I'm all for flexible working, but wouldn't want a flexible salary. I get paid whether there's work or not. My bosses take my surplus labour (the revenue they earn from clients after paying my salary) as profit, but they also take the risk of not finding enough work.

I presume Jared's employee will be get extra compensation due to the risk he's taking on. But it wouldn't be for me. My bosses have an incentive to go and find work for me, because they don't have the option of not paying me. And finding work is something they're good at and I'm not (I'm not a salesman). I like that they do that and I like that they have an incentive to do it.

If I was going to take on risk in return for higher potential returns, then I would have started my own business, rather than being an employee.

But each to their own.

@scottalanmiller said:

But people routinely confuse it with one

Really? I have never heard that.

@ajstringham said:

So a couple months ago I updated my LinkedIn profile page so that it didn't, well, suck. It was pretty deplorable before but now it's quite good. I have a link to a Youtube video of my presentation at Spiceworld Austin 2013, a scanned in copy of one of my letters from the President's office at Staples and tons of other stuff. It has been working, as far as people noticing. A large number of the job recruiters who contact me find me on LinkedIn. I didn't used to see the value in it but, as of late, I have. Has anyone had any amazing experiences because of it? I actually am focusing on keep it looking good and adding as much as I can to it.

If anyone wants to connect, here's me: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=165398934

Connection request sent. I don't use LinkedIn but am interested in any tool that can get me a better job, so need to look into it. I really don't know what @scottalanmiller's beef is. Social networks adapt and evolve. Facebook was originally a way to connect Harvard students together, it's now a way for Coca Cola to advertise to farmers in Namibia. Who cares? If you don't like what's it become why don't you just delete your profile? I don't get it.

As an introvert, social networks really don't appeal to me - business or social. I've never had someone offer me a job on LinkedIn and most of the connection requests I get are from people trying to sell me something, which has no appeal whatsoever.

Any tips on making it work for me would be most appreciated. I guess you need to join a few groups? I joined a virtualisation one, but it was pretty poor compared with the Spiceworks forum, so never bothered with it.

Regards

Carnival Boy
Son of Chartered Accountant, Author and University Lecturer 1972-2014 (42 years).

@IRJ said in Standard HP Printer Management Password:

P.S. I know hackers aren't going to get into our network and change the tray configuration,

I just love the idea that they might! "Yeah, it was terrible, we got hacked by the North Koreans and now all our print jobs go to tray 3"

Personally, I don't like the Summary of Qualifications bit. I've seen hundreds of resumes and they all have this bit and they all essentially say EXACTLY the same thing, to the point where I just ignore it. It's just words. It feels like a cut and pasted collection of cliches.

Like where you write "a commitment to providing outstanding customer service and forging, positive, supportive work relationships"
It's not like an employer is going to say "Oh, sorry, you're not suitable for this post because we're looking for someone to provide poor customer service with a focus on dysfunctional work relationships.

On the hand, all resumes have it, so maybe it's necessary!

I'm not interested in getting free fonts, I'm only interested in ensuring licencing compliance.

@Dashrender said in SMB vs Enterprise:

I don't know if this is true or not, but I'm hearing this is the case regarding Muslims in the UK. There are sections of the UK where the police don't even go because Sharia Law is taking over.

You need to stop following Donald Trump on Twitter

Privileged Access Workstations
https://technet.microsoft.com/windows-server-docs/security/securing-privileged-access/privileged-access-workstations

Do you use them?

I use separate user and admin accounts, but have never considered using separate workstations. How common a practice is this? TBH, I'd never even heard of PAWs until the other day.

@scottalanmiller said in Are Servers on VMs are Safe from Ransomware ?:

A chocolate torte can be super delicious, but it isn't a security tool.

OK, now I'm hungry...

Udate: I'm sticking with Meraki for at least another year. But I'm only using it for iPhones and iPads to keep cost down. I'll not be using it to manage our Windows laptops anymore.

@flaxking said in The VAR Kickback System and How You Can Make a Good Living from Vendors:

I tried getting into improving business workflow, but that didn't get very far because I wasn't trusted as more than a tech.
...For internal SMB IT to really be worth it, IT has to be deeply involved in the business side of things. There's just not enough straight technical work.

I agree completely and think it's a real shame that you weren't trusted. When I was an internal IT Manager I worked extremely closely with the CEO and CFO to align their business plan to the IT strategy. I was uniquely placed in that I worked across departments in all areas of the business, so I had an intimate knowledge of, for example, the finance department and the production department. Whereas other department heads tended to work in silos. I was there to bridge these silos.

VAR management was a key part of my role. I outsourced where I could, or where I lacked skills, or where I simply lacked time. Basically, if a VAR could do a job better and cheaper than I could get it done internally, I'd outsource it. If they couldn't, I'd do it internally. My experience of the business and of my team guided me towards these decisions.

I don't think a salesman could ever bullshit me. In many cases I'd work with VARs that didn't even employ salesmen. They were just a bunch of engineers doing what they love and making a reasonable living from it. I now work for one of those VARs.

I'm not offended by Scott. I find the idea that it would be "literally impossible" that NTG couldn't do a better job than I did more bizarre than offensive. I simply can't imagine a world that is as black and white as Scott's. I think it's where self-belief turns in to fanaticism.

Maybe she just came up with a cunning excuse to avoid Scott? We’ve all been there!

It's kind of funny, when we all worked in offices there are loads of health and safety requirements to do with decent chairs, space, monitors at the right level. We did regular checks to make sure everyone was compliant. All good stuff - anything to prevent the pain and misery of things like back pain.

Now we all work from home and some people are literally lying on their beds with a tiny laptop on their laps.

I wonder if firms might get sued. I haven't heard of anything happening. Obviously when Covid is over, many people will continue to WFH, but firms aren't going to get away with this. I wonder how it will be dealt with.

My niece is a trainee architect for a prestigious Swedish firm in London. The top bosses have all moved home and are now working in their enormous houses in beautiful Swedish countryside and living the dream whilst the lower ranked workers are working in their tiny, shared, rented flats in London. My niece spends nearly 24 hours a day in a tiny room that is her bedroom cum office. There is only room for a bed, she sleeps on it at night and works on it in the day. This is the reality of WFH for a lot of young people in major cities. I'm sure it's the same in New York, Paris or Hong Kong. Maybe in the long run people will move out of the cities, but I'm not convinced.

My company are pretty good - basically telling people they will buy them whatever they need for home.

I've always found the concept of computers telling me what the weather currently is when I can simply look out of the window really wierd.

The other weird thing is still having weather reports on TV during news programmes. Who doesn't just look up the weather on their phone these days? Who wants to watch a weatherman standing in front of a green screen with a map of the country displayed? Maybe it's more relevant in the US where you have extreme and dangerous weather, but here in the UK we're basically getting told whether there is going to be a bit of light rain later or some snow on the very top of a mountain in Scotland, several hundred miles away from where I actually live.

All I ever really need to know is, I'm walking to a bar soon, do I need to take a coat in case it rains when I walk home?

I've tried a few. I'm good at starting a timer but then always forget to stop it and end up getting a notification that I've been working on a 15 minute task for 22 hours non-stop.

@DenisKelley said:

That looks good. Where can I find the recipe?

It's more or less based on this one by @Richard :
http://www.factorytwofour.com/recipe-white-pizza-with-rosemary-and-broccoli-rabe/

I think Chromebooks for business are great because they are low maintenance and the lack of features and applications can actually be a positive - particularly in terms of security. Whereas at home, it's nice to have access to dodgy software and games.

@scottalanmiller said:

I think, AJ, that you need to work on three plans.

"Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans"

I refuse to talk about SEO with my board of directors now. I will only talk to them about good content. They're responsible for providing the content and that's where I want them to focus. I had a previous CEO badger me because we weren't near the top of Google rankings for the search term "Classroom heating". I said I didn't even know we provided heating for classrooms. He said we don't, but it's something he wants to get into. <bangs head on table>. "Give me good content and let Google sort itself out"

Google provides helpful guides on how to construct proper websites. I'm surprised by how few sites follow it.

Good article. The only bit I completey disagree with (as someone who is generally fairly lazy) is this

"we’re going to use passion and hard-work synonymously, as you can’t be truly passionate and not be working hard"