- Jun 25,2008
- In: Anonymous, The Office
Disparity in the Office Place
When it comes to the office place I don’t think all people are equal. By that, I mean that different departments and different positions have different needs and should be catered to differently. Sales and support people talk on the phone more, so it makes sense that they have nice headsets to use. Clerical people need access to all the good office supplies and management needs a place to have private meetings - I get that. What about the developers?
Is it really too much to expect us to get the nice computers? Apparently so.
When I started here I was given a hand me down computer while the developer it used to belong to got a brand new one. OK, I can understand that, seniority and all - but it’s not that great of a good computer. It’s an Athlon 3400+ with 1.5 Gb of RAM. Actually I just got that extra 1/2 Gb after about 6 months here. Maybe not too shabby but I do development in multiple platforms and can have IDEs chewing up a large chunk of that.
What really bugs me is that we have 19″ widescreen monitors and the built in graphics cards can’t handle widescreen aspect ratios. I was lucky that the guy before me had put in an old video card that could handle it, but I’m limited to 1440×900 resolution. In the meantime we have given sales guys brand new computers with 24″ or 22″ monitors running at some ungodly resolution. I guess they need to be able to see all their emails at once.
Is it too much to want to be able to run two applications side by side at a width that doesn’t require horizontal scrolling? I don’t need dual monitors if I can get one big one. I know I’m probably one of the few getting the short end of the stick on this one, but what are you guys running? What’s a typical setup? Do you feel it has made a significant difference on your productivity levels?
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Tags: developers, dual monitors, productivity levels, seniority, widescreen monitors
Comments: 17 comments
All the fields that are marked with REQ must be filled
Rex
June 25th, 2008 at 11:19 am
When I started at my current job, I was given a hand me down from the last person that worked at the company. It’s a laptop and it has a 1.66GHz Core2 Duo. Originally when I got it, it only had 1GB of RAM, but after a couple of months it started to really bog down so I asked for another GB of RAM.
I’m running dual monitors, one of which is my laptop’s screen, which runs at 1440×900 and 1280×1024. I can get my work done with it, however I am looking to upgrade. It can take several minutes to open a solution in visual studio.
This is one of the main reasons why I like to work from home. It’s much nicer to work on my desktop at home than it is to work in the office.
Jason
June 25th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Here at work we have:
Dual Monitors @ 1280×1024 each
Intel Core 2 @ 2.13Ghz
2gb of ram
There are some people with even bigger dual monitors here.
ryan
June 25th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I have the exact same setup as the guy who wrote this. WEIRD.
Mike Gromer
June 25th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Hmmm, I guess my office is different :o
3 19″ LCDs (best thing ever)
2GB RAM
Still have an older P4
I’m getting a new C2D system with 4GB RAM soon though.
Toast
June 25th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
my work _>
Toast
June 25th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
god damn it -.-
ryan gib back the rest of mah post…also you have people posting in the FUTURE
noah
June 25th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
1.8Ghz Core2 Duo
2GB RAM
2 19″ monitors @ 1280X1024
It works great for me…
but then I’m a developer.
It’s really nice to have outlook and solitaire on two different screens though. ;)
noah
June 25th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
One correction: I’m NOT a developer.
One addendum: It’s a laptop, too.
RyanTheRobot
June 25th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
I haven’t gotten my computer for work yet, but I’m really hoping it’s better than my last one.
Anonymous
June 26th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I have the same problem as the original poster. I got an old hand me down computer with a fan that sounds like an airplane terminal every time my CPU usage exceeds 50%. It had 1 GB of ram and a 2.6 ghz processor. After 6 months they gave me another GB or ram.
Same problems with seniority, etc, etc.
Here where I work though, I believe it is budget concerns. Other departments need excel, word, outlook and they are good to go. Development needs boat loads of other software they have to spend money on. My company’s development department this year has spent over $450k on testing software and hiring a couple of people to write and run some tests.
That doesn’t leave much left over. Where as sales and marketing have lots left over.
Toast
June 26th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Well…since it seems my post wont be returned to me I’ll retype the important parts. My company has been pretty good to me. Within my first week they had ordered me a new desktop. Nothing amazing, but certainaly everything I need. It’s dual core 2.4(maybe 6 to lazy to look) and 4 gigs of ram. With a dual monitor set up. Granted the second monitor I only have do to a trickle down effect of someone else getting a new one, however It’s still nice since apart of what I’m doing right now is creating is to mimick the look and feel of the old stuff.
now if I could convince them that my productivity would increase if they bought me a laptop…i’ll be set =D
Merovingian
June 26th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I see people still working with laptops that Neumont stopped using two years ago. Monitors can be obtained, but the primary viewing device is the 14″ screen on my laptop. I actually don’t mind it, since I’m ultra-portable, but I would not complain to receive an LCD :)
(On that note, two LCD screens side-by-side is something only very senior people here get. Just a bit of the corporate real-world there.)
noah
June 26th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Your job sounds so grown up Sterling.
KC
June 29th, 2008 at 8:43 am
we need a revolution! demand your rights!
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000666.html
in reality though, that sucks, the sales people shouldn’t have better hardware than those that build the software for them
Mike Gromer
July 8th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Nice, I’m on a Q6600 with 4GB RAM and my 3 LCDs now :o I’m next in line for 3 22″ LCDs.
ryan
July 8th, 2008 at 7:26 am
What the… I can’t even imagine what I would do with 3 22″ LCDs. Maybe I just have a poor imagination. Maybe I’m just bitter because I only have 1 19″ LCD.
Mike Gromer
July 8th, 2008 at 7:39 am
You’re bitter. It’s so nice, now I crave it at home… I have VS span all three windows with code on 2 screens and the properties/solution explorer/vss check ins/errors (not that I ever have any) on the 3rd screen.
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