[OT] xkcd

Jon 'maddog' Hall maddog at li.org
Mon Oct 15 08:14:10 EDT 2007


>I tried the 28 hour day

In 1973 I worked for Aetna Life and Casualty.  The company's computers
ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The operators there worked 12-hour shifts, so we only had two shifts of
operators, not three.  In order to work (more or less) 40-hour weeks,
they really worked 36 hours, so there would be one team for the first
part of the week, and one team for the second part of the week.  That
left one day "uncovered", so one team worked a 48-hour week (four days),
then they would "switch off" and the other team would work a 36-hour
week.

The company tried to make it so each team would eventually would get a
Saturday and Sunday off (a "real" weekend), and each team would average
out working a "normal" amount of hours (~40/week) when averaged out over
the year.

Ergo every two weeks the team that had been working four days would work
seven days in a row, and the opposite team would get a week's paid
vacation.  When the second team came back from vacation, they would work
3 days, the first team would go to four days, and the whole cycle
started again.  It was complex, but just like the xkcd cartoon, they had
charts that helped people plan.

While the one-week of 12 hours/day twenty-six times a year was grueling,
the seven days of no work twenty-six times a year (more or less) was
also nice.  Plus, since the jobs were basically the same, the operators
could "trade off" if some special event came up that they wanted to
attend.

Holidays?  You just got double time....and since you could trade off
easily, and since Aetna was an equal opportunity employer from day one,
it was easy to find someone who would work for you if you wanted the
time off.

Thanks for the memories.

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux International(R)
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org

Board Member: Uniforum Association
Board Member Emeritus: USENIX Association (2000-2006)

(R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several
countries.
(R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used
pursuant
   to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus
   Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis
(R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other
   countries.




More information about the gnhlug-discuss mailing list