4 ms·

I worked HP CS in Highschool and during my time there I created a HTML/JS replacement for a unbearably slow tree system that made a 10+ second network call ever

by iinnPP 7mo ago

I worked HP CS in Highschool and during my time there I created a HTML/JS replacement for a unbearably slow tree system that made a 10+ second network call every single question(often 20+ questions and a tree copy was required for notes). Mine was instant. They fired me for it because my AHT flagged me and it made someone look bad. At that point (this is at Windows Vista launch) the minimum hold was 25 minutes all day.

fifilura 7mo ago
> made someone look bad That, or that it DoS-ed the database.
- iinnPP 7mo ago
  It was offline.
- MBCook 7mo ago
  And making each click trigger a 20 second DB query doesn’t? How much you want to bet that’s why it was 20 seconds?
  - fifilura 7mo ago
    If you prefetch all those options in the background, I bet the DB would be unhappy.
oofbey 7mo ago
AHT?
- iinnPP 7mo ago
  Average Handle Time
- LordGrey 7mo ago
  Not OP, but it is probably either "Average Hold Time" or "Average Handle Time". I supposed the usage here indicated some call center metric that management was expecting in a certain range but the new tool skewed it in a different direction.
- soopypoos 7mo ago
  Assistant Head Teacher
_2d30 7mo ago
If yours was instant, why would your AHT decline? Shouldn’t you be way faster? On many questions you would have saved over 3mins on network calls alone.
- imzadi 7mo ago
  I believe they are saying their AHT went down (calls take less time) which made other people with longer handle times look bad.
  - iinnPP 7mo ago
    The AHT value indeed went down 3 minutes below the average, which is generally a good thing so long as you are doing everything well still. All outliers get checked and mine was the lowest. I was honest about the tool, including that it was offline. Their supposed policy was no personal tools and as it was during "probation" (first 90 days in Ontario), they could fire without cause, and did, immediately.
    - ok_dad 7mo ago
      A good business would have promoted you to the dev team so they could reduce that metric for everyone.
junon 7mo ago
Quasi-related but I did the same thing at RadioShack for inventory. It was a long process of scanning each product, looking at the scanner and manually verifying the price on the tag. The tags had a barcode on the back with the SKU and the price that had been printed, but naturally the scanner didn't support that format. So I brought in my own scanner, scanned all of those into a spreadsheet, then ran a script that checked the same inventory panel that had the updated prices, and printed out a new sheet with just the barcodes that differed to run "inventory" against. Saved us hours per day. Corporate got pissed (understandably) and shut it down real quick.
- nubg 7mo ago
  > understandably why?
  - junon 7mo ago
    I was running scripts on their PoS (EDIT: point of sale) terminals to hit an internal service. If I were the sysadmin at corporate, people like me would make me nervous too (even though I wasn't doing anything nefarious).
BobaFloutist 7mo ago
>my AHT flagged me Is that "American Hairless Terrier" or "Aldershot Railway Station"?
- mjuarez 7mo ago
  Average Hold Time
  - Zircom 7mo ago
    Average Handle Time actually
- btreesOfSpring 7mo ago
  Acronym use here to single being part of an in-group. It is one of the most annoying shift in tech language over the past decade. I partly blame it on all the certification testing that has popped up over that time frame. It isn't like there hasn't always been tech acronyms but they are so causally communicated these days without regard for audience.
  - batch12 7mo ago
    This one is a call center metric. Similar to after call work or first call resolution. This one, I believe, is average handle time.
  - bobbob1921 7mo ago
    This comment is so spot on, it’s also big in military circles, especially over past 15 years. It can even be said that frequent (over) use of acronyms is based in insecurity
  - m463 7mo ago
    Musk's Acronyms Seriously Suck memo: https://gist.github.com/klaaspieter/12cd68f54bb71a3940eae5cdd4ea1764 https://gist.github.com/klaaspieter/12cd68f54bb71a3940eae5cd...
  - wat10000 7mo ago
agumonkey 7mo ago
I've seen this in many groups. Every time I laugh thinking about private enterprise efficacy. Then I shed a tear. Distribution problem.
hronecviktor 7mo ago
As an intern at @bankcompany I decided to go one step further than what my ticket was asking for and decided to implement something that crunched data in a very obvious way. Was nicely asked to revert it, because @bankcompany already had several fulltime employees doing exactly the same thing.

by iinnPP 7mo ago

fifilura 7mo ago

> made someone look bad That, or that it DoS-ed the database.

iinnPP 7mo ago
It was offline.
MBCook 7mo ago
And making each click trigger a 20 second DB query doesn’t? How much you want to bet that’s why it was 20 seconds?
- fifilura 7mo ago
  If you prefetch all those options in the background, I bet the DB would be unhappy.

oofbey 7mo ago

AHT?

iinnPP 7mo ago
Average Handle Time
LordGrey 7mo ago
Not OP, but it is probably either "Average Hold Time" or "Average Handle Time". I supposed the usage here indicated some call center metric that management was expecting in a certain range but the new tool skewed it in a different direction.
soopypoos 7mo ago
Assistant Head Teacher

_2d30 7mo ago

If yours was instant, why would your AHT decline? Shouldn’t you be way faster? On many questions you would have saved over 3mins on network calls alone.

imzadi 7mo ago
I believe they are saying their AHT went down (calls take less time) which made other people with longer handle times look bad.
- iinnPP 7mo ago
  The AHT value indeed went down 3 minutes below the average, which is generally a good thing so long as you are doing everything well still. All outliers get checked and mine was the lowest. I was honest about the tool, including that it was offline. Their supposed policy was no personal tools and as it was during "probation" (first 90 days in Ontario), they could fire without cause, and did, immediately.
  - ok_dad 7mo ago
    A good business would have promoted you to the dev team so they could reduce that metric for everyone.

junon 7mo ago

Quasi-related but I did the same thing at RadioShack for inventory. It was a long process of scanning each product, looking at the scanner and manually verifying the price on the tag. The tags had a barcode on the back with the SKU and the price that had been printed, but naturally the scanner didn't support that format. So I brought in my own scanner, scanned all of those into a spreadsheet, then ran a script that checked the same inventory panel that had the updated prices, and printed out a new sheet with just the barcodes that differed to run "inventory" against. Saved us hours per day. Corporate got pissed (understandably) and shut it down real quick.

nubg 7mo ago
> understandably why?
- junon 7mo ago
  I was running scripts on their PoS (EDIT: point of sale) terminals to hit an internal service. If I were the sysadmin at corporate, people like me would make me nervous too (even though I wasn't doing anything nefarious).

BobaFloutist 7mo ago

>my AHT flagged me Is that "American Hairless Terrier" or "Aldershot Railway Station"?

mjuarez 7mo ago
Average Hold Time
- Zircom 7mo ago
  Average Handle Time actually
btreesOfSpring 7mo ago
Acronym use here to single being part of an in-group. It is one of the most annoying shift in tech language over the past decade. I partly blame it on all the certification testing that has popped up over that time frame. It isn't like there hasn't always been tech acronyms but they are so causally communicated these days without regard for audience.
- batch12 7mo ago
  This one is a call center metric. Similar to after call work or first call resolution. This one, I believe, is average handle time.
- bobbob1921 7mo ago
  This comment is so spot on, it’s also big in military circles, especially over past 15 years. It can even be said that frequent (over) use of acronyms is based in insecurity
- m463 7mo ago
  Musk's Acronyms Seriously Suck memo: https://gist.github.com/klaaspieter/12cd68f54bb71a3940eae5cdd4ea1764 https://gist.github.com/klaaspieter/12cd68f54bb71a3940eae5cd...
- wat10000 7mo ago

agumonkey 7mo ago

I've seen this in many groups. Every time I laugh thinking about private enterprise efficacy. Then I shed a tear. Distribution problem.

hronecviktor 7mo ago

As an intern at @bankcompany I decided to go one step further than what my ticket was asking for and decided to implement something that crunched data in a very obvious way. Was nicely asked to revert it, because @bankcompany already had several fulltime employees doing exactly the same thing.