Preparing to Be Disconnected...Completely
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Even none work things, it's not all about work. Just knowing that family and friends are safe and sound. Whenever my dad travels he checks in with us when he leaves and when he arrives. We do the same for him, even when we are here in Spain (we both did it today, he went from Ohio to NY and we went all of the way across Andalucia.)
Knowing that the phone would ring if something were wrong and that it hasn't is a great way to get good sleep at night.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller I suppose if you work solo or are solely responsible for something I can understand that.
Even normally. When I worked for a massive bank (hundreds of thousands of people) it was nice to know our boss was still our boss, that layoffs had not hit our group, that I wasn't reassigned or whatever. That stuff was daily rumour and knowing that everything was okay and that you weren't coming back to a relocation to another state or country or taking a paycut or laid off was comforting.
I can't imagine any scenario where knowing that bad things could be happening is more comforting than knowing that they are not.
Pretty sure I wouldn't be worried about any of that on vacation. If I had the slightest idea layoff could be happening I sure wouldn't be spending the money on a vacation anyway.
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@scottalanmiller said:
When I worked for a massive bank (hundreds of thousands of people) it was nice to know our boss was still our boss, that layoffs had not hit our group, that I wasn't reassigned or whatever.
I have to unplug from that stuff, had to learn to let it go; caring too much was going to destroy me.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Pretty sure I wouldn't be worried about any of that on vacation. If I had the slightest idea layoff could be happening I sure wouldn't be spending the money on a vacation anyway.
It's always a risk. Always. With that mentality, I'd never do anything.
Actually, it was while laid off that we did our epic 2012 month in Europe. We knew it was a chance to disconnect more than usual as the "bad" had already happened. Was the best vacation ever.
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Unlike @scottalanmiller, my problem with disconnecting is simply due to being such a small organization.
But, the biggest issue with that is changing. The person I hired part time is quite skilled. Once up to speed on all of our clients, she will be quite capable of handling pretty much anything other than a complete loss of a facility.
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@JaredBusch Feel you on that one, I was a one man show a few years ago. Tough to let it go.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Pretty sure I wouldn't be worried about any of that on vacation. If I had the slightest idea layoff could be happening I sure wouldn't be spending the money on a vacation anyway.
It's always a risk. Always. With that mentality, I'd never do anything.
Being Fired is always a risk. Death is a risk, Walking is a risk. But why are you worrying about stuff like that unless there's a big chance of it happening? There's no point in worrying about things out of your control.
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@JaredBusch said:
Unlike @scottalanmiller, my problem with disconnecting is simply due to being such a small organization.
But, the biggest issue with that is changing. The person I hired part time is quite skilled. Once up to speed on all of our clients, she will be quite capable of handling pretty much anything other than a complete loss of a facility.
@MattSpeller said:
@JaredBusch Feel you on that one, I was a one man show a few years ago. Tough to let it go.
My last two offices were of that sort. Supporting 75 users and then nearly 300 in multiple counties where the farthest two offices would have had me driving more than three and a half hours...
It was a bit of a love-no love relationship. And yes @MattSpeller some what difficult to let go of. However - as I type this I realize with a great community such as ML; with folks such as yourself, @JaredBusch @scottalanmiller @Minion-Queen and many, many others,.. it really wasn't a one person show.
Great people make it easier.
As for disconnecting... while I have four computers going right now (I'm only really using two),.. I'm slamming some keys on a 1920s Underwood #5 Typewriter.... How about that for being 'disconnected'.....
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
Pretty sure I wouldn't be worried about any of that on vacation. If I had the slightest idea layoff could be happening I sure wouldn't be spending the money on a vacation anyway.
It's always a risk. Always. With that mentality, I'd never do anything.
Being Fired is always a risk. Death is a risk, Walking is a risk. But why are you worrying about stuff like that unless there's a big chance of it happening? There's no point in worrying about things out of your control.
Risk - life is a risk.. It's about managing it along the way.
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@g.jacobse said:
However - as I type this I realize with a great community such as ML; with folks such as yourself, @JaredBusch @scottalanmiller @Minion-Queen and many, many others,.. it really wasn't a one person show.
Great people make it easier.
Impossible to agree more, this is an awesome community
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@MattSpeller said:
@g.jacobse said:
However - as I type this I realize with a great community such as ML; with folks such as yourself, @JaredBusch @scottalanmiller @Minion-Queen and many, many others,.. it really wasn't a one person show.
Great people make it easier.
Impossible to agree more, this is an awesome community
Yeah it's pretty great. even with 90% of our threads going off topic.
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@MattSpeller said:
@JaredBusch Feel you on that one, I was a one man show a few years ago. Tough to let it go.
I can let go. I do not have that problem. Just have not had a backup for a bit over 3 years.
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Like Scott, I find being connected and knowing that nothing has gone wrong more relaxing than being disconnected and getting anxious over all the ways that disaster could have struck.
I get an e-mail from our Veeam server which tells me that the backups were a success. This normally arrives close to bed time, and seeing that e-mail header saying "[Success] 16 VMs" helps me get to sleep. I'm even thinking of changing the e-mail header so it says "Goodnight and sleep tight Carnival Boy xxxx".
Obviously, when it fails it's not so great. But if I worked in an environment where lots of bad things happened I might need to rethink my always connected attitude. In that environment I might need a disconnected holiday just to unwind.
However, whilst most colleagues know that if I'm on holiday I'd rather not be disturbed, there are a few now who phone and text me with minor shit. This is starting to wind me up. So I've decided to get a second phone and will only tell 3 trusted colleagues the number. So they know that if the shit hits the fan they can text me on this secret number and say "check your main phone!"
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@thecreativeone91 said:
Being Fired is always a risk. Death is a risk, Walking is a risk. But why are you worrying about stuff like that unless there's a big chance of it happening? There's no point in worrying about things out of your control.
Human nature. When not "on vacation" I have the constant knowledge that nothing bad has happened. This is the nature of having grown up in the era of telephones. You know if the phone hasn't wrung, nothing really bad has happened. Take that away and it is a brake in the ecosystem that you have every moment of your life from birth to death. It's a comfort, an assurance that every part of life has.... until we do an "unplugging" thing once in a while where we create the inability to have that assurance.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Like Scott, I find being connected and knowing that nothing has gone wrong more relaxing than being disconnected and getting anxious over all the ways that disaster could have struck.
I get an e-mail from our Veeam server which tells me that the backups were a success. This normally arrives close to bed time, and seeing that e-mail header saying "[Success] 16 VMs" helps me get to sleep. I'm even thinking of changing the e-mail header so it says "Goodnight and sleep tight Carnival Boy xxxx".
Obviously, when it fails it's not so great. But if I worked in an environment where lots of bad things happened I might need to rethink my always connected attitude. In that environment I might need a disconnected holiday just to unwind.
However, whilst most colleagues know that if I'm on holiday I'd rather not be disturbed, there are a few now who phone and text me with minor shit. This is starting to wind me up. So I've decided to get a second phone and will only tell 3 trusted colleagues the number. So they know that if the shit hits the fan they can text me on this secret number and say "check your main phone!"
I can handle disconnecting from the emails and most of the stuff. I can happily go off the grid, not get alerts and that sort of stuff. I can completely stop working, believe it or not. It's rare, but I'll do it. But I need to still have something, even if only a phone and knowing that someone is out there on the other end making sure that if there is really something bad happening that I'll get told. Then, as long as the phone doesn't ring, I can disconnect.
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From someone who is addicted to the great blogosphere, a week without internet is nuts...when I was in Alaska, I found every wifi cafe I could, be that a McDonalds, etc. It was still hard. Still, in some ways it's kinda nice.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
However, whilst most colleagues know that if I'm on holiday I'd rather not be disturbed, there are a few now who phone and text me with minor shit.
This annoys the crap out of me. It has always happened a lot with me. I've never spent the money on a second phone plan as I've never gotten phone stipends/reimbursements for the work use of my personal phone. But, yeah that's the worst part. Honestly I don't think everyone in the company should have IT folks personal Cells nor should it be on a list for people to call/text as it has been in my case. It would make more sense if stuff had to be filtered through managers/CEOs. Owners. etc first before bothering someone who is off of work.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
However, whilst most colleagues know that if I'm on holiday I'd rather not be disturbed, there are a few now who phone and text me with minor shit.
This annoys the crap out of me. It has always happened a lot with me. I've never spent the money on a second phone plan as I've never gotten phone stipends/reimbursements for the work use of my personal phone. But, yeah that's the worst part. Honestly I don't think everyone in the company should have IT folks personal Cells nor should it be on a list for people to call/text as it has been in my case. It would make more sense if stuff had to be filtered through managers/CEOs. Owners. etc first before bothering someone who is off of work.
The handy thing is that in the US, you are guaranteed that vacation time. So if the company has people doing that, you are on full pay and haven't started your vacation yet. You have to be willing to enact the employment protection laws, but federal law is extremely clear on the sanctity of your break and vacation time. Making you work means you are working and they have to pay you, they have no choice.
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@scottalanmiller said:
The handy thing is that in the US, you are guaranteed that vacation time. So if the company has people doing that, you are on full pay and haven't started your vacation yet. You have to be willing to enact the employment protection laws, but federal law is extremely clear on the sanctity of your break and vacation time. Making you work means you are working and they have to pay you, they have no choice.
What law are you referring to? If it's paid time off they can still ask you do to work. Of course in VA there are different labor laws for governments. For example they didn't have to pay us over time, as the state law allows government organizations to not pay and just add time to your future time off (but of course they don't have to grant your time off request). It's odd for sure.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
The handy thing is that in the US, you are guaranteed that vacation time. So if the company has people doing that, you are on full pay and haven't started your vacation yet. You have to be willing to enact the employment protection laws, but federal law is extremely clear on the sanctity of your break and vacation time. Making you work means you are working and they have to pay you, they have no choice.
What law are you referring to? If it's paid time off they can still ask you do to work. Of course in VA there are different labor laws for governments. For example they didn't have to pay us over time, as the state law allows government organizations to not pay and just add time to your future time off (but of course they don't have to grant your time off request). It's odd for sure.
Federal US labor law protects your compensation earned. Vacation time is part of that. If they make you work during it they have to still pay you for the vacation AND pay for you working. It's part of basic compensation law.
IT is famous for allowing companies to break the law and believe that they are not protected. And companies have learned to leverage this. But your compensation is yours and it is sacred. Once earned they cannot take it away. And states have no power to override federal law, thankfully.
