Minor things that bother you

[kphoger]

Seriously?  You'd call people at 11:00 at night in the landline days?  Your parents should have taught you better.

Long distance was cheaper later at night.

I guess I have a vague memory of that.  But didn't the cheaper rate start at like 7pm or 9pm or something like that?  No excuse for calling someone at 11pm.

[JayhawkCO]

My wife can select specific people whose calls will ring through even on silent mode, and I know that's common.  But, before I got this phone a few years ago, the Android smartphone I had before it did not have any such setting.

It looks like "Do Not Disturb" with exclusions for favorite contacts was introduced with Android 5.0 Lollipop in 2014.

[I-55]

Windows 11.  Can't pin locations to programs on the taskbar as easily as before.  The compact version of the taskbar is gone (and with it, the ability to make it behave like Windows XP did without being annoyingly large).  The show desktop when hovering over the bottom right feature is gone, so no more ability to gracefully peek at my desktop wallpaper; now I have to forcibly minimize all windows to do that.  Also, all system sounds are now really, really, REALLY quiet, to the point where I can hardly hear them anymore.  What is the point of having a notification sound if nobody can hear it?  These sounds were already too quiet on my new computer under Windows 10 and now under Windows 11 it's so bad my sound may as well be muted.

The silver lining is that IT now allows pinning to the start menu again, so a lot of stuff that I had been forced to put on the taskbar or desktop in Windows 10 is there now (so I can finally hide my desktop icons, since IT won't let me prune the ones I'll never use).  And also Snipping Tool now allowing multiple snips at the same time (and had an undo button).

What gets me is that the IT departments where I work (as well as my father's workplace) keep insisting on updating old computers to Windows 11 and crashing them. Now we're getting nothing done while we have to wait on replacement computers to arrive that have the Windows 11 package IT was trying to blow up our old computers with.

[Rothman]

Seriously?  You'd call people at 11:00 at night in the landline days?  Your parents should have taught you better.

Long distance was cheaper later at night.

I guess I have a vague memory of that.  But didn't the cheaper rate start at like 7pm or 9pm or something like that?  No excuse for calling someone at 11pm.

But...you're the one that came up with that arbitrary time...

[GaryV]

Seriously?  You'd call people at 11:00 at night in the landline days?  Your parents should have taught you better.

Long distance was cheaper later at night.

Yes, but that started at about 7:00, or maybe it was 5:00, I don't remember. The point was that it wasn't during business hours, so the lower rates moved non-business call volume out of business hours.

I agree with Kyle, you seldom used the phone after about 9:00 at night in consideration of those you were going to call. For one thing, even if the called party might be still awake, their kids might be in bed. And a phone loud enough to be heard throughout the house would be heard by those sleeping kids.

[kphoger]

But...you're the one that came up with that arbitrary time...

Not arbitrary.  Most people are getting out the door by around 7am, meaning they woke up by around 6am, meaning they went to bed around 10pm or a little after.

It looks like "Do Not Disturb" with exclusions for favorite contacts was introduced with Android 5.0 Lollipop in 2014.

I just booted up my old phone to see.  Looks like it was running Android 7.0 Nougat.  Poking through the settings for the first time in about five years, I see that my only option was to set DND calls to 'no one', 'everyone', 'contacts', or 'favorites'.  So I guess my 'favorites' list would have to be the exact same as the list of people I'd want to be able to ring through in the middle of the night.

[JayhawkCO]

It looks like "Do Not Disturb" with exclusions for favorite contacts was introduced with Android 5.0 Lollipop in 2014.

I just booted up my old phone to see.  Looks like it was running Android 7.0 Nougat.  Poking through the settings for the first time in about five years, I see that my only option was to set DND calls to 'no one', 'everyone', 'contacts', or 'favorites'.  So I guess my 'favorites' list would have to be the exact same as the list of people I'd want to be able to ring through in the middle of the night.

Which is what almost everyone I know does. I understand it's a little bit of an effort on your part, but assuming there aren't that many people you'd want to add to the list, it's very much just set it and forget it. I just looked and I have six. It would assuredly have taken less time to set it up that way than it would to have typed your original post about how getting late calls/texts bothers you. 

I assume since most people in my social circle at least have their DND set up, the people in your text thread might assume the same about you. YMMV.

[kphoger]

I guess my 'favorites' list would have to be the exact same as the list of people I'd want to be able to ring through in the middle of the night.

Which is what almost everyone I know does.

Top of the list of people I'd want in my 'favorites' but not to be able to call me at night:  my boss!

[JayhawkCO]

I guess my 'favorites' list would have to be the exact same as the list of people I'd want to be able to ring through in the middle of the night.

Which is what almost everyone I know does.

Top of the list of people I'd want in my 'favorites' but not to be able to call me at night:  my boss!

Did you leverage the 'favorites' list previously with your smartphone?

[Scott5114]

So, if I silence my phone to incoming texts, then I cannot use it as an alarm clock.

Even for a non-smartphone, that seems like a misfeature. "I don't want to be disturbed because I am sleeping but I still want to be woken up by an alarm" is such a common use case that it's kind of shocking that QA let it get out the door that way.

You assertion is basically that the sender is justified in assuming the recipient has a way of ignoring him.  Do you also consider this to be the case for calling people?  Should I be able to call anybody at any hour of the night, assuming that they will simply have found a way to ignore my call ahead of time if they don't want to be woken up?

I personally don't answer any phone calls at all (unless it's from my wife or parents), so I'm the wrong person to ask.

And I do know my friends' and family's work schedules.  Don't you?

N-No...?

Hell, half the time I don't know my own schedule...

[TheHighwayMan3561]

And I do know my friends' and family's work schedules.  Don't you?

N-No...?

Hell, half the time I don't know my own schedule...

I don't know anyone my age or younger who really has a set schedule anymore. It's always different week to week. Your job tells you to deal with it, or there's the door, have fun finding a new one.

[Max Rockatansky]

Most people I know are Monday-Friday workers.  Most of them are in blue collar trade based lines of work.

[CoreySamson]

Quoting things out of context. Drives me batty sometimes.

[1995hoo]

Quoting things out of context. Drives me batty sometimes.

Heh. I remember during my third year of law school, we received a proposed law review article about "selective constitutional interpretation" that talked about how "creative" quotation could make almost anything you want a constitutional issue. This was in early 1998 and the Clinton–Lewinsky story was all over the headlines (I can picture very clearly when "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" came on TV because I was at the law school's cafe and the whole room fell absolutely silent). So this guy submitted an article, intended to be humor, that noted, among other things, that careful attention to quotation would establish Congress's authority over presidents' extramarital affairs because Article I, Section 8, provides, in relevant part, "The Congress shall have Power ... for the Erection ...."

(To clarify: "The Congress shall have Power" is the beginning of Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, which reads, "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;" The reference to "the Erection" comes from Clause 17, which reads, "To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;–And" <--The "and" leads into the final clause, Clause 18, popularly known as the "Necessary and Proper Clause.")

Not surprisingly, we didn't publish that article.

[kphoger]

Did you leverage the 'favorites' list previously with your smartphone?

Yes.  The 'favorites' would show up at the top of the list of contacts.  So, if I needed to call someone, I could simply go to my list of contacts, and they'd be right there toward the top of the list, rather than wherever in the alphabetical list their name would otherwise appear.  At least that's how I remember it working.  As I said, it's been several years since I used that phone.

Which brings me to a better example than my boss.  My best friend and his wife are the worst when it comes to texting me in the middle of the night—because they go to bed like two hours after we do, and apparently that's the only time they think of texting me.  This is compounded during the summer months, because they live in Mexico, which doesn't observe DST anymore.  Now, during the day, they're two of the people I most frequently text and call, so they'd obviously warrant a place in my 'favorites' list.  And yet they're also people I'd really like to NOT get through to me in the middle of the night.  Their texts at night are never anything important and, because they live 1100 miles away in another country, there's no emergency in the middle of the night that couldn't wait till morning.

Even for a non-smartphone, that seems like a misfeature. "I don't want to be disturbed because I am sleeping but I still want to be woken up by an alarm" is such a common use case that it's kind of shocking that QA let it get out the door that way.

To be fair to the manufacturer, I can individually adjust the volume of the ringtone, notification sound, and alarm.  That is to say, turning the volume up or down on the whole phone isn't the only way to do things.  But there isn't a true DND setting in which I can set time of day, and I shouldn't have to manually adjust two different volumes twice a day just because other people think it's OK to message me in the middle of the night.  Would doing so be a minor thing?  Yes, yes it would.  A minor thing that would bother me.  Isn't this the right thread for just that sort?

And I do know my friends' and family's work schedules.  Don't you?

N-No...?

Hell, half the time I don't know my own schedule...

I don't know anyone my age or younger who really has a set schedule anymore. It's always different week to week. Your job tells you to deal with it, or there's the door, have fun finding a new one.

Most people I know are Monday-Friday workers.  Most of them are in blue collar trade based lines of work.

I can't think of a single person I know well who doesn't have a set schedule, other than a few who own their own business.  I know people who work in public education, aircraft manufacturing, customer service, medical offices, avionics engineering, apartment maintenance, you name it—and they all have a set schedule, the large majority of which are daytime hours, and all of which are usually Monday–Friday unless overtime is in effect.  A couple of them have to get to work really early (and therefore I shouldn't call or text them after about 9:30pm), and one of them works nights.  The ones who own their own business are married to people with regular Mon-Fri jobs and have kids, so of course their schedule usually lines up accordingly.

[Scott5114]

I can't think of a single person I know well who doesn't have a set schedule, other than a few who own their own business.  I know people who work in public education, aircraft manufacturing, customer service, medical offices, avionics engineering, apartment maintenance, you name it—and they all have a set schedule, the large majority of which are daytime hours, and all of which are usually Monday–Friday unless overtime is in effect.

Then—and I fully admit this is going to sound ridiculous to you, but it's true—you either mostly know people who are more well off than average, or Wichita is an outlier among American cities. Having a consistent schedule is a luxury these days.

Scheduling at large corporate retail concerns and fast food places is normally done these days through the use of software (Kronos and its competitors) which generate the schedule using sales data to ensure an optimally-profitable staffing level. I am not sure what options are available to management when telling it to generate such a schedule, but I know the set commonly used in retail does not take "what employee's schedule was last week" into account when generating the schedule. A consistent schedule week to week is basically only done when a human sets the schedule by hand—and even that is no guarantee of a consistent schedule. At the last casino I worked at, the consistent schedules were all given out in order of seniority, and then the newest employee's schedule changed every week to cover for when other employees took vacation time.

In Las Vegas, things are even worse than that. I was toying around with the idea of getting a second job on the Strip last year to help save up a bigger down payment for a house, and got as far as applying to a few jobs. I found out that here it is standard for new employees to merely be put onto an on-call roster, so even getting hired doesn't guarantee you any work. You only get hours when someone calls in (and there's nobody with seniority ahead of you on the roster)—and then you get as much notice as the employee who called in gave management. So if an employee gets in a crash on the way to work, well, they're looking for someone to be on the clock in 15 minutes, is it gonna be you or is it gonna be the guy on the roll below you? Needless to say, whenever I found that out, I stopped applying for jobs, because I didn't need the extra money badly enough to put myself through that.

The only reason I could see this not being the case in Wichita is if there is some sort of local ordinance prohibiting such a thing. And from what I know of Wichita, that's not very likely.

[JayhawkCO]

As someone who worked in the restaurant biz for a long time, not only were schedules rarely set, you never knew exactly what time you'd be done with work because it was business-level dependent.

[kphoger]

Then—and I fully admit this is going to sound ridiculous to you, but it's true—you either mostly know people who are more well off than average, or Wichita is an outlier among American cities.

Nope, not ridiculous at all.  While I am by no means personally better off than average, it's quite likely that the people I know are.

Scheduling at large corporate retail concerns and fast food places ...

OK, so my son's best friend just got his first 'real' job, and it's at Taco Tico.  He's only one week in, so we'll see how his schedule changes.  He told them he won't work Sundays but he's available 24/7 other than that, at which point they asked if he also wanted Wednesday evenings off too (because that's another common time for church activities).  So there's one person I know who probably won't have a set schedule.

... the use of software (Kronos and its competitors) which generate the schedule using sales data to ensure an optimally-profitable staffing level. I am not sure what options are available to management when telling it to generate such a schedule, but I know the set commonly used in retail does not take "what employee's schedule was last week" into account when generating the schedule. A consistent schedule week to week is basically only done when a human sets the schedule by hand—and even that is no guarantee of a consistent schedule. At the last casino I worked at, the consistent schedules were all given out in order of seniority, and then the newest employee's schedule changed every week to cover for when other employees took vacation time.

The person I know who is closest to what you describe works in customer service for T-Mobile.  She doesn't know her exact schedule from week to week, I think.  But I do know that her son comes to our home daycare on consistent days of the week, and she comes to pick him up at the same time every day—so it can't vary too terribly much.

The only reason I could see this not being the case in Wichita is if there is some sort of local ordinance prohibiting such a thing. And from what I know of Wichita, that's not very likely.

That would be ... an accurate assessment.

As someone who worked in the restaurant biz for a long time, not only were schedules rarely set, you never knew exactly what time you'd be done with work because it was business-level dependent.

In the business I actually work in (cable), the field techs know what days they're working and what time they'll start, but never what time they'll get done.  Back in southern Illinois, my job as a delivery driver was like that too, especially because I'd sometimes have to work in the warehouse after my route was done.  But in both scenarios, nobody is working nights and nobody is working on certain days of the week.

[JayhawkCO]

In the business I actually work in (cable), the field techs know what days they're working and what time they'll start, but never what time they'll get done.  Back in southern Illinois, my job as a delivery driver was like that too, especially because I'd sometimes have to work in the warehouse after my route was done.  But in both scenarios, nobody is working nights and nobody is working on certain days of the week.

The out times were always dependent on business, but I did serve at a place in Seattle where everyone was originally scheduled at 4:00 for dinner shifts and then they'd set up an answering machine that had everyone's actual in-times (or if they were cut) based on reservations.

[kphoger]

I fully admit this is going to sound ridiculous to you, but it's true—you either mostly know people who are more well off than average, or Wichita is an outlier among American cities. Having a consistent schedule is a luxury these days.

Thinking about this more, I imagine it's also because I know relatively few people who work in retail.  I know plenty of both blue-collar and white-collar folks, but retail seems to be the area that screws with your schedule the most.

[Max Rockatansky]

Working M-F can be pretty overrated.  I always have liked the freedom to avoid people-borne hassles that come with trying to do anything on a weekend.  As an example I took yesterday off and got three auto service appointments done in addition to having the HVAC guy stop by.  Having to work a Saturday is a small price to pay for that kind of convenience.

[thspfc]

Quoting
. . .
Drives me batty sometimes.

What's wrong with quoting?

[Scott5114]

Working M-F can be pretty overrated.  I always have liked the freedom to avoid people-borne hassles that come with trying to do anything on a weekend.  As an example I took yesterday off and got three auto service appointments done in addition to having the HVAC guy stop by.  Having to work a Saturday is a small price to pay for that kind of convenience.

Also, if you work a job that needs to be staffed on weekends, most of your social circle probably works the same or similar jobs, so sometimes it's easier to socialize if you don't have weekends off.

[kphoger]

Working M-F can be pretty overrated.  I always have liked the freedom to avoid people-borne hassles that come with trying to do anything on a weekend.  As an example I took yesterday off and got three auto service appointments done in addition to having the HVAC guy stop by.  Having to work a Saturday is a small price to pay for that kind of convenience.

See, I can take time off from work so easily, that this is not an advantage.  I don't think I've ever been turned down for a time-off request.  Not in the dozen years, at least.  I just need to make sure I'm not taking off at the same time as my nearest co-worker, and then nobody bats an eye.  In fact, I earn more time off than I know what to do with most years.

Also, if you work a job that needs to be staffed on weekends, most of your social circle probably works the same or similar jobs, so sometimes it's easier to socialize if you don't have weekends off.

None of my social circle is in the same type of industry as the one I work in.

[Max Rockatansky]

Generally I could use time off also.  Thing was this week I was just coming off of vacation.  I used 48 of my hours and didn't really feel inclined to be wasteful if I could just do a regular day off for errands.