In a message written on Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 02:29:36AM -0500, Jeff Wheeler wrote:
Randy's P-Touch thread brings up an issue I think is worth some discussion. I have noticed that a lot of very well-paid, sometimes well-qualified, networking folks spend some of their time on "rack & stack" tasks, which I feel is a very unwise use of time and talent.
At the risk of offending many folks on NANOG, our industry is more like a trade than a profession. In many cases we would do better to treat our people (in terms of how they are managed) like skilled trades, electricians, plumbers, metal fitters, rather than pretend they are white collar professionals. Low level employees should be apprenticed by higher level employees. Many of our skills are learned on the job; just like other trades someone with only book knowledge is darn near useless. Not only do those above need to teach, but they need to supervise, and exercise standards and quality control. To your point, if you look at skilled trades the simpler the task the more likely it will fall to the "new guy". Rack and stack is probably one of simplest jobs in our industry. A two man team, one senior, one junior, showing up at a colo may see the junior guy doing the physical work, while the senior guy works out any issues with the colo provider brings up the interconnection to them, etc. But key to an apprenticeship is that the senior guy does some of the low level work some of the time, and _shows_ the junior guy how to do it right. The senior guy might rack or stack a couple of boxes each colo they visit, and relate concepts like how the screw hole spacing works in the rack rails, how to plan cable management, proper labeling, and so on. It really accomplishes much of what everyone else is talking about, while still being productive. The "old hat" gets the downtime and catharsis of doing a simple, yet productive task. The new guy gets to learn how to do the job properly. The employer knows the work has been done right, as it was overseen by the old hat, and that they will have someone to replace him when the old hat retires. Maybe if we did more apprecenship style learning folks would still know how to wrap cables with wax string. It's simple, fast, and works well. -- Leo Bicknell - bicknell@ufp.org - CCIE 3440 PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/