So, while most companies are confident in their Y2K efforts, it's the inability to anticipate every possible scenario that's causing the most concern. "You can't compare Y2K with anything else due to the pervasiveness of IT," says Steve Frycki, managing director of DMR Consulting Group, an IT consulting and Y2K remediation firm that has worked with more than 300 clients on Y2K remediation projects since late 1995. "You have to look beyond hardware and software. For example, you have to consider embedded systems." Frycki picks two areas as the most likely to suffer problems: electrical and communications.

The demands of the changeover weekend mean many IT professionals will miss out on end-of-year vacations. Unified Foodservice has suspended vacation time for key IT personnel during the months of December and January. Unified Foodservice administrators and executives are required to be within two hours of work on changeover weekend and must carry a cell phone or beeper with them, says VP of IT Lewis. Both Lewis and Bill Bickley, Unified Foodservice's CFO, will be on call the entire weekend.

That embargo on vacation time may be why compensatory time off is the most popular form of reward for IT employees sacrificing their New Year's weekend. Of those surveyed by InformationWeek, slightly more than half will offer employees comp time. Only a quarter will offer overtime pay, and even less, 18%, will provide a cash bonus. A full 25% of respondents say their companies expect employees to work the entire weekend without receiving additional time off or pay.

Although 10% of Viking Freight's IT personnel will be on-site at all times over the Y2K weekend, Anderson says none of his staff has expressed interest in having their families with them. More accurately, he adds, none of the families have expressed a preference to spend New Year's weekend at company facilities as opposed to more social settings.

That's OK with the majority of clients of Logical Management Systems Corp., a crisis-management and business consulting firm in Munster, Ind. Geary Sikich, a principal with Logical Management Systems, says most companies won't be celebrating New Year's on-site, but will instead make it up to their employees with a party later in January. "Due to liability issues, most companies won't allow family members of IT personnel into areas beyond common and conference room areas," Sikich says. Still, some of Sikich's clients have said they'll offer their employees' families hotel rooms for the night to "raise their comfort level."

Prudential's Dec agrees with the "no families" provision. "We'll be there to work," she says. And while Prudential plans to have an on-site New Year's celebration, there's another provision that Dec stipulates--and that almost all companies are enforcing as well, according to Logical Management's Sikich--"No alcohol."

While most companies say they haven't purchased equipment specifically for changeover weekend, those that have are spending primarily on satellite phones, cell phones, and--no surprise--electric generators. Satellite phones are expensive, and Logical Management's Sikich warns that companies planning to use these devices should check to make sure the different phones they deploy use compatible satellite providers. Satellite phone users must also be sure to test these devices before changeover weekend, as some energy-efficient buildings with gold-coated glass interfere with satellite transmissions, Sikich warns.

Far from the madding crowds of Times Square, John Matthews plans to ring in the new millennium from his solitary vigil at Yadkin Valley Telephone Co. in Yadkinville, N.C. Matthews will be in charge of overseeing his company's rollover into the year 2000. The telecommunications carrier co-operative, which operates 30,000 lines throughout North Carolina, requires Matthews, as central office supervisor, to be on-site to monitor the company's systems until midnight, after which he will check dial tone and billing systems.

Matthews isn't expecting any problems on New Year's Eve. With the exception of two switching devices purchased from Nortel Networks Corp., all of Yadkin's systems have long since been tested by the company for Y2K compliance. Matthews has the option of bringing his family on-site, he says, but he has no plans to subject them to such "boredom."

A little closer to Times Square is Prudential, which anticipates a bit more excitement. "There will be year 2000 celebrations, and we will be popping bubbly cider when the clocks turn," says Dec. "This will be a very exciting time. We will have fun."

She'd better keep her fingers crossed.

--with additional reporting by Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, Alorie Gilbert, and Martin J. Garvey

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Illustration by Chris Lensch
Photo of Dec by Edward Santalone