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Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

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71–80 of 207 posts

Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

#71
post #24
post #12

Yeah, 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…

I think that’s a great policy as it’s clearly intended to help people when they need it, and get people to unplug when it’s valued by their loved ones. _However_ (that part is probably best bookmarked until Jan 2nd), it also betrays that your system is brittle and can be broken by a bad commit. Don’t do it because you want people to grind until Dec 24th at 6 pm. Do it because it’s great the rest of the year, too. I’d…

> it also betrays that your system is brittle and can be broken by a bad commit.

Correct. So's yours. So's everyone. You might not know what the bad commit is, you might've fixed a bunch of the other bad commits, but even Google gets taken down by bad commits. Your system is brittle and can be broken by a bad commit.

Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

#72
post #66
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, how dare Netflix provide entertainment on-demand and for cheaper than the other entertainment companies?

I am currently viewing this on ethically sourced rfc1149 (birds gave consent via a scientifically proven “brain electrode interface”), manually decoding packets using an abacus made out of various animal droppings foraged on the forest floor. If I can’t view your content this way, it should not be on the internet.

Oh, so you're just going to deprive the trees of the nutrients those animal droppings would've provided? Ethics, indeed.

Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

#73
Is it a US thing to push updates right before holidays and force people to be on call?

European companies I've been working on are planing releases till the end of November, first week of December max. All project plans are baked like there is one week in December.

While US company tried to force every contractors to work everyday and some weekends too. Are you Indian? You don't celebrate Christmas, you'll be on call. Are you Eastern Slavic? You celebrate Orthodox Christmas in January. You'll be on call.

Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

#75

Meanwhile 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.

Certainly doesn't have to be religious. I think you probably have all your family living near each other or don't like them. To me, this is the only time of year outside of major events like weddings, funerals, and graduations that I can be reasonably assured my parents, all my sisters, all of my nieces and nephews, and at least a few aunts, uncles, and cousins will all be in the same place at the same time. It's both nice and convenient to be able to travel to one place and see all of them together. It's the kind of thing that can only realistically happen at a coordinated national level, and if took a religious holiday to give the country an excuse to give us all a holiday at the same time, I'm fine with that even if I don't practice the religion.

Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

#76
post #25

Always 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.…

> Always be kind, and say it’s your fault. I do this with internal teams at work. I've found approaching other teams with issues with their library/framework in a "this could be our mistake" manner really helps in keeping them from getting defensive and stonewalling.

Saying, "I'm sorry; I've made a mistake" is the killer disarming technique for even the most emotional conflict. Not sure if it's our pride or fear of liability but western culture is very hesitant to say "sorry" - other than the fake one "I'm sorry if anyone interpreted my actions|remarks|words as ..." - that doesn't count.

Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

#77
post #12

Yeah, 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…

How do you avoid a sort of thundering herd problem when the freeze is over?

Technically we don't... But at least everyone's had a nice vacation so we're ready to deal with it after we're back.

Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

#78
post #41
post #12

Yeah, 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…

The place I work for pushed v2 of their software, a full rewrite (nothing from the old system, not even databases) by a new team, into production this week for several customers. Mostly they did it so they could say they met their made up 2023 KPIs for the v2 rewrite. There was no good reason to push it out now other than that, and there were several reasons not to, such as it wasn’t well tested and it’s fucking Dece…

I've been is similar situation before. They wanted to release right on Christmas. But luckily enough, instead of releasing version full of bugs, managers come up with excuse: release postponed for one month due to some new vulnerability in third party library project used.

What a brilliant move! Christmas's was saved, everyone eligible received their bonuses.

Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

#79
My D-I-L is a nurse and will be working the coming weekend. That's her "price" for getting Thanksgiving (in the US) off. We'll schedule as much as possible around her work hours and make sure there's food left for her when she gets home.

Many thanks to all of the health care workers who take care of us over the holidays. (Along with all of the others, of course.)

Re: Tell HN: I salute everyone on call/working support through the holidays

#80
post #12

Yeah, 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…

We do the same, I work in logistics software and we usually freeze early November up until Christmas.

E-commerce. Code freeze two months before Christmas. A very chill time indeed.
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