Tom,
I think its really sad that your management advised against giving info to
people. I'm glad you didn't follow their advise.
There are a few people that I've come across that shouldn't have been in
their job. I think of one programmer when I was at the county. When I was
an operator, whenever I talked to him, he kept telling me how smart he was.
After I became a sysprog, we had just installed MVS 3.7, and I was part of a
training team that taught people how to use SPF. This person just couldn't
figure out what was happening. I also found out he was paranoid. He went
20 feet from his desk, but felt he had to lock it, even though his desk was
always in full sight. But I still didn't call him dumb, but treated him
respectfully, and tried to help him understand what we were teaching him.
Eric Bielefeld
Sr. z/OS Systems Programmer
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
414-475-7434
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Marchant" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I agree, Eric.
I have always been advised against giving information to users, operators,
programmers, etc. on the grounds that they were all dummies. It was said
that they could not be trained, especially if it was perceived that they
should already know. Further, it was contended, giving the user-dummies
information would only make them dangerous.
I have never followed that advice. I've worked with hundreds of people
who
were alleged to be too stupid to learn to do things right. Every one of
them was better off for having things explained to them. In my
experience,
the user-dummy always benefits from whatever education you can give him.
The organization always benefits as well.
</soapbox>
--
Tom Marchant
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO
Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
