[admin, me] Siderea Availability Advisory: Low; Guidelines
Okay, in addition to being sandbagged by both familial and clinical crises, being in ongoing low-grade physical pain and chronic exhaustion, and the general stress of world events plus my having to be the professional grown-up for other people dealing with the stress of world events, plus, you know, writing every available second and doing bare minimal what we in my biz call "Activities of Daily Living" (ADLs)...
...I have come down with a cold.
I was just thinking that I need to set some limits around my availability to others, and that just became mandatory.
I've been getting a little flurry of contacts asking for consultations (usually on tech stuff) or synchronous meetings either via tech or f2f. I'm honored to be asked, but I just can't right now.
Unless you are a patient of mine, family of mine, or on the short list - and if you are on the short list, you just got a private message from me saying "you're on the short list", so check your LJ inbox - please think thrice about contacting me privately to ask my feedback/help on something or asking for a synchronous contact. Please don't assume "it never hurts to ask". At this moment, even being asked costs me something I don't have a lot to spare; for calibration purposes, imagine it costs me $5 and you $50, and then proceed accordingly.
(Short list: imagine it costs me $1 and you $10. The differences are that, 1. if you're on the short list, it's because the topics I am discussing with you are low-cost for me, and 2. ongoing things don't require the cognitive boot-effort (no research, no schedule coordination) on my part. "Inboxing" is free.)
None of this means "don't comment". No, no; continue that as you were, including asking questions as usual. I hope to post RSN.
If you do contact me to request a consultation or synchronous meeting, say because it's super important and urgent, e.g. "Siderea, we've discovered Trump is a lich-king and are going to do a necromantic ritual to Turn him in two days when the stars align, and need another black-haired alto who knows PL/pgSQL" (I would of course be right there, but FYI I think I may be more of a tenor atm and I got off that train at v7.3.), there are things you can and should do to make it easier on me:
• If possible - and I understand that given the world situation the whole point of requesting a synchronous communication meeting is that it might not be - just tell me point blank, in summary, what it is you want of me and why, ideally in 50 words or less (see lich-king example above.)
• After the summary, don't worry about concision: more information all at once is better on my end than back-and-forth.
• Similarly, if you're asking for f2f, phone, or other synch, don't expect to do back-and-forth schedule negotiations, and don't ask me my schedule. You tell me your schedule openings between noon and 10pm. Feel free to express them in a heirarchy of desirability. Likewise for locations of in-person meetings. Atm I have no secure telecommunication channels, only the regular insecure ones; don't bother asking.
• Let me know the time scale on which it is necessary for me to get back to you to be useful to you. No guarantees I will, but don't make me guess or ask.
• Similarly let me know how much of my time you want, and how much time is an adequate minimum to make it worth your while (which may be less than what you want).
We now return to your regularly scheduled programming, already in progress.
...I have come down with a cold.
I was just thinking that I need to set some limits around my availability to others, and that just became mandatory.
I've been getting a little flurry of contacts asking for consultations (usually on tech stuff) or synchronous meetings either via tech or f2f. I'm honored to be asked, but I just can't right now.
Unless you are a patient of mine, family of mine, or on the short list - and if you are on the short list, you just got a private message from me saying "you're on the short list", so check your LJ inbox - please think thrice about contacting me privately to ask my feedback/help on something or asking for a synchronous contact. Please don't assume "it never hurts to ask". At this moment, even being asked costs me something I don't have a lot to spare; for calibration purposes, imagine it costs me $5 and you $50, and then proceed accordingly.
(Short list: imagine it costs me $1 and you $10. The differences are that, 1. if you're on the short list, it's because the topics I am discussing with you are low-cost for me, and 2. ongoing things don't require the cognitive boot-effort (no research, no schedule coordination) on my part. "Inboxing" is free.)
None of this means "don't comment". No, no; continue that as you were, including asking questions as usual. I hope to post RSN.
If you do contact me to request a consultation or synchronous meeting, say because it's super important and urgent, e.g. "Siderea, we've discovered Trump is a lich-king and are going to do a necromantic ritual to Turn him in two days when the stars align, and need another black-haired alto who knows PL/pgSQL" (I would of course be right there, but FYI I think I may be more of a tenor atm and I got off that train at v7.3.), there are things you can and should do to make it easier on me:
• If possible - and I understand that given the world situation the whole point of requesting a synchronous communication meeting is that it might not be - just tell me point blank, in summary, what it is you want of me and why, ideally in 50 words or less (see lich-king example above.)
• After the summary, don't worry about concision: more information all at once is better on my end than back-and-forth.
• Similarly, if you're asking for f2f, phone, or other synch, don't expect to do back-and-forth schedule negotiations, and don't ask me my schedule. You tell me your schedule openings between noon and 10pm. Feel free to express them in a heirarchy of desirability. Likewise for locations of in-person meetings. Atm I have no secure telecommunication channels, only the regular insecure ones; don't bother asking.
• Let me know the time scale on which it is necessary for me to get back to you to be useful to you. No guarantees I will, but don't make me guess or ask.
• Similarly let me know how much of my time you want, and how much time is an adequate minimum to make it worth your while (which may be less than what you want).
We now return to your regularly scheduled programming, already in progress.