Support matters

[Jeff Bowles]

In article <115 at feedme.UUCP> doug at feedme.UUCP (Doug Salot) writes:
>In article <150 at obie.UUCP> wes at obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes) writes:
>[about paying for support, e.g. Unisys Xenix]
>>                                                                    Do
>>you know how much it costs to have 4 or 5 software/engineering types
>>work a weekend? 
>
>There are companies that pay engineers for overtime?!  Unisys, here
>I come.

For software support, you can't really mold customer needs into a
strict 9-to-5 environment, and MUST be able to provide the service
to customers. The juggling act is that the basic demands during the
business day remain, and that there's little time to recover from
staying 'til 10 PM one night helping someone recover files using
fsdb because he/she forgot to verify a backup. In many other positions,
you get that recovery time.

So many places pay overtime for software support. It was one of the
hits when I left support --- I moved to an area with a higher cost
of living, no salary adjustment, and stopped getting overtime. It
really hit my lifestyle hard.

And if I ever get my hands on the manager responsible for the middle
one (no salary adjustment to compensate for higher cost of living) it'll
be messy.

	Jeff Bowles