[HN Gopher] 25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work
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25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work
I made a similar post last year at this time and, again, I am in my
office on Christmas morning. There are a few days every year that
really show which jobs are vital and which can be left aside for a
day. I started my car this morning (-32, -40 with wind chill). On
my way to work I drove past a hospital and a care home, both were
manned. The dairy farm had its lights on. A cop with his flashers
drove past me on the way to some emergency. The macdonalds drive-
through was open too. I had to be at work by 0600, but I was
relieving someone who had been sitting in another office since
1800. On my computer were the same dozen emails I get every
morning, each from someone else who drew the short straw. There
aren't many of us on HN that work weekends let alone Christmas
morning, but If you too are sitting in a dark office remember that
all across the world are millions of other people working the truly
important jobs.
Author : sandworm101
Score : 656 points
Date : 2021-12-25 15:17 UTC (7 hours ago)
| Avisite wrote:
| sillyinseattle wrote:
| Dropped off my wife at work around 7. She's on call at the
| hospital. Fortunately, it is not -40 here ;-) Happy holidays all!
| ozfive wrote:
| Many thanks to your wife for carrying on caring for the sick
| and dying. Especially in times like these. There are many
| people that actively think about healthcare workers and the
| unrelenting work that it entails.
| sillyinseattle wrote:
| Thankfully, things are not too crazy at the children's
| hospital at present. Of course, the kids still there are the
| ones too sick to be sent home :( . But the staff bring them
| gifts and there's a holiday meal for everyone: patients,
| their families and staff :)
| matwood wrote:
| Back when I worked in fine dining, I worked every holiday because
| it was great money. It wasn't a really important job or anything,
| but still needed to get done. My dad worked in a factory, and
| also worked some part of every holiday. Even now, I volunteer for
| holiday coverage if needed.
|
| The world doesn't stop because it's some made up day on the
| calendar. Thank you to all those who keep the world going.
| maerF0x0 wrote:
| And to think there's a strange few who want to suggest that you
| important folks who work overtime, are on call 24/7 for dangerous
| high demand jobs should not earn more than those of us who don't?
| Well I hope you keep being compensated, and I hope you'll accept
| my thanks
|
| (I'm on HN as a time kill as I wait for my family to call me)
| erikpukinskis wrote:
| Who said that?
| maerF0x0 wrote:
| Those who want same pay for same title and experience w/o
| variance in looking at very difficult to price details like
| overtime, contribution, and sacrificing family time for work
| etc.
| dogmatism wrote:
| At the hospital today. Let me tell you, if you're in the hospital
| on Christmas, you've either got serious socio-economic problems,
| or are sick as shit. Most years, it's a little slower than usual,
| but not this year
| tomcam wrote:
| I retired from an easy job (sold the business for a dollar) and
| I'm now building a new business from scratch. Heading into my
| seventh decade and working seven days a week for months now.
|
| Mine is definitely not a truly important job. I have the same
| attitude as you and sometimes I'll forget it's a holiday and when
| I go out, say to the local McDonald's, I'll leave a huge tip and
| thank them for working.
| ipaddr wrote:
| Why can't you do your job remotely?
| bargle0 wrote:
| They're doing a military job that involves "rooms without
| windows" and potentially emergency situations.
| midasuni wrote:
| Even seen the start of WarGames?
| throwawayfarmer wrote:
| Thanks for the dairy farm wave! 3:30 start, stop at 9:30. Back
| again at 13:30 and finishing 17:30.
|
| A long day, but it was satisfying.
|
| Plus the animals don't know it's Christmas.
| rootveg wrote:
| This year I had vacation for Christmas and New Years... but then
| I got covid on a plane to SF. I stayed 10 days in quarantine in a
| hotelroom (with only two days of mild symptoms). Today I finished
| quarantine and tomorrow ill be flying back to europe... thank you
| everyone who worked through Christmas and thank you for your
| service sandworm101
| Symbiote wrote:
| Hopefully you can claim back the vacation days.
|
| (I don't know if this is all of the EU/EEA/UK, or just some
| countries.)
| davemtl wrote:
| I also drew the short straw for on-call this weekend. I've
| probably already clocked up 10hrs following a network failure at
| one of our datacenters.
|
| I'm not an essential worker, but I want to pass on my Christmas
| wishes to people who are; doctors, nurses, healthcare assistance,
| ambulance crews, fire crews, police and everyone else who keeps
| the world turning over the Christmas holiday. Thank you all for
| your hard work!
| titanomachy wrote:
| In my opinion "essential worker" is a very blurred line. People
| depend on technology and the internet. There are real
| consequences when things stop working.
| midasuni wrote:
| In the U.K. there was a lot of yabbering about "key workers"
| during lockdown. Nobody even mentioned the people working in
| power plants.
| oxplot wrote:
| Interesting that what you describe as special is what I consider
| normal working environment for myself: quiet, empty and just me
| humming along. And I don't get that _except_ on weekends and
| holidays.
| gentleman11 wrote:
| I have a really hard time on my days off taking my mind off work.
| Shout out to everyone else who is accidentally getting distracted
| today by problem solving when they are trying their best to be
| present with their families
| mabbo wrote:
| I used to be like this as well. Vacations of less than 5 days
| were meaningless because it took me that long to stop thinking
| about work!
|
| But I managed to un-learn this habit. I work 9:30 to 5:30. I
| turn off my work brain outside of that. It's not easy, but it's
| worth practicing.
| scrapcode wrote:
| I am lucky enough to be home with my small immediate family this
| morning. I spent most prior to this in basic training, deployed
| on a military mission, working in federal prisons, or some other
| seemingly less-than-desirable place. I grew to enjoy some of
| those days. There was a type of camaraderie amongst the folks
| that drew that short straw- and it was widely accepted that we
| were just there 'to put out fires.' Often times we would get a
| short visit from 'higher ups' and get that few seconds to connect
| on a more personal level. It drew out a bit of a different side
| from the 'extra alpha' types of some of these places that I used
| to work.
|
| Not that any of that is better than being with family- just an
| added perspective. Happy holidays!
| tyronehed wrote:
| rootbear wrote:
| Quite a few of my NASA colleagues worked today to launch the
| James Webb Space Telescope, and I'm sure most of them didn't mind
| working on Christmas.
|
| And I certainly appreciate all of those who work on the holidays
| to keep us safe.
| seanw444 wrote:
| If any of them are reading this comment section, thank you NASA
| engineers for launching such an awesome Christmas present. I'm
| looking very forward to seeing the photos of the successor to
| the Hubble. Hubble had already given us such historical photos,
| and now we'll have an even better picture. Truly a landmark in
| history if all goes well.
| jtchang wrote:
| I'd be stoked to launch a space telescope as a christmas
| present! Congrats to them!
| amildie wrote:
| Thank you, and your team, for your amazing work.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| A friend of mine is in Kourou, I think she would've preferred
| to launch a few days ago so she'd be able to spend Christmas
| and New Year's with loved ones
| junon wrote:
| Thank you and your NASA colleagues for me please. The launch
| was beautiful.
| Simon_O_Rourke wrote:
| Thanks for all you and your team's efforts to advance human
| knowledge!
| legel wrote:
| Cheers to this! A fantastic day when decades of humanity's
| scientific dreams are successfully launched, to fuel the next
| generation of discovery.
| mabbo wrote:
| There's a Christmas every year. A major telescope launch is
| apparently once a generation.
| ido wrote:
| So why couldn't they delay the lunch by a week so everyone
| could spend Christmas with their families _and then_ launch
| it?
| sonicggg wrote:
| What's stopping anyone from staying with their family one
| or two weeks after Christmas?
|
| What's up with this fixation people have with arbitrary
| dates for celebration?
| neoberg wrote:
| Because those "arbitrary" dates are agreed on by many. So
| everyone can leave their works on the same day and gather
| together.
| hahajk wrote:
| There very specific times you can launch to establish
| desired orbits. Typically these windows only come once
| every month or two.
| dnautics wrote:
| Is that the case for an orbit around the earth-sun
| Lagrange point? It seems like anytime should be GTG
| sandworm101 wrote:
| True. I don't think this is an orbital launch window
| thing. Rather, the date seemed to be driven by
| operational necessities (range safety, weather, the
| practicalities of getting the rocket ready etc).
| skapadia wrote:
| The launching of this telescope is FAR more important and
| beneficial to humanity than an arbitrary holiday that
| celebrates the winter solstice.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| >> apparently once a generation
|
| I hope not. This one is only going to last 10 years. Kepler
| also only lasted 10 years. Given the time it took to build
| it, I hope the JWST's replacement is already well into
| development. The reality is that space telescopes are
| launched every couple years without much fanfare. This just
| happens to be a very big and expensive one.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_telescopes
| gibolt wrote:
| Hopefully this restraint will become less significant for
| future missions. Starship should mean larger payload volume
| (less folding/structure required), far more payload
| capacity, far lower costs, and more frequent flights.
|
| Refueling and refurbishment costs should become much more
| acceptable as viable approaches emerge due to dropping
| ticket cost to space.
| rjn wrote:
| only reason for 10 years is fuel, I think they are working
| on a robot to refuel it to increase the lifetime.
| mobilefriendly wrote:
| Let's hope Starship lift capacity will make Webb obsolete in
| a decade!
| eganist wrote:
| Doubtful considering how long it took to put JWST together.
| What, 30 years almost?
|
| Granted a lot of that was scope creep but nonetheless, I'm
| betting it's not launch capacity that's the bottleneck.
| Kye wrote:
| The available launch vehicles probably demanded a certain
| amount of ambition in the plans. You can't launch small
| experimental telescopes with a short planned operation on
| the shuttle. It's too expensive just to show up with
| anything less than Hubble's successor. Now the new space
| race is aiming at making access to space cheap and
| common.
|
| Whatever follows probably won't be a big telescope. It'll
| be all the little experiments that couldn't find funding
| over those 30 years because there was nothing to launch
| them without breaking the budget. There's a lot of
| progress deferred because every launch had to be big.
| dr_dshiv wrote:
| Fast, cheap and out of control!
| sandworm101 wrote:
| >> probably won't be a big telescope.
|
| It will be another infrared telescope. Hubble's
| capabilities have been all but surpassed by ground-based
| optics. Some of the new giant telescopes already being
| built will easily surpass Hubble (100+foot mirrors etc).
| What JWST does is see in infrared, something that ground-
| based telescopes can never do as IR is absorbed by
| atmosphere. So whatever replaces JWST will likely be
| another, bigger, IR telescope.
|
| https://www.tmt.org/page/about
|
| >>With its 30m diameter prime-mirror, TMT will be three
| times as wide, with nine times more area, than the
| largest currently existing visible-light telescope in the
| world. This will provide an unparalleled resolution, with
| TMT images more than 12 times sharper than those from the
| Hubble Space Telescope.
| Buttons840 wrote:
| Yeah. I commented to my family that this telescope took
| multiple countries years to build. I'm not sure if it's just
| that difficult, or if budgets are too small.
| devoutsalsa wrote:
| The JWST has a number of trailblazing technologies. Real
| Engineering did a great video on it:
|
| https://youtu.be/aICaAEXDJQQ
| gootler wrote:
| cafard wrote:
| I think that the last time I worked on Christmas I was a busboy,
| likely at a Holiday Inn. That really doesn't compare with work in
| health care or public safety, but I'm sure that the customers--
| some of them probably employed in critical work--were grateful
| for clean tables and coffee refills.
| stochastician wrote:
| This is an incredible post, and thank you for the mission
| critical work that you do. I'm always curious what other people's
| work lives are like -- can you talk a little bit about your job,
| the tasks you're working on today, and how the people you
| interact with on a day like today (customers, clients, coworkers)
| could make today a little easier / more fun?
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Military. Empty building. Sitting at a desk looking at computer
| screens. No cellphones allowed. I cannot leave my office
| because I might not hear my phone ring. Work involves talking
| to other people in basically the same situation at other bases.
| Not much real work going on. This is what we call "minimum
| manning". Everyone retains full capacity to act at any moment
| but don't actually do anything unless necessary.
| eslav wrote:
| Thank you for doing what needs to be done.
|
| Are you allowed to stream video or audio?
| [deleted]
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Allowed is a loaded word. I am accessing HN through an
| unsecured network. We aren't "allowed" to stream because it
| can quickly overwhelm shared bandwidth but I do have that
| ability.
| bastijn wrote:
| Cheers to those that are working. Not to say that jobs that don't
| work on x-mas aren't important of course. To those that aren't
| working but also have truly important jobs, catch you on the
| flipside in 2022!
| pjerem wrote:
| My grandmother is hospitalized at home after a huge stroke.
|
| Her nurse just left our house for the second time of this
| Christmas Day for taking care of her while we were in family.
|
| Thanks to his work, I was able to spend Christmas with my family,
| including my grandmother.
|
| That's some badass important job.
| Shared404 wrote:
| Side note:
|
| I don't know how many people on HN are nurses/doctors, but
| thank you all for everything over the past couple years,
| especially now.
|
| We as a society have failed you guys, I just wish we could all
| do better.
|
| Edit: Just realized this could read as me criticizing GP, this
| is not what I intended, this comment just made me realize this
| sentiment more fully.
| akmd wrote:
| From an ER doc working in remote Alaska today, thank you.
| These have been trying years for all of us and while no one I
| know in the field expects to hear "thank you" for doing our
| jobs it certainly feels good.
| nlh wrote:
| Thanks for doing what you do! (What is it that you do?)
| trentnix wrote:
| I worked at a convenience store when I was in high school and
| worked several Christmas Day shifts. Although I haven't done it
| since, it gave me an immense respect for those who do show up and
| keep the gears on this machine going. Tip of the hat to all of
| you, and Merry Christmas!
| CyberRabbi wrote:
| Many of my HFT friends are busy working today preparing for the
| markets to open on Monday. Lots of people from a diversity of
| circumstances are working today, I appreciate all their work!
| luckman212 wrote:
| HFT is to work as NFT is to art.
| midasuni wrote:
| Thus proving the hypothesis that "all jobs that need to work at
| Christmas are truly important" to be rubbish.
| rasengan wrote:
| I work every day - the world moves too fast. Regulations are the
| new moats, but holidays and weekends were the moats in the past
| -- 260 days in a year vs 365 - who will produce more?
| Gene_Parmesan wrote:
| There is more to life than how much one can produce, surely.
| You may be interested in a little piece of literature called A
| Christmas Carol - the core of the message is as accurate now as
| it was when it was written, if not more so, and I personally
| believe that core applies whether you celebrate Christmas or
| not. (I'm obviously being a little facetious as I assume most
| if not all of us are intimately familiar with the tale - I
| personally like the George C. Scott version!)
| atlgator wrote:
| +1 for the Patrick Stewart version
| midasuni wrote:
| Patrick Stewart is great, but for me the definitive version
| is the one with Michael Caine
| steve_g wrote:
| Isn't that the muppet version? That is a great one.
| yreg wrote:
| A job being done during holidays is not necessarily vital or
| _truly important_.
|
| Working at the hospital is a vital job, keeping an important
| server running is a vital job and driving a mass transit bus is a
| vital job as well.
|
| On the other hand keeping McDonald's open is not vital, it is
| just economically sensible.
| chuckSu wrote:
| dlivingston wrote:
| Traveling families and busy 'essential workers' need food, gas,
| and basic necessities. Access to quick food (McDonalds in this
| case), gas stations, and convenience stores are just as vital
| as anything!
| yreg wrote:
| >Convenience stores are as vital as anything!
|
| How come it is illegal to keep them open during public
| holidays in much of Europe then? I find hospitals a tad more
| important.
| NoSorryCannot wrote:
| _Just_ as vital? If you had to choose between closing a
| hospital or a McDonald's, you would choose at random?
|
| I hear what you are saying. Gas stations are vital
| transitively from the vital jobs that require gas, such as
| ambulance services. But I could still rank them as less vital
| than the services themselves, enabling me to at least close
| some gas stations. Fast food would be far down the list
| because it is predictable and trivial to plan around.
| sandmank wrote:
| i guess i'm technically working but i'm just shooting video and
| playing with guns so it's more like recreation
| mc32 wrote:
| When I was going to college and worked part time, I'd volunteer
| to work as many holidays as I could as it meant getting paid
| double time!!!
| oumua_don17 wrote:
| Cant thank enough folks like sandworm101 who keep the society
| running giving the rest of us the flexibility to spend time with
| our loved ones. Deep gratitude
| sandermvanvliet wrote:
| I've had plenty of on-call shifts at Christmas and New Year's Eve
| and it's always a special time somehow.
|
| High five to all of you at work today!
| krallja wrote:
| I love taking on-call over the holidays, because with nobody
| deploying anything, there's a much lower risk of being paged!
| sandermvanvliet wrote:
| I did get a number of pages during those times. This was in
| port of rotterdam which is basically always busy, little bit
| less on holidays but still.
|
| There is that sort of special vibe with the other people
| working though. Same as an overnight deployment when everyone
| else is asleep
| ncpa-cpl wrote:
| I am on call today too. Fortunately not much has happened
| today. Last two years it was very different though, with day
| long conference calls for issues.
| sandermvanvliet wrote:
| Take care, hope the quiet holds!
| enduser wrote:
| My wife had already delivered one baby by the time I had tea this
| morning, fewer than 2 hours into her 24-hour shift.
|
| I miss her today and am also very proud of the work she does
| (Nurse Midwife).
| midasuni wrote:
| If I were having a baby I'd hope the midwife wasn't at the end
| of a 24 hour shift!
| ok_dad wrote:
| Thanks for keeping things in the world running everyone here. I'm
| at fine with my family but I appreciate your odd hours.
| pkdpic wrote:
| > remember that all across the world are millions of other people
| working the truly important jobs
|
| Im going to assume this wasn't intenional but it came off as a
| little negative given the rest of the positivity in this sweet
| message.
|
| It just got me thinking about underpaid educators and childcare
| workers who for the most part are off today. Really everyone,
| we're all in this together right? Keeping this whole crazy
| machine running for each other.
|
| Regardless this was a nice thing to see bubble up today, merry
| christmas HN!
| diob wrote:
| Yeah I agree. This reads to me more as one of those folks who
| is always trying to one up. Oh, you're tired? Well I got less
| sleep than that!
|
| Shout out to everyone who decided not to work today because of
| work life balance. You're the real mvp, in my opinion. We are
| humans, not machines.
| aza05001 wrote:
| just because OP stated jobs on Christmas are the truly
| important ones doesn't imply that other jobs that don't work
| Christmas aren't important. Your logic is the same logic as
| people getting offended by "Black lives matter" and them saying
| "all lives matter".
| systemvoltage wrote:
| > Im going to assume this wasn't intenional but it came off as
| a little negative given the rest of the positivity in this
| sweet message.
|
| I'm not following your logic here. How is this a negative
| thing? OP is literally praising people for their dedication
| with good faith intentions.
| aerovistae wrote:
| Because it could be interpreted to imply that "even if your
| job isn't important, lots of us have jobs that are." I think
| it's the "truly" that makes it just slightly ambiguous. Maybe
| if they had said "also working" to make it sound like the
| audience was included in the statement, idk.
|
| I don't think it was negative, but I can definitely see how
| someone could take it that way. I saw a glimmer of it.
| tharkun__ wrote:
| I had the same thinking as you after reading the first part
| about it sounding negative. I didn't read it like that at
| all.
|
| The last part makes it clear though. Child education is a
| truly important job.
|
| I think emphasis also changes this subtly. I.e. did you read
| it in a neutral "truly important jobs" way or for example
| with emphasis only truly. "_truly_ important jobs_". Like
| "yeah yeah educator is important but not really. Only these
| other jobs are the really important ones, like burger flipper
| at McD". Well to be honest that does read quite negative to
| me!
| systemvoltage wrote:
| It's so subtle, I am willing to give OP the benefit of the
| doubt. This level of pedantry in a rather innoucious post
| is kind of worrying though. Sorry to bring this up at all,
| since I was confused.
|
| Happy holidays!
| azertykeys wrote:
| I think the key word that makes it perhaps slightly negative
| is "the". Take that out and it's totally fine. The "the"
| specifies it and implies the jobs that take Christmas off
| aren't as important.
| mproud wrote:
| Last year, we had to work from home and do other kind of work, it
| was sprung upon us we were working on Xmas -- no room for
| negotiation.
|
| Thankfully, this year, unlike last, I was able to visit my family
| not only for Thanksgiving, but also Xmas -- I only have to work
| the 26th.
|
| Happy Holidays, everyone!
| dougmwne wrote:
| Thank you for keeping the lights on for the rest of us. Wishing
| you a well deserved holiday soon!
| techgnome wrote:
| Water distribution manager for a small municipal water district -
| sanitation never stops. I was happily only required to do about
| two hours onsite this morning, and have remote monitoring for the
| tanks and chlorine levels. Merry Christmas to those who
| celebrate!
| koksik202 wrote:
| I remember oncall during Christmas for cloud provider almost no
| pages all day, easy money
| omarhaneef wrote:
| There are lots of people for who Xmas isn't a thing -- different
| background etc.
|
| I always thought it would make sense to let us handle Xmas duty
| so others -- people for whom it really, really matters - can do
| their Xmas stuff.
|
| I used to try to volunteer for this when it was relevant (really,
| it's not a thing for me), but I rarely saw a systematic
| opportunity to do so.
|
| I think it gets harder as time goes because the replacement day
| (say a random day in Jun) isn't as quiet because the rest of the
| economy is not turned off.
| hellbannedguy wrote:
| smoe wrote:
| It works a bit like this in Swiss hospitals. Or at least used
| to. Might have gotten LEANed away.
|
| I have fond memories of christmas dinner as a child/teenager,
| not because of any religious affiliation but because it was one
| of the few times a year the family of six, three of which work
| in hospitals, spent a day or so together. There were few
| overlaps of free time otherwise.
|
| I don't remember the exact mechanics how it worked, but I think
| work schedules get set about 6 months in advance with some
| employee input about their preferences, and employees can to a
| degree swap shifts with each other. So e.g. it was quite common
| for people with kids to take christmas off, whereas young
| singles or from different backgrounds took new years or any
| other day.
| baby wrote:
| I wish we could do this for most holidays. There's a lot of US
| holidays I really don't care about (like thanks giving). Just
| give me PTO instead! My first manager allowed me to do that, I
| thought that was really cool.
| davchana wrote:
| Exactly. I volunteered (along with 2 others) yesterday to
| relieve & go home 4 hours early (paid). I would get those 4
| hours anytime next month.
| ianai wrote:
| That seems like an ok sentiment when it's opt-in. At a former
| place of work, I would be assigned all holidays and hours
| people didn't want to work because "I'm a single guy with no
| kids/fiance". I'd almost exclusively work those shifts alone,
| too. It was absolutely based on who stroked who's ego the most.
| This was for little more than minimum wage in a tech department
| and no such thing as differentials.
|
| Glad that's over.
| cortesoft wrote:
| There is a difference between assuming single people don't
| care about holidays and realizing that not everyone
| celebrates the same holidays.
| grogenaut wrote:
| When I worked in Amazon retail many of the India and China
| immigrants happily and proactively traded Christmas and New
| Years oncall for black Friday/Cyber Monday. Or many other
| holidays. Heck the kids who were spending their first holidays
| away from home did it to have something to do.
|
| Pre pandemic there was always a cool feel of working a chill
| holiday day with just a few others, compared to the insanity of
| those massive scale days. You also got to work on whatever you
| wanted as managers didn't plan anything.
| tsol wrote:
| I try to do this as well, and in exchange they usually are good
| about me taking my holidays off(in my case Eid). To me it's
| just another Saturday, so why not-- I see how much it means to
| people who celebrate it. Getting time and a half is nice too
| soheil wrote:
| > if you too are sitting in a dark office remember that all
| across the world are millions of other people working the truly
| important jobs.
|
| I totally get the sentiment, but please turn on some lights.
| torstenvl wrote:
| I volunteered to stand Command Duty so I'm spending Christmas
| morning in uniform with my sidearm sitting at a very, _very_
| quiet desk. Merry Christmas! Hodie Christus Natus Est!
| Victerius wrote:
| Branch? Are you statesides or overseas?
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Lol. I don't get to carry a gun, but I had a serious debate
| with myself re whether to put on my uniform. Then I thought: If
| the worst case scenario does happen, I might have to turn on
| the webcam in the special room, the one with no windows. I
| don't want to be the one guy in jeans during that meeting.
| sshine wrote:
| I'm sure having to wear a uniform gets tiresome.
|
| But always dressing comfy means you never get to express that
| side. Having only used the office once a week in the last
| many months, I would consistently overdress when making an
| appearance. There is something nice about making an effort at
| dressing that correlates with wanting to make a bigger effort
| in general.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| That is a very common misconception about the military. The
| uniform makes life easier. I never have to worry about
| fashion. I never have to figure out what is or is not
| appropriate attire for a specific meeting. It is very
| liberating.
|
| >> about making an effort at dressing that correlates with
| wanting to make a bigger effort in general.
|
| If you want to make the effort, military uniforms allow
| that too. The military is full of people who put that extra
| effort into their uniforms every day. They have the mirror-
| polished boots, the perfectly-fitted shirts. Their patches
| and ribbons are always perfect. Their beret is moulded into
| that perfect shape. The average civi cannot spot it but
| everyone on a base can see who wears the uniform best.
|
| Every drill sergeant is a diva. Every fighter pilot a slob
| who hasn't polished a boot since basic.
| rvba wrote:
| Dont the fighter pilots try to sound cool on the radio
| though? Like pracficing speaking with a certain accent.
| At least that's what was said in that SR71 story.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| They certainly try their best to look cool. All of the
| pilots I've worked with wore a flight suit every chance
| they got. They probably mow their lawns in Nomex and
| aviators.
| spockz wrote:
| Don't you have several dress uniforms for different
| occasions? Like three different ones? Combat, normal, and
| formal?
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Yup, but the rules are very clear as to when you wear
| each. 95% of the time I wear the combat camo stuff, which
| is great because you don't need to even iron it. Since
| covid has stopped most gathering/parades I haven't put on
| the more formal uniform in over a year.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| "In event conflict declared, break glass for comfy apparel."
| meepmorp wrote:
| cry havoc and let slip the sweatpants of war
| asdfasgasdgasdg wrote:
| I applaud the sentiment to encourage and celebrate the people who
| have to work difficult times. Although I don't think it was
| necessary for you to denigrate other workers (by saying that
| their roles are not _truly important_ ) who aren't working today.
| You can be important and vital without other people being
| unimportant.
| n8henrie wrote:
| Just getting to bed after an overnight in the ER and subsequent
| Christmas with the wife and kids. Thanks for the shout-out, and
| likewise for all the other cogs in the wheel.
|
| Discovered today that the hospital IT has decided to disable
| rebooting our computers through the usual Windows 10 menu, which
| I usually do at the beginning of each shift to optimize the
| chances of a smooth-running EHR. Power button still initiates a
| controlled shutdown. Unclear what they accomplished here.
| yobert wrote:
| I can't believe how bad the EHRs in ER settings seem to be. I
| run a small (but complete) EHR that never has these problems,
| but we don't have the right sales people I guess to get into
| these settings.
| tomrod wrote:
| Thank you sandworm101!
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| Yep. Still patching log4j.
| xeromal wrote:
| I had to do a patch tuesday for 6 hours even though I had the
| whole week off. Ugh.`
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| My whole vacation got cancelled :(
| xeromal wrote:
| That is pretty freaking miserable and would annoy me to no
| end. Are they going to let you take off your week at some
| point in the future?
| throwaway984393 wrote:
| I hope so. No official word yet but managers are "looking
| into it", it's a big company, end of the year, etc.
|
| What makes it feel like crap is how it's way more
| difficult to patch than it should be because we're never
| given time to clean up tech debt and every team does
| things differently, so everything is a mess. I actually
| haven't taken time off all year and feel pretty burnt
| out. Maybe time to polish the resume.
| xeromal wrote:
| Yeah, my company treats me very well so I was definitely
| willing to patch this thing during an unfortunate timing.
| If they were always treating me like shit, I polish up
| the resume too. You should do it.
| isoprophlex wrote:
| Thanks for keeping it real so the rest of us can get drunk and
| fatter. Hope you can get some time to relax your mind later on!
| barrenko wrote:
| All the best to you OP and everyone else.
| hashimotonomora wrote:
| Thank you for being grateful.
|
| Please also note that Christmas is not a thing for a lot of
| people. Jews, Chinese, Muslims.
| bell-cot wrote:
| True - but their cultures & religions having _different_
| special & sacred days does not much change the nature of "some
| people will have to work on those day".
|
| (Yes, when you've got enough diversity of cultures & religions,
| shifts can be swapped around so that nobody has to work...
| Nice, except that being one of those who work on those days is
| also something special.)
| Godel_unicode wrote:
| "Chinese" is not a religion. There are quite a large number of
| ethnically Chinese people who celebrate Christmas as a holy
| day. There are many more for whom it is a holiday. And many
| more who don't celebrate at all. Demographics are complicated.
| dlivingston wrote:
| Yawn. Christmas is ostensibly a religious holiday, yet those
| from all faiths and cultures celebrate it. I am an atheist and
| it is my favorite holiday by far. I know Jews and Buddhists and
| Hindus who celebrate.
|
| It is a _cultural_ holiday, not a _religious_ holiday. This is
| a very important point.
| hashimotonomora wrote:
| Christmas is literally Christ's mass. If there's a widespread
| religious celebration it's that.
| bachmeier wrote:
| Maybe a different way to state the point is that you need
| to distinguish between the relationship of Christmas to
| Christianity and the Christmas holiday (in the US). If you
| search on the history of Christmas, you'll find that until
| relatively recently (late 1800s) it wasn't even a holiday
| in the US. You will find that in some cases Christians
| passed laws punishing people for celebrating Christmas in
| the US. Easter was the dominant holiday in the very early
| church, with Christmas being relatively minor. We celebrate
| Christmas as we do in the US because it's an official
| holiday.
|
| This also says nothing of the Orthodox Christians that
| celebrate Christmas on a different day. The distinction is
| pretty clear for them - Dec 25 is purely a holiday, since
| that's not the day they celebrate the birth of Jesus.
| dlivingston wrote:
| Just as Easter is a celebration of _Ishtar_ , the
| Babylonian deity, and _All Hallow's Eve_ is a remembrance
| of departed saints.
| midasuni wrote:
| Christmas is literally a festival in the middle of winter
| with Turkey and family and lights and trees and a jolly fat
| man and presents and cheesy music and films we've watched a
| dozen times, nothing to do with religion.
|
| Your mileage may vary, and if it does involve religion good
| for you, but for millions it doesn't, but it's still the
| most wonderful time of the year.
| fortran77 wrote:
| What an insensitive take! It is a religious holiday. I don't
| celebrate it. It's fine if other people do.
|
| Stop trying to shove it down everyone's throat.
| dlivingston wrote:
| I'm not trying to shove it down anyone's throat; I'm just
| saying that culturally it has separated itself from
| religion almost completely and, because of that, is
| celebrated by people of all backgrounds and faiths.
| fortran77 wrote:
| I'm Jewish. None of the Jews I know celebrate Christmas,
| or any religion of another faith.
|
| I spent today (in London) at synagogue.
| megamix wrote:
| I think you just explained the cause of inflation :)
| jorgesborges wrote:
| I hopped on the bus this morning to work and it was empty except
| for one person, who I see every morning as we share the same bus
| schedule but we've never interacted before. This morning we
| smiled at each other and the empty bus, and almost laughed, like
| oh you too huh? Then we carried on as usual. It was nice!
| zw123456 wrote:
| Thanks to everyone who has to work on Christmas to keep essential
| things running for us !
| duxup wrote:
| I used to work Christmas pretty often.
|
| One job, PC support could be brutally busy.
|
| The other, tech support for some high end networking equipment
| was very quiet. I loved working holidays there. Mostly just
| played video games.
|
| Always strange how the jobs that pay less often are more work /
| tiresome.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Much of that depends on corporate culture. Often it is the
| lower-paid and more junior people who get the bad shifts. But
| in my organization (military) it is normal for the more senior
| people to work those shifts. Responsibility for mission-
| critical tasks falls upwards. If you are only going to have one
| person on shift, then that person cannot be a trainee. So all
| the people I interacted with this morning were relatively
| senior within their team.
| CharleFKane wrote:
| " But in my organization (military) it is normal for the more
| senior people to work those shifts."
|
| I remember reading a story about Jim Mattis (back before he
| was famous). A fellow general showed up, found Gen. Mattis
| was the duty officer on Christmas Day, and asked him how he
| got stuck with that.
|
| Gen. Mattis told him, "Well, the young man who was scheduled
| for duty today has a family, and I decided it was more
| important for him to spend the time with them. So I took his
| place."
| rationalfaith wrote:
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