanic at the shop heard the story, and then checked one thing: indeed my dad had forgotten to refuel it. That tech support tree is always worth checking.
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#139Meanwhile a huge number of us (non-religious? introverted kernel compiling cave dwellers?) treat this period no differently than any other week in the year. I'll be here keepin the servers runnin :horns: It's actually my favorite time of the year. Everyone is gone, it is quiet, and I can get shit done.
I’m surprised more people don’t know this.
I love end of year because nobody’s pushing anything or needs help.
Then you take vacation in January when the floodgates open.
Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this works great sometimes, but I've been in plenty of situations where "I messed up" leads to being railroaded into the "boilerplate tech support" discussion tree. "Did you try doing X", "Did you confirm that Y is Z", "Make sure your VPN is working, try installing a new config", and finally "That's strange, double check all your parameters, there may be a typo in there somewhere"
My dad once took apart his motorcycle to change out a cylinder seal. He put it all back together and it wouldn't start. The mechanic at the shop heard the story, and then checked one thing: indeed my dad had forgotten to refuel it. That tech support tree is always worth checking.
He took apart a motorcycle because the gas tank was empty?