Sometimes Nothing Works.

The article narrates some information technology (IT) -related life experiences. It is the early 1990s, and this IT shop has constant problems with its mainframe operating system. Systems analyst at a defense contractor designs and develops an automated notification system for calling up reservists during an emergency. Today, he is an IT director. Imagine my surprise when I received a job application from someone who worked for the same defense contractor, and claimed he had designed and developed that same system for calling up reservists. He did not get the job. A system analyst reports that updates would not apply, patches broke more than they fixed, some fixes could never run. Finally, vendor's regional manager makes a personal visit and says he needs specific details on these issues. The analyst is glad to oblige. I get to the fourth incident in anguishing detail, he reports, when the regional manager throws up his hands and says, I really can't deal with so much detail--what I need is the overview. When asked why a computer maintenance employee keeps leaving early from work, a co-worker answered, our office hours are from 8 to 5, but he frequently left an hour, even two hours early. Turns out he was watching the clock on the computers he was fixing. Many of them came from different time zones, some of them earlier than ours. He watches his own clock now.