Reply to: Sticking up for nurses etc - do you ever think whats the big deal with what I do?

[northernladuk]

As for me, landing a plane is about as exciting as it gets to have other peoples lives in my hand - people are very particular about that requirement.

That's only because you are used to driving.....

[BR14]

[vwdan]

A bunch of IT nerds arguing about how important they are and that their work is the difference between life and death. How cute.

I had a conversation with my sons heart surgeon a couple of weeks ago. Just after signing the consent form with death in capital letters at the top of the risk assessment, which was nice. (5% chance if you're interested)

I'm not going to lie, it's rather made me question if I've actually done anything useful in my life. The fact we earn in the same region is kind of embarrassing to me, really. I then had to persuade him to help himself to our milk from the fridge, as the staff supply had ran out.

As for me, landing a plane is about as exciting as it gets to have other peoples lives in my hand - people are very particular about that requirement.

[NotAllThere]

A bunch of IT nerds arguing about how important they are and that their work is the difference between life and death. How cute.

Said the guy who's only ever worked for accountancy PR teams.

[vetran]

Unless you were the moron who put all the possible medication a doctor could prescribe onto one drop down alphabetically ordered list with no chance of filtering and no keyboard shortcuts. Ex-doctor Adam Kay said that he was reluctant to prescribe anything towards the Z end of the alphabet as it meant pressing the down key for 3 or so minutes.

Hey at least its in alphabetical order. Some genius decided to put the 200 + item of alphanumeric part numbers on a drop down in random order on one software package I had to support. For some reason we constantly got the wrong selection, it normally meant an incorrect box of electronic trickery if they did that but no deaths.

I have strenuously avoided being involved in any job where harm could come to you, in some hospitals (mainly abroad) you might get an incorrect bill but no care pathway if I screw up.

[greenlake]

A bunch of IT nerds arguing about how important they are and that their work is the difference between life and death. How cute.

[northernladuk]

A bunch of IT nerds arguing about how important they are and that their work is the difference between life and death. How cute.

[NotAllThere]

I worked on a defence project once. The worst that could have happened would have been the client being prosecuted for mis-stating their VAT returns. I never could get to grips with what was a credit and what was a debit. Like many traders really.

And as for security, we had to code around a bit of information we weren't allowed to have. When I discussed this with the security officer, saying how we'd done it, he said "oh, yes thingy-xwyss". Doh!

[MonkeysUncle]

I remember over drinks me and a few colleagues were discussing security and monitoring in the workplace. One of my old colleagues who once worked for the police (in either NZ or Oz, cant remember). They put in system which archived mail, but while it did this it would scan all email and flag any racist/derogatory words.
One officer was found out and rather than face the crimes and justice.....he killed himself.

Hit my colleague quite hard but in the end the way he had to see was that the project he worked on may have unearthed the emails but he didnt write it.

[DeludedKitten]

Defence?

Some was defence, some wasn't.

I used to work in Defence and obviously can't provide details but most of the stuff was just roll out of new functionality, new projects etc. If I'd screwed up it woud have been hassle but its not like it was affecting a live battlefield system.

[Old Greg]

Defence?

I used to work in Defence and obviously can't provide details but most of the stuff was just roll out of new keyboards, mice etc. If I'd screwed up it would have been hassle but its not like it was affecting a live battlefield system.

FTFY

[SueEllen]

Defence?

I used to work in Defence and obviously can't provide details but most of the stuff was just roll out of new functionality, new projects etc. If I'd screwed up it woud have been hassle but its not like it was affecting a live battlefield system.

I've worked on a few projects where people could have died but the amount of testing that goes on meant the level of indemnity insurance needed was less than other projects. Also helped they could chuck you in prison...

[NotAllThere]

...Trying to think of what I've done over the years. Yes I've worked for NHS, and dealt with NHS systems. Would it have an immediate effect on someones health? Probably not...

Unless you were the moron who put all the possible medication a doctor could prescribe onto one drop down alphabetically ordered list with no chance of filtering and no keyboard shortcuts. Ex-doctor Adam Kay said that he was reluctant to prescribe anything towards the Z end of the alphabet as it meant pressing the down key for 3 or so minutes.

[psychocandy]

Highly secure, very sensitive systems.

Defence?

I used to work in Defence and obviously can't provide details but most of the stuff was just roll out of new functionality, new projects etc. If I'd screwed up it woud have been hassle but its not like it was affecting a live battlefield system.

[LondonManc]

Elliot Jaques (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Jaques) set out a framework called Time Span of Discretion. It was a way of deciding how much to pay people in an organisation.

Essentially, the longer it takes for anyone to notice you've made a mistake, the more you get paid.

If a lorry driver delivering goods screws up, it will be noticed in minutes or a few hours. If the CEO screws up, it might not be noticed for 2-5 years.

I therefore take great comfort when I find (as is normal) that I have zero impact on what's going on. It means I mathematically justify infinite pay

Or, more likely, you do feck all.