snip........Our Y2K project has been running for over a year, with substantial resources. Staff seem to be suffering from fatigue. I'm worried that the quality of their work is suffering and I have personally witnessed corners being cut. How can I remotivate the team?

suggestions........urlhttp://www.computerweekly.co.uk/pagelink.asp?page=security

-- kevin (innxxs@yahoo.com), July 23, 1999

Answers

Buy them a years supply of dehydrated food!

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), July 23, 1999.

Kevin

This is really simple and it pays off. Send them home. Give them a four day weekend. Send them out to dinner with the SO or throw in sometihng like an American Express gift check.

This will recharge their batteries somewhat and mollify the spouse.

Why mollify the spouse? Because you can bet that if they're salaried and working tons of extra overtime the spouse will have something to say about working for free. Every other favor you asked for them will be dragged out and every single cancelled bonus and measly 3% raise despite all the pre-dawn pages will be a feature everytime a dinner is missed or fatigue causes a fight at home. Bet on it.

Oh, and the spouse will be right, too.

And now that I have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am an IT professional, Watch six and keep your...

-- eyes_open (best@wishes.net), July 23, 1999.

eyes -

Been there, done that. Had the long talks about workload and absence from home, sometimes via late-night phone from Right Coast to Left. Such fun when one of us would end the call by slamming the receiver down in frustration. Took me weeks to repair the relationship after one "deployment". *sigh*

Treat 'em good, kevin. These folks are risking vital relationships to fix systems that should have been fixed years ago.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), July 23, 1999.

I was in the state capitol in the lunch line yesterday and overheard two guys talking about Y2K. My ears perked up. One said the "y2K people" which I took to mean remdiation programmers, are currently pulling 15 hour days, 7 days a week. Even if everyone was not working to that degree, I could see how they would get fatigued. Nope, I do not know who they were are anything about them. They could have been on the cleaning crew for all I know. I simply was not surprised to overhear this discussion.

-- smfdoc (smfdoc@aol.com), July 23, 1999.

Every IT person I'm in contact regular contact with is suffering with fatigue and admits to being under more than the usual stress of the job. This doesn't just apply to those doing specific Y2K work. Those on enterprise wide implementations are under pressure to get done because the new systems are not only needed but are compliant replacements. IT managers are juggling resources trying to maintain normal job functions which are being impacted by Y2K remediation. Integration needs and problems are raising eveybody's blood pressure, and nobody is immune to the pressure which any interruption to normal work schedules brings, and Y2K has been a long interruption. Tempers are flaring.

Of course corners are being cut. It's not like normal in-house IT staffing was sufficient in most places even prior to the addition of Y2K issues. Even when the money is spent to bring in outside consultants, there is still an extra level of coordination and interactive planning to be done. One Y2K project manager recently lost his cool and threatened to just quit because he was getting no management support or departmental cooperation. My husband has recently seen burnout in-process for a couple of people he's consulted with. Recognition is starting to sink in that the blame for any disruptions is going to work it's way down the ladder and park itself right in the computer chairs of the IT staff. I'm personally aware of computer people right now who would hie themselves as fast and far away from their jobs as they could if they didn't need the paycheck to support their family. It's pretty much common sense that most people don't work well if they think they see a figurative axe hanging over their head.

I'm definitely seeing and hearing about what I can only term a rumble of unease in the trenches. It's going to be harder and harder for Y2K involved computer people to step back, take deep breaths, and regain some calm purposefulness.

-- Bonnie Camp (bonniec@mail.odyssey.net), July 23, 1999.

Bonnie, you've inspired me. I've been here for 11 hours, my eyes hurt, my wife is getting sick of this and it's Friday.

I'm outa here.

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), July 23, 1999.

I've always found that programmer enthusiasm depends largely on the user community's appreciation. It wasn't the pizzas they bought us or the paychecks we got, so much as they looked you in the eye and said "thanks, we know you're doing what you can for us". The best relationships with users was when you worked in adjacent offices, where they could see you sweat and you could see that your work made a difference in their day.

In Y2k terms, programmers are burned because the users think that this whole Y2k thing is a hoax, and the users are putting up with it because they were told to. They don't think the programmers are worth much, in this task, because users don't think the Y2k task is really important. Programmers sense that, sense being uninvited, sense being resented for higher pay when the pay is not understood by the user. We may be geeks, but we're not stupid.

It won't solve everything, but when a couple high-profile failures scare the pants off the general public, I think the user community is going to get REAL enthusiastic about programmers. When everyone is as nervous as programmers have been, then programmers are going to feel some better.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), July 23, 1999.