How do you cope with work overload?

A

Amy Sinclaire

As the key decision-maker at your web development company, how do you
handle situations like work overload, short-term staff shortages, etc?
How do you plan to tackle the upcoming holiday season's increased
workload?

If you already outsource work, you would know how difficult it can be
to find capable and reasonably priced talent to choose from.

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Remember, outsourcing works to your advantage as it reduces costs,
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We look forward to seeing your projects on http://www.FreelancersAtLarge.com.
 
T

Travis Newbury

As the key decision-maker at your web development company, how do you
handle situations like work overload, short-term staff shortages, etc?
How do you plan to tackle the upcoming holiday season's increased
workload?

A lot of drink, drugs, and masturbation...
 
B

Bone Ur

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:21:33 GMT
Travis Newbury scribed:
A lot of drink, drugs, and masturbation...

You must be one of those ubiquitous yuletide yankers.
 
B

Brian Cryer

Amy Sinclaire said:
As the key decision-maker at your web development company, how do you
handle situations like work overload, short-term staff shortages, etc?

When I'm really busy I stop reading or replying to newsgroup postings.
How do you plan to tackle the upcoming holiday season's increased
workload?

If you already outsource work, you would know how difficult it can be
to find capable and reasonably priced talent to choose from.

Have you tried Spammers At Large yet?

No, nor would I knowingly use any service that spammed newsgroups (or
individual mailboxes).
 
N

Neredbojias

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:26:18 GMT
Brian Cryer scribed:
No, nor would I knowingly use any service that spammed newsgroups (or
individual mailboxes).

How about a company that spams you _every day_ with essentially the same
come-on? That's what this bogus outfit allcoolmusic.com does. Sure,
there's an opt-out link, and I used it. Eureka, the spam stopped - for
about 3 weeks. Then it started again, to the same address. Seems like
once they get a valid mailbox, they don't let go. To make matters worse,
they're a dishonest comnpany selling free shareware software.

What would you do about that? They currently list a foreign (physical)
address, but there's evidence they started-out (and may easily still
reside) in Canada. Yes, I have "junk" filtering on my mail client and have
setup automatically deletion of spam, but what _should_ be available is an
option to bounce certain addresses/domains back to the originator right on
the server. I think that would go a _long_ way in stopping spam.
 
A

andrew

As the key decision-maker at your web development company, how do you
handle situations like work overload, short-term staff shortages, etc?
How do you plan to tackle the upcoming holiday season's increased
workload?

When in trouble
When in doubt
Run in circles
Scream and shout

Andrew
 
B

Bone Ur

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:23:12 GMT
andrew scribed:
When in trouble
When in doubt
Run in circles
Scream and shout

When in trouble,
Do not sob.
Go out drinking,
And quit the job.
 
A

asdf

Bone Ur said:
Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:23:12
GMT
andrew scribed:


When in trouble,
Do not sob.
Go out drinking,
And quit the job.

This all reminds me of a very old joke that my old boss years ago used to
tell whenever we told him we were running over schedule:

Q. What does an IT professional do when they see light at the end of the
tunnel?
A. Extend the tunnel.

:))

Seriously... given a staff shortage and no prospect of recruitment, one has
little choice but to not over-commit oneself in the first place.

If however, one finds oneself over-committed, there is little one can do
other than attempt to renegotiate timelines and deliverables with affected
clients. If the staff shortage is *that* bad, they most likely will not be
able to find another supplier anyway. I have found that if you are honest
with clients and explain the situation clearly, most are understanding and
accomodating. If not, who needs them anyway- there's no shortage of clients
if you are good at what you do. Sometimes you will find yourself in a
situation where you need to manage your losses, and bail out if possible.
It's unfortunate, but we've all been there at some time or another.

Whatever you do, you should NOT:

a) panic
b) smoke too much / take up smoking again
c) drink yourself to oblivion / fall off the wagon
d) get grumpy or depressed
e) eat too much chocolate or burgers
f) over-extend your workforce. They'll just leave, leaving *you* with even
less production capacity.

One should always attempt, when writing development agreements and contracts
to provide 'staged withdrawl' clauses and conditions for all parties
concerned at defined project milestones. That way the supplier *and* the
client have opportunities to back out of a project gracefully and without
ill will, hopefully leaving the client with something of value. One should
never write an agreement or contract that one is not 100% willing or able to
fulfill IMO.

Minimise your risk.

Sometimes (and this is something I still have trouble with), it's good to
say 'No' to a client in order to ensure quality and reputation.

Another trick... if possible, make sure you over-estimate the time it takes
to do things for a client at the outset. That way, when you get finished
before schedule, you and your company look good. :)
 
B

Bone Ur

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:15:47
GMT asdf scribed:
This all reminds me of a very old joke that my old boss years ago used
to tell whenever we told him we were running over schedule:

Q. What does an IT professional do when they see light at the end of
the tunnel?
A. Extend the tunnel.

:))

Seriously... given a staff shortage and no prospect of recruitment,
one has little choice but to not over-commit oneself in the first
place.

If however, one finds oneself over-committed, there is little one can
do other than attempt to renegotiate timelines and deliverables with
affected clients. If the staff shortage is *that* bad, they most
likely will not be able to find another supplier anyway. I have found
that if you are honest with clients and explain the situation clearly,
most are understanding and accomodating. If not, who needs them
anyway- there's no shortage of clients if you are good at what you do.
Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where you need to
manage your losses, and bail out if possible. It's unfortunate, but
we've all been there at some time or another.

Whatever you do, you should NOT:

a) panic
b) smoke too much / take up smoking again
c) drink yourself to oblivion / fall off the wagon
d) get grumpy or depressed
e) eat too much chocolate or burgers
f) over-extend your workforce. They'll just leave, leaving *you* with
even less production capacity.

One should always attempt, when writing development agreements and
contracts to provide 'staged withdrawl' clauses and conditions for all
parties concerned at defined project milestones. That way the supplier
*and* the client have opportunities to back out of a project
gracefully and without ill will, hopefully leaving the client with
something of value. One should never write an agreement or contract
that one is not 100% willing or able to fulfill IMO.

Minimise your risk.

Sometimes (and this is something I still have trouble with), it's good
to say 'No' to a client in order to ensure quality and reputation.

Another trick... if possible, make sure you over-estimate the time it
takes to do things for a client at the outset. That way, when you get
finished before schedule, you and your company look good. :)

Lots of good suggestions, the last of which I've always done, probably by
intuition. However, I'm guilty of a), b), d), e), and a little f). But
I've really cut down on picking my nose and eating it. :)
 
B

Brian Cryer

Neredbojias said:
Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:26:18
GMT
Brian Cryer scribed:


How about a company that spams you _every day_ with essentially the same
come-on? That's what this bogus outfit allcoolmusic.com does. Sure,
there's an opt-out link, and I used it. Eureka, the spam stopped - for
about 3 weeks. Then it started again, to the same address. Seems like
once they get a valid mailbox, they don't let go. To make matters worse,
they're a dishonest comnpany selling free shareware software.

What would you do about that? They currently list a foreign (physical)
address, but there's evidence they started-out (and may easily still
reside) in Canada. Yes, I have "junk" filtering on my mail client and
have
setup automatically deletion of spam, but what _should_ be available is an
option to bounce certain addresses/domains back to the originator right on
the server. I think that would go a _long_ way in stopping spam.

I would love to see an automatic reject of some emails. Not a bounce,
because the sender email address is often forged. However, to block emails
at the point of delivery so they wouldn't be accepted by your email server,
that would be good. It is something that some email servers allows you to
partially do - but only if you manage your own - for example Exchange allows
emails to unknown email addresses to be blocked before they enter the server
and likewise emails from specific ip addresses can be blocked.

However, back in the real world, I have a similar issue with some
organisations. Fortunately they mostly use the same email address and I just
have them going straight to my junk email folder. Little else I can do. :(

Needless to say, the whole issue of spam is one that has vexed lots of us
for a long time.
 
B

Bone Ur

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:28:41
GMT Brian Cryer scribed:
I would love to see an automatic reject of some emails. Not a bounce,
because the sender email address is often forged. However, to block
emails at the point of delivery so they wouldn't be accepted by your
email server, that would be good. It is something that some email
servers allows you to partially do - but only if you manage your own -
for example Exchange allows emails to unknown email addresses to be
blocked before they enter the server and likewise emails from specific
ip addresses can be blocked.

However, back in the real world, I have a similar issue with some
organisations. Fortunately they mostly use the same email address and
I just have them going straight to my junk email folder. Little else I
can do. :(

I do about the same using Thunderbird. There is a "delete from server"
option in the filters setup but I think it applies only to messages
retrieved first and left on the server. Anyway, I couldn't get it to
delete from the server without d/ling the mail, too. I also use the
"clear junk on shutdown" option so I never really have to see the damn
crap, but I'd still prefer purging it from the server if it's not wanted.
Needless to say, the whole issue of spam is one that has vexed lots of
us for a long time.

Sure. And a large part of the fault rests with the software developers
and related commercial interests for their ignorance and/or complicity.
Spam could be stopped in a month if it was financially worthwhile to do
so.
 

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