Re: Reverse Performance Review -- MIDRANGE-L

Al,  I am 56.5 and feel your pain.  You go man.
----- Original Message -----
From: <MacWheel99@aol.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: Reverse Performance Review


> Dan
>
> There are some details I cannot go into due to confidentiality & to keep
me
> out of any more trouble.
> The company I work for is going through a period of financial belt
tightening
> imposed by the competitive and changing nature of our global market.
> This means that a lot of stuff I took for granted in the past is now being
> slashed.
> Also, I have aquired some bad habits that I need to work on reversing.
>
> Glenn Ericson asked a question & I figured it was partially for group
> discussion to indicate what programmers think we need in general that we
do
> not have that would help us be better employees & partially inspired by my
> original posting at a time that I was extremely frustrated & hurt, and now
> that I finally have a copy of the review, I am going through this again
> because I am seeing some words that I did not see the first time.  There
are
> several things that I would like that I think would to help with my
> productivity & sense of appreciation.
>
> Like at my review a year ago I said in all seriousness that I would like
to
> have my own parking spot, you know with my name on a plaque saying that is
my
> spot, that I would be willing to trade a small like 1% reduction in pay
raise
> to not have the hassle every day of whose parking spot to be invading, or
> park around where it is too dark to see my car when I leave at night, and
> step in a few puddles on the way there.  Management thought this was a big
> joke ... for a short time there was a crayon sign with my parking place -
it
> did not last.  This "joke" was rather annoying to me, but I did get a
raise
> last year, and performance ratings that were a reasonable facimile of my
> self-perception, which took that sting away.
>
> Usually I park in the loading dock because it is convenient to the back
door
> & if they ask me to move my car I hand them my car keys, knowing that when
> they get done with whatever they need the loading dock for, they usually
move
> my car back into it.
>
> I selected one example in my post for reply to Glenn's question.  There
are
> several things I would like to have that I think would translate into
> improved productivity for myself & my employer.  One of them is to wean me
> off of twinax & have me serve the users from a PC.  I believe this would
> accomplish a multitude of benefits.
>
> Back in the late 1990's when we left S/36 5360 to AS/436 I told them that
it
> would benefit the company if I could be weaned off diskettes.  At the time
we
> had an inventory of approx 3,500 8" diskettes & growing rapidly.  Although
I
> have not been entirely happy with tape technology, by comparison to
> diskettes, I do not regret that reccommendation that they followed.
>
> While it is true that TAATOOLS & ROBOT & other things have been on my wish
> list for many many years, there was the time 5 years or so ago when I was
> told there was a limited budget for upgrades & they wanted to know what
was
> the one thing on my list that in my opinion was best for the overall
company
> productivity.  I said hands down enough extra memory for cache so end
users
> would not have to suffer interactive degradation.  We got the memory.
Thanks
> to sizing questionairre we also got a faster processor.
>
> The world of technical information has dramatically changed in a few
years.
> I can no longer get a printed IBM reference manual for anything I need to
> work with.
> Some of them IBM does not publish anymore except on the internet.
> A few weeks ago after a lot of struggles, we got an IBM redbook downloaded
&
> printed at a local print shop & into a binder - if my boss had realized
what
> we were doing sooner he might have stopped the expense.  I told him in
> advance what I was doing, but he did not hear me ... part of the problem
with
> my inability to communicate effectively.
>
> When I was at IBM school, we had the manuals on the internet on one
session &
> the programming work we were doing on another session so any time
something
> came up that we were the least bit unfamiliar with, or needed to check
finer
> points of keywords, the internet connection to latest IBM manuals had the
> answers.  I wish I had that reality at present but I don't.
>
> On this list & others, I have made contacts which have provided shareware
> programs which are solutions to many of our problems, but how do I get
> internet download or e-mail into my source code?  Transcription is a
severe
> bottleneck.  We have instructions from various people how to do stuff, but
I
> have to work with PC guys who are even more busy than I, so it is do this
> when your time permits which could be months, by which time I have
forgotten
> why I wanted that.
>
> Right now I do all my e-mail & participation on AS400 network & e-commerce
&
> computer-security & etc. lists from my home PC - some of my interest is
> personal & the entertainment value of helping other people, but a lot of
the
> discussions I would not be in were it not for the need for continuing
> education that is current job related ... but even if I had PC connection
at
> the office I have my doubts if it makes sense to change that ... I can see
> people being harrassed for excess voice messages on their phones & disk
space
> for e-mails, so I would be more comfortable continuing to have several Gig
on
> my home PC to search out what I need to help me with my work, then forward
to
> the office only what needs to be cut & pasted into the 400.
>
> Should I work an hour less at the office because I spent an hour on
> continuing education from home?  Well the boss's work style & profession
is
> such that he does not see the value of this to me, then if I do less than
8
> hours at the office then I might be perceived as being a slacker.
>
> Some day I am going to sign up for the IBM performance tracking & I will
do
> that from my home PC.   But right at the moment I am a bit too busy with
> other things.  I suspect this will add to our limited disk space, so
> currently my focus is to clean out some problems that are consuming more
disk
> space than neccessary.  I also need to start Security Auditing to see if
it
> is safe to do certain upgrades & I am sure that will also eat some disk
space.
>
> I have been researching some Security Wizard issues, leading to
adjustments
> in some System Values - I go to the security sites from my home PC, then
look
> up the documentation on what that means & compare to what values we now
have
> & think through the implications ... result is that some of IBM
> reccommendations get implemented but not all of them & also thanks to
> discussions here, we also do some security upgrades that are not on IBM
> suggestion list.
>
> I am now age 57 & I have noticed that there is a lot of age descrimination
in
> the world & I am now at a company that does not practice it quite as much
as
> other places ... they recently persuaded the retirement of two co-workers.
> One was 64 & the other was 75.  Both had cut down their hours so they were
> working 3 day weeks and were suggesting further cut down.  I am at the
point
> with stress that I am taking a vacation day every other week.  I no longer
> care how many vacation days I have available ... I am too wiped.
>
> I was working 75-80 hour weeks during the 1998 conversion, then in summer
of
> 1999 we discovered by accident on BPCS_L that BPCS 405 CD Rel-2 had a
bunch
> of Y2K fixes in it.  We had decided in 1998 that we did not need what
Rel-2
> had to offer, but now panic city getting those fixes installed ... If my
> memory is correct, there were 3,000 fixes that were date related & I
> installed 95% of them in 4 months, then another crisis came along whose
> resolution was more important than getting Y2K compliant.  And I was glad
of
> it, it got me out from under a nightmare.
>
> When I was younger I could work 16+ hour days in a 6 day week during a
> conversion & also come in for 10 hours on the 7th day & keep going for
weeks
> so long as the stress was minimal.  I know darn well I cannot perform like
> that today.
>
> I need to be able to serve the needs of both PC users & twinax users.
> Without having much access to PC attached to 400, I am not experienced in
> their unique needs, so I cannot help their productivity by much.
>
> Currently our users are about 2/3 PC users & 1/3 twinax.
> In 1998 when we did our Y2K repair conversion the ratio was about 1/3 PC
> users & 2/3 twinax.
> At that time I suggested that it would be constructive if I had PC access
to
> project management tools & that this access be arranged in ample time for
me
> to learn how to use such tools, so they ended up giving me access to a
> co-worker PC, in which it was also convenient for me to access internet to
> look up IBM manuals like when the 400 backup was running to check out fine
> points associated with current activity, but that ended in 1999.
> Until the PC access was taken away from me, I was happy with this
arrangement
> because the company investment in PC connection was such that twinax users
> had faster 400 performance than PC users, but that gap is closing.
>
> Until our Y2K conversion, I was exclusively a S/36 programmer & I
considered
> myself to be a jedi master there, or close to it.  I am getting better at
400
> stuff but consider my 400 skills to be barely above average today.  My
skill
> set on 400 is in RPG/400 not IV ILE because the package we are managing is
> written in RPG/400, and I have managed to forget a lot of S/36 stuff &
what
> came before.
>
> I feel I really need to get better at programming related to what I am now
> managing before I expand my skill set to figuring out how to do serious
> enhancements using state-of-art language stuff & quite possibly the job
needs
> really are evolving where they want my knowlege of how the system works,
> communicated better to end users whose knowlege is not as thorough as
mine,
> rather than spending a lot of time improving it.
>
> MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)
>
>
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