The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round...

I'm caught in a vicious circle at work..

I've been informed by The Powers That Be that I need to define and reinforce the strict guidelines set down by corporate for it's computer and internet users.

So, these last two weeks I've been cracking down. Uninstalling browsers that aren't company approved, removing such items as Mozilla Firefox, and other download utilities, since no downloading of ANY sort has been approved, etc.

Enter in Manager Bitch from Hell.

She's now gone and faced off with me. Last week, we had a "discussion" where she informed me that since I'm still considered an associate, and she's management, I'm required to follow her directions, and do as I'm told. I pointed out the email from corporate, and informed her that I was following my directions, but that didn't faze this woman.

She proceeded to take her argument to our HR (human resources) manager. The HR manager called me into her office, and kindly informed me that she was going to overlook this problem, but that the manager in question is correct, and my refusal to comply with her wishes bordered on insubordination, which is a terminable offense.

She then offered me this "compromise":

I do what I'm told to, and she'll ignore the insubordination, and we can all get back to our jobs!

Sounds great, right?

Yeah. Right up until my corporate lead inspected some accounts, and found that there were still violations of our company policy regarding computer use.

He then proceeded to write me a nice, NASTY email, and copied my HR director in the missive.

It basically explained that I needed to enforce company policy, and failure to do so would be met with SEVERE consequences.

After our "discussion", I was sure that my HR manager would explain things to my corporate lead, but that's where I was completely and totally WRONG.

I got tossed under the proverbial moving bus, y'all.

Her response was as follows:

"Jormengrund has been given ample opportunity to take care of and resolve any internet and computer usage problems. Given the fact that many still exist proves to me to be a blatant disregard for his position and job duties. I suggest that immediate disciplinary action be taken in order to bring this problem to a close."

Yeah. After her pretty speech about doing what I'm told, I get the un-greased SHAFT from yet someone else I'd considered dense, but at least honest.

So I proceeded to document and present all emails and correspondence that I'd had from both of the argumentative parties regarding this dilemma. My corporate lead was surprised to find that I'd been told to go against the grain regarding their directions, but wasn't surprised at all about the shady dealings from my HR manager.

I assured my lead that I was willing to enforce the rules, but it might cost me my job. He told me to wait a while, and he was going to see about "levelling the playing field" some.

I'm wondering what kind of hornet's nest I'm stepping into now, but to be honest, I really LOVE my job, and don't want to lose it despite the morons that I get to deal with on a daily basis.

Job Security!!

Well, I know that as long as I'm able to deal with ID-10-Ts, I'll have a job here.

I mean, you can take this morning's conference call as a prime example:

Me: Hey. I was just curious. I've been working on that new laptop you sent me, and I can't get it formatted. Did you set up the hardware so that I can get this formatted and distibuted?

Tech: Of course! I got it all done last night. Should be right here.. No, it's not there.. Maybe I saved it here? Nope. Wait.. There it is! You can't access it there?

Me: Um, no. The formatting is automatic, and I can't change where it points the laptop to when it starts to format. You're going to need to move those files to the correct area so that I can get this laptop out of my office, and out to the warehouse floor.

Tech: Sure.. Give me about an hour to copy all the files down and move them.

Me: An hour? You can't click and drag them?

Tech: You can do that with these files?

Me: Nevermind. I'll get it done. Thanks.



You never know when I might start decorating the interior of my office door with divots from beating my head against it...

Caution: Bitch warning!

Yeah.. I'm HEATED.

I take my job seriously, and I honestly love the work, but if you start to mess with my job, and make it so that I can't get my work done, I become a rather pissy, bitchy and complete asswipe to work with.

Yeah. That's how I'm feeling today.

In my job, we have to do random quality checks before stuff gets shipped to the stores, to ensure that not only do the stores get the items required, but that the employees are doing their job correctly.

Normally, this process takes around 1-3 hours, depending on the size of the store, and the amount of pallets and cartons to tear down and check out.

Today? It was over DOUBLE that.

First off, we have to do AT LEAST 700 cartons per store, so we try to keep it as close to taht number as possible, except for today. Yeah, we doubled that. That got me all excited and jumping at the bit to get started.

Then, we get the slowest person on the loading dock to stack the product. I kid you not, this person can load, and I can put cartons on the roller, then sit back and watch moss grow on the sides of the trailer while he looks for just the right place to stack each and every box.

Then, you add to this the situation of the dock manager wandering past our loading door every 30 minutes asking how much more we've got to do. If he really gave a crap, he could turn around and see for himself just how much is left, but all he really wants to do is annoy the shit out of me.

So, there I am, working to try and keep my temper while we're doing the stupid audit, and listening half-heartedly to the jerk manager ask every 30 minutes how much longer we've got to do...

I got to deal with this from 5:30am until noon. Yup.. NOON.

SEVEN HOURS stuck in a door that should have only taken us AT MOST 4 hours! I'm so pissed still that I'm seeing red.

Then add to this joy the pleasure of getting into my office, only to be able to read nasty emails from corporate folks about me needing to answer emails in a quick and timely fashion...

How exactly am I supposed to answer an email when I'm not in the office to get it? Imagine that someone's emailing me, run in, check the computer, then run back??

I don't think so.

So not only did this job waste over 3/4 of my workday today, it also got me in hot water with my corporate advisors.

So yeah.. I'm fit to be tied. I could chew a pound of nails, just to make a couple of bullets to spit at a certain manager..

Good thing I'm busy trying to get some computer complilations done, or I could be in some serious trouble today.....

See you all later!

General Ranting

I hate it when folks can't make up their minds.

Or is it that they can make decisions, but they just can't decide which decision to stick with?

Whatever the cause, it's running amok with my schedule yet again.

I was asked to switch over to 5 8-hour shifts because I was needed each day that this warehouse is open.

Yet just yesterday I was called in to be informed that I need to switch back to 4 10-hour shifts starting next week.

OK.

Quit yanking my chain, and let me know..

Is it going to be one, or the other?

My guess is that in six months, I'll be asked to switch back again..

Any takers??

Yet ANOTHER close shave!

Well, not really.

Yesterday I had my annual evaluation done by my corporate "support", and passed with flying colors.

At least for all of that headache I was able to get lunch out of the visit!

So now I'm good until March sometime when my OTHER corporate advisor comes into town to asses my ability to do my job.

So many candidates, and so few bodybags left.. What is a semi-respectable IT guy to do??

Speaking of IT and bodybags:

I LOVE this reader that I'm able to get here at work and read.

The name of the runny read is BOFH: the Bastard Operator from Hell.

Yes, the author is British. Well, New Zealander, really, but still QUITE funny to me and my "techie" ways.

I find it in at The Register.com.

Full Address is: http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/

I honestly have read this only the last year or so, but I went and found archives and read it from the beginning to the current issue. It puts into words EXACTLY what I feel like doing to some (l)users who happen to bother me while I'm trying to get a database done, or finish an inspection, or any other number of jobs..

Read it for yourself, and see if you can't find something funny in the reading.

The only requirement is that you know something about computers, and a bit about older functions, and a bit of "true" English to be able to not lose something in translation.

I'll talk with you all next week, and hope that you have a great weekend!

Blah, blah, blah...

Well, it's that time of year again.

Corporate visitors who are determined to make your work week (and workday) hell on earth.

They come in, act like they're doing you a favor just by being there, and then tear apart each and every job that you do.

"You know, you could spend a little less time doing that job, and spend a bit more time doing this one."

"Why didn't you take more time doing (job I just said you could take less time on)?"

"By the way, I love how you've got control over this area, but here are some pointers to really help you get the most out of your time at this task."

Ad nauseum.

I'm at the tail-end of an entire network upgrade.

Beacuse of this, I've got computers, memory, and laptop stuff ALL over my office. I can't get rid of the towers or laptops until I've taken the memory and hard drives and disk drives out of these old pieces of crap. Once I do that, then I get to pile said parts into a HUGE box that I'm unable to lift by myself, and try to find some place to store it for a short while.

Then I can put the rest of the stuff on a pallet, and shove it in some dark corner of our warehouse until the disposal truck comes.

While trying to do all of this, said corporate inspector drops by, and offers these words of wisdom:

"You know, if you only did one or two machines at a time, your office wouldn't be as cluttered or crowded."

This is the same fella that two days ago sent me the email stating that all the PCs and laptops needed to be done by the time he got there, or my job would be at stake.

I don't know about you, but when given an ultimatum like that, I tend to take serious action.

Now, we've had the PCs and such for a LOOOONG time. Purchasing bought these back in January, and they got here in March. However, I couldn't DO anything with these machines, beacuse the computer lab folks on the corporate end hadn't gotten their machines yet, and as such, didn't have protocols set up for the new PCs to be installed on our network.

Yeah, that little gem there forced me to sit in my office with 40 boxes of computers that just gathered dust.

Once everything was done, it was time to take ONE machine, and work out the bugs. First, it was the operating system not liking some of the programs we run. So we start going over TONS and TONS of code in order to fix that problem.

Then it was access to specific much-used internet sites that were being denied. So we went back into the firewall hardware to reconfigure security settings.

Finally, I was able to install all the programs and configure the PCs the way that they needed to be. However, each PC took a little over 4 hours to get ready.

Do the math:

4 hours per PC

40 PCs

8 hour workdays.

Yeah. LONG time getting it ready.

Then comes the easy part.. Replacing the old one with the new PC.

Simple, right?

WRONG.

Then you get the calls about this screen saver not being on the new machine. Or this one program that they downloaded (against company protocol!) that they want back on the new machine... Yeah. I lost hair at this point.

So I'm frantically trying to get PCs done, changed out, and then stored in my "locked" office facility.

My office isn't really that big.

In fact, it's really quite tiny.

Once you add the networking hardware and servers, and battery backup and alarm monitoring equipment, it gets even smaller.

Now add 40 boxes of monitors, PC towers, laptops, and memory upgrades.

I have enough room to walk, very carefully, from my desk to my door. That's about it.

So, I finally get the stuff done, I get the drives and memory pulled, I get the towers stashed far and away from my office, I get the new PCs installed.

What next?

"You missed two PCs that need to be installed here this year."

Yeah. The two he's referring to aren't even here yet. One he's directly responsible for, since it's the security PC that hasn't been upgraded for 10 years.

The second is the "new" trial PC they're using for applications. This one is basically going to be a "dumb" terminal, where you turn it on, and it automatically boots to our application site on our LAN, and nothing else.

So yeah, I'd have replaced those if they'd gotten here, but since they're not here, nothing's been done about it.

So here I am, looking fondly at the reclaimed space I now have thanks to my hard work, and wonder just when this guy will leave so that I can get back to doing my job without having the moronic statements put me over the edge.

Wish me luck!

I'm gonna need it, I think.

ARRRRGH!

Have you ever had "one of those days" that actually seems to go on for the entire work week?

Yeah. I'm there.

This week has been jammed to the gills with stress, bitching, tempers flying, and more stupid crap than most of the rest of this last year combined..

Thank GOD it's Friday, and I can at least look forward to two days of not having to deal with it for a while!

You know, there are days when I look forward to this job. The challenge. The mystery. The fun of digging into a problem and being able to fit it and look like the miracle worker that I truly am.

Yet there are times when I come in with this mentality only to revert to a hunched grumpy troll at the drop of an attitude once the time clock is punched.

The worst part is that there are only a couple of people who are able to do this to me. The biggest problem is that they are two people that I have to interact with on a nearly daily basis.

Yeah. These two.. (I'll call them Twit 1 and Twit 2 in homage to Dr. Seuss) are the epitome of selfishness and ignorance all wrapped up in a giant bundle of attitude. You show up for work, and one of these two will somehow try to find a way to bring you down into their depressing pissy world, and not let you out.

Twit 1 has been moved to the night shift for a while, so I've had a nice reprive from his arrogance. However, Twit 2 seems to take this as a challenge, and has since stepped up his assinine ways.

Today was NO exception.

Let's just say that I'm glad I was able to finally lock myself away in my office, and rant and rave at the walls for a while... I really don't need to lose my job over someone like this, and keeping focused on the job at hand really doesn't help when you've got someone like that trying to make your life a living hell.

Hope you all have a great weekend, and I'll shout out at you another day.

Ciao!

Like all good things...

Yes kiddies, I'm having to trim down the amount of time I spend blogging.

I've made a promise to myself to not post while at work. I've come to realize that my income is near and dear to my family, and for me to put that in jeopardy by writing about things that upset me for the enjoyment of others is irresponsible.

Now? Well, I've decided to post when I can while at home. It's not going to be as steady and as usual as it has been in the past, but there will be odd times when I'll be able to get free, and rant and rave about things that have set me off.

As a few of you know, I'm also dealing with some harsh and serious things on the home front as well, and right now one of my major focuses is going to be on resolving these issues once and for all.

So your thoughts and concerns are welcome, and I dearly hope that I won't lose your readership while I take time to clean house.

Have a great day, and I'll talk to you again soon.

And this is how the Black Plague spread..

Yeah, contrary to popular advice, I'm back at work.

I don't know what it is..

I mean, just ten years ago I would have found any and all excuses to find a reason NOT to come to work..

Now? I'm finding excuses as to why I need to be here, and NOT stay home!

Talk about a severe change of attitude....

I'm not as bad off today as yesterday, though. I loaded myself up on Nyquil, sinus relief, decongestants, and cough syrup.. Not to mention cough drops and the occasional tall cool drink of water.

I think I'll make it through just fine today.

My coworkers? That's another story.

There are some folks here that I wouldn't mind coughing all over, and forcing them to take a few extra days off work just to get them out of my hair for a bit longer.

However, grandma didn't raise her boy to be rude like that, so I politely cover my face when coughing, and excuse myself when needed.

The worst part about being sick like this is that I'm all alone this weekend.

The kids are at their mom's.

My wife is on a "girls weekend" at the local casino.

I'm in an empty house, with a loving pooch, but nothing more.

I can't do the "sick man" trick, and just mope about in the recliner crying about how bad my head hurts, or some such nonsense.

If I'm thirsty, I get my butt up and get a drink. Hungry? Fix something. Tired? Go lay down. Maybe get a blanket and crash where I land.

But there's nobody to talk to.

Yeah, I can talk to the dog, but she doesn't talk back too much, and it gets boring after a while. I like the undivided attention and love I get from her, but sometimes I really wish she'd learn more english than "ride", "treat", "walk", and "outside", you know?

Well, I've got inventory and stuff to get done today, so I'm going to be knees and elbows in serious dirty stuff. Wish me luck, and you all have a great weekend!

Another drop (drip) in the bucket

Yeah, I'm late posting this, sue me.

I'm sick.

Not just the "I don't feel like being here, so I'm going to try to think up an excuse to not come in" type, but the aches, pains, stuffy head, runny nose, coughing, sore back from hacking, sore throat, mild fever kind of sick.

And like an idiot, I came into work as well.

I don't know what it is about this place, but each and every time that I have to start crawling into the "devil dust" we have in this place, I get sick.

This week has been interesting, in that I've had to move offices, drop cabling, and change out computer monitors. So I've done my fair share of dirt crawling these last couple of days. Not only that, but the first day that I came home, I left a nasty black-gray ring in the tub when I took my shower.. Not a pretty picture, I can tell you!

So I'm here, sick, miserable, and trying to focus on lasting the rest of the day so that I can carry my sick butt home, take a steamy hot shower, and crash into bed. Food doesn't even enter into the picure right now, just hot water and a warm bed.

You want to know just how depraved I am?

I'm conetemplating how I'm going to do tomorrow, and trying to convince myself that I'm really not too badly sick, so that I can get work done.

I think I need to see a shrink.

Thank you all for your comments and postings over the last couple of days. I've been trying to air out things that have bothered me, and to know that I'm not the only one out there seeing something wrong gives me just a bit more hope.

I'll hopefully be posting earlier tomorrow, so keep your eyes open!

Something keeps bothering me..

Do you ever get the feeling that folks only keep you around to use you for something.

That if they were to ever be able to do what you're able to, you wouldn't be around anymore?

That if you weren't able to do the things you can, you wouldn't be as vital anymore?

Yeah. I'm feeling like that right about now.

Yesterday I put in one hell of a workday just to get things done.

I'd posted about how I'm from the old-school teachings that my grandparents instilled in me.

I take pride in my work, and I do it to the best of my ability. I refuse to do something halfway, and leave it done with "just enough" to get it to work. In my opinion, that's just not right. I correct and complete the problem, and then in my estimation it's finished.

Yesterday, I was trumped.

We moved a workstation, and there were some unforseen consequences of the move. One was the failure of the IP phone, and another was the failure of the PC itself.

One was easily fixable. The other was not.

I had a replacement phone for the phone issue, but the PC was another matter altogether.

What had happened with the PC was best termed as a lack of housekeeping by the user of the PC tower. During the move, dust was able to sift into the contacts and hard drive of the PC, effectively erasing any and all data from the computer.

How do I know this?

Because it worked fine when I turned it off from the office it was in. Heck, it works fine now (once I removed the foot of dirt and dust from the inside of the machine!), and when transporting the PC, I took great care in keeping it stable.

Now, housekeeping on a PC isn't difficult. All that is really needed is to grab a small can of compressed air (that I provide these folks for free when asked!), and blow it into the tower about once a week. This keeps the dirt down, and the circuts clean. A clean PC is a happy PC!

Yeah. It doesn't happen much around here.

So, after putting in 18 hours of work to get the problem fixed, I was called and told to leave things "as they were", and go home. The problem will still be here when I get back, and I can work on getting it resolved then.

Grudgingly, I agreed, and headed home for a bit of food, and my bed.

When I came in this morning, it was to managers rooting through my office trying to find their PC and phone, and then yelling at me because their desk wasn't completely moved like it was supposed to be.

Being half-awake, and still a bit on edge from the excess of work I'd done the day before, I was impressed that I could muster up the polite response of telling them to talk with the GM who ordered me to go home, and that I'd take care of their problem when I was able to.

Threats of termination floated on the breeze, and I finally ordered them out of my office so that I could get to work.

Yeah, I'm still working on the problem. Heck, it's taking me longer to post than normal because in between sentances I'm checking for compilation completions, hoping that my data recovery scripting is going to work, and I can at least salvage some data that was lost..

Yet I can't help but feel that if any of the management here felt that they could do the job I'm doing, my time here would be awfully short..

I've been told on a regular basis that I do a great job around here. Things go smoothly, and problems don't happen very often. When problems _do_ show up, they tend to get fixed right away, and they get taken care of to such a degree that the problem usually doesn't happen again.

Now if I could only use that problem solving skill to replace faulty users, I'd really be in business, wouldn't I?

I'll talk with you all tomorrow, I've got a computer to fix.

Have you got Spring Fever yet??

Yeah, it's starting again this year...

I look out, and I see all of the things that I want and need to do out in the yard and around the house..

Yet, for all of my observations, I just can't seem to get motivated to really "do" something about it all.

Do any of you have this problem?

Take this for example:

This weekend, I had a friend of mine come over, and we trimmed down the monstrous hedges that grow in front of my house. The fence that is between my house and these green monsters is 5 feet tall, and some of the sections that we cut off these hedges were six to eight feet taller than that!

Anyway, after trimming these down, we piled them on my "to do" pile of dump junk, and planned on making a full day of dump runs for this coming weekend.

My dump pile has gotten a bit out of control.

I mean, it's still got stuff from the house remodel (including the sliding glass door we removed), old yard clippings, closet door junk I'm never going to use, the wannabe carport that fell and crushed my poor work car this winter, and other sundry items that really don't have any place at my house...

All in all, I'm looking at about 6 trips to get it all cleared out of my yard.

My friend also has things he needs to get rid of, so on my day off yesterday, we went over and gathered everything he needs to get rid of, so that we'd be ready for this weekend.

As it's looking like right now, we'll have one full load for his stuff, about another half load from his dad's stuff that needed to get taken out of his shop, and then the 6 or 7 loads that I've got stashed at my place.

But it doesn't end there...

My folks are also needing stuff taken out as well, and that adds another 3-4 loads to our planned dump trip.

So the grand total?

About 14 loads.

I'm hoping to have two trucks, so that we can make just 7 trips instead of wasting my entire day doing nothing but running from house to dump all day...

That, and I'm also praying that this dump date doesn't get postponed for some unknown and ungodly reason, either.

Because if it does, I have no clue when I'll get motivated enough again to make the attempt!

Anyone feel for me?

Time to go find a soda and some doughnuts.

I've been around the world and seen that only stupid people are breeding...

Yeah, it's Friday.

I'm actually getting a bit annoyed with the antics of some of my "frequent flyer" idiots. I mean, there are only so many times that I can repeat something before I start wanting to get sarcastic and snarky.

How many times should one person have to remind another about logging onto one specific program before starting another one that requires the first program to be open in order to gather data from the initial program's database?

It's as simple as:

Open program A. Then open program B. Why? Because program B needs to get info from program A in order to work correctly.

Yeah. Not quite rocket science.

Then there are the occasional idiots that decide to make the worst decisions ever when I'm extremely busy, and caught in the middle of another job.

Take today for example:

I'm currently in the middle of doing an exhaustive inventory for ALL of the computer equipment located in my building. That means servers, switches, scanners, radio ports, data cables, even Cat-5 jacks and phones.

While scraping away 3-4 years worth of dust from some locations, I happen upon interesting things like copper line converters, and BOS twinex controllers. These have been phased out of my system for the last 3 years, and yet I've found four that are still hooked up, and running...

While doing this, one of our associates decided to calibrate the laser scanner that we use to determine cube for an item. This scanner has a scale and sonic measuring devices located on it to determine height, width, and depth along with weight. This then can tell us how many of these will fit on a pallet, and how many pallet we can potentially put on a 48 or 52 foot trailer.

So, while deciding to calibrate the scale, they start pressing random buttons all over the scale.

My corporate supervisors call me an hour later to tell me that the weight info they're getting from my scanner is WAY off from their initial scans. Things that used to be 2-3 cube items are now coming out to be 200-300 cube items.

I head over to check.

Yes, I found the problem.

While calibrating the scale and scanner, they hit the buttons for Grams instead of Pounds, and Centimeters instead of Inches.

My company's data is measured in Inches and Pounds. So for the Inches to increase from 3 inches to 155(cm) is WAY out of proportion. Why? Because their hardware is still trying to convert the CM into Inches. So it's reading 155 inches when it was last measured at 3...

Now imagine this 45 pound box coming in at 1500 grams or so.

Yeah. You get the idea.

Once nice long recalibration session later, I've got the issue solved, but I've also killed 1/3 of my workday.

Ah, the joy of knowing when to leave things alone, and when to just nod and go about your business like it's another "normal" day....

I'm actually looking forward to this weekend. Maybe in some way I'll forget about the stupid crap, and be willing to start all over again on Tuesday...

I honestly think that's one reason my General Manager asked me to move to the 4 12-hour shifts..

See you all on Tuesday, and have a great weekend!

Yarrrr!

Yeah, I really didn't know what else to title this, so I figure that if I just put some kind of piratey-type of growl up there, it might attract some folks.

Have you ever wondered how some people got the jobs that they have today?

I'll give you an example:

Here at my work, we have an HR person. HR = Human Resources.

Now, by my understanding, this person should posess inter-personal relationship skills. You know, be a kind of "people person".

However, this lady doesn't have anything close to resembling people skills.

Yesterday was a great case in point.

I'm the network administrator for our warehouse's computer systems. I have to get authorization for any kind of software installs that are done on the computers, as they are all tied into the corporate network, and could potentially disable the entire company network if something weren't quite right with the software.

A couple of weeks ago my safety manager asked to install some software onto her computer for some tracking reports that were given to her by a supplier. These disks aren't company approved, and so I told her that I'd have to get permission from the corporate network executives before I could make any decision on whether I could install the software or not. I also warned her that because of the time she was making the request, it was probably going to take a back burner to other projects until the start of the new fiscal calendar year. She agreed, and we parted.

However, since that time, she has made a point to send me at least one email a week asking about this software. I have kept her in the loop regarding the request, and have copied and forwarded each and every response I get from my bosses over their decisions. They are just too busy right now with other matters affecting the company to look over some software to see if they don't mind it being added to a computer. This isn't a priority for them, so they blow it off.

Apparently this means that I fall into this same category of person, and so my safety person got my HR manager involved.

Now, I'm not management. I refuse to be a manager. I prefer working my hourly rate, and I really enjoy the job I do. I make the management team look competent and efficient, and since they look good, that reflects well on me for those who know where to look. (Read my bosses!)

Anyway, I was then called into the HR office to "talk".

I was informed that since I, being a "lowly" associate, needed to follow instructions, I was to obey this manager, and install the software. No questions, no reservations, I was to do as I've been told.

I nodded, asked if there were any other instructions I needed to follow, and got the fish-eye.

Apparently sarcasm when being taken down a notch isn't a good idea.

I was informed that my tone and attitude were bordering on insubordination, and that it could cost me my job.

When threatened like this, I tend to get confrontational, so I asked if I needed to bring in my General Manager, and make this a "formal" meeting.

She proceeded to tell me that it wasn't necessary, and that this discussion would be "Between the two of us".

I nodded, left her office, and walked directly over to my General Manager's office to inform him about what had happened.

Now, I'm going to install the software.

However, I've got a serious CYA clause going on right now, because she did the silly thing of sending me my escape clause.

She wrote me an email explaining to me that I would install the software, and then inform her when the install was done. No questions.

Because of this, I can now claim that I was ordered to do this by my upper management staff, and there wasn't anything else but to follow the orders given by a duly represented manager of my corporation. All responsibility for this action are now on her shoulders, and if my bosses decide that this program ISN'T necessary and shouldn't be installed on the PC, well she's going to have to explain to them why she wouldn't wait for their decision.

All of this, and she's so proud of her schooling and certifications.

Me? My pride comes from knowing that when assigned a job that I get in, get it done, and get out as quickly as possible to allow the smallest timeframe of down-time in a production setting.

This means that even though I have to get in and stall the line, I'll get done as quickly as I can, and get the line moving again to make the smallest impact possible in the total day's work.

You can tell when I've done my job right when there aren't calls for me going on around the radio systems in the building. The only real time my name gets called out too much is when there's something outside the facility that's causing trouble with our network mainframes.

Tell me about some of your experiences.

Do you have people that completely baffle you as to how they were able to get their position?

(im)Patiently Waiting

Have you had those days when you're coming up to a nice vacation period, and you just can't stand the stuff going on around you?

Yeah.

I'm there.

I have today and tomorrow to work, and then I'm off for a nice vacation with the family.

However, it seems like every idiot and moron in my workplace has come out of the woodwork and decided to put on one special show for me before I go.

Let's talk shop, shall we?

Yesterday I had to be called in to set things up because one of my maintenance managers just can't get it into his head that he doesn't know SQUAT about computers.

They have been stripping and then re-waxing and repainting offices this year, since it's been 5 years since it was done last.

Because of this, offices are being cleared out, and then they paint and wax, and then shovel it all back into the office.

However, this specific office houses the network printers that we use to not only print out the labels needed for proper inventory, but it also housed the data and fax lines for traffic communication with the shipping company that we use.

All of this was unplugged, dragged out into the warehouse, and left to sit over the weekend.

Come Monday morning, they put everything back into the office, and plug it in, but NOTHING worked.

This is because not only did they not plug it back in where they'd taken it from, but they completely moved around the office furniture.

The printers I've got have a dedicated line and server for them to operate correctly, and just plugging them into any data port is like hooking up a phone to a dead jack. It won't get you anywhere. Also, there are more data ports physically in my warehouse than I have positions available on my data switches, so there are specific data ports that aren't live unless I physically go in and punch them down onto the network switch.

Because of this, I know what items work, and what jacks to plug things into.

"Normal" folks don't.

Thus I got to waste 2 hours of time plugging stuff back into switches, reprogramming a printer, and clearing out error messages from documents that were sent to printers that weren't online.

Annoying? Most definitely.

Boring? Not really.

Tedious. Absolutely.

I am honestly counting the minutes until I'm able to get out of here, and get on that plane. I don't care what the day or date is, I don't care if we have to sit on the tarmac because of weather. I just want out of this circus, and not have to worry about stupid stuff for at least a week. The most challenging thing I want to cope with is what ride to take the kids to next, or decide where we're going to eat lunch.

I think I need some Advil, so I'm headed to lunch...

More ranting tomorrow.

I just don't get it.. I really don't.

Ok. Time for this guy to complain again about the fairer (most of the time) sex.

There are too many things about ladies that I appreciate. Sights, sounds, smells, talks, looks, feelings, etc.

Yet there are a couple of things that REALLY tend to set me off.

One of these really bothered me this weekend, and true to form, I'm gonna blog about it.

I can't stand the wishy-washy double standards.

I'll give you an example:

I've got some guy friends. We LOVE to hang out and kill time. One friend of mine especially likes to sit around and play video games with me. If I didn't know better, I'd say that he's wired just about like I am.

Now, my wife has been teasing me this last weekend about how I haven't been calling my friends to just go and "hang out". Each time I've called, it's been to ask for help with something around the house here.

I can recall her picking on me just a few months ago about how I need to call these guys to come help me with things around the house, instead of calling them to go run off and play.

Now. Is it one, or the other?

Why can't I do both?

I mean, there are times where I need the extra hands with work around the house. So I give a buddy a call, and we get it done.

There are also those times when I'd really like to get away from it all, and have a bit of "playtime". Then I'd give a buddy a call, and we'd say "screw it" to responsibility, and just play around for a short while.

However, my bent lately has been for fixing things up around the house.

Is this a bad thing? I don't think so.

My wife and I have been looking into refinancing our mortgage, because we could potentially save an extra 7-8 HUNDRED dollars a month in payments.

However, in order to re-fi, you need to have an assessor come and check out the house.

I don't know about you all, but there are TONS of half-done jobs around my place.

The reason behind this?

Well, one, I'm a bit ADD when it comes to home repair and remodel stuff, and I can't stay on task for very long before wanting to move to a different project.

Two, we'll get into a job, and run out of parts or pieces, and forget to buy more for a while. Then, it starts to look "normal", and we tend to overlook that half-done appearance.

So, I've been a bit of an ass. I nag about needing this thing, or that, just to focus on getting ONE JOB at a time done.

I've got the checklist, and I've been marking down when I'm able to complete a job.

Patch holes in the walls? Check.

Install new door for the new bedroom addition? Check.

Cut trim for new door? Check.

Cut trim for French door we installed last year? Check.

Replace sliding glass door? Check.

Cut and lay floor molding? Um, in process. Big job, ugly angles, and off-center house make this job a bit more difficult than it should be.

Paint? NO.

My wife told me she'd take care of the painting. I informed her that I wasn't going to finish the floor trim until the painting was done, so that there would be one less hassle to deal with. She agreed, and now I get to wait for her to get HER butt in gear.

Replace all windows on the house? Check. Still trying to find a couple of pesky leaks, though. I might have taken care of this yesterday, but we'll definitely find out the next time it rains!

Put up blinds in all bedroom windows? Check. I even re-strung the blinds that were too long, because I wasn't willing to wait for my wife to do these like she'd claim.

So, my last major project is the floor moldings. However, I'm not able to do one room because of all the junk in the room itself. Each time I make mention of this, something gets ADDED to the clutter, instead of getting CLEARED OUT.

Maybe I should try reverse psychology, and compliment her on the empty room?

I dunno.

I do know that her deadline of getting the entire house trimmed by Wednesday is a pipe dream. She's wanting to impress the visitors we're going to have over when she hosts her Bunco party.

These same folks were here a couple months ago when there wasn't much on the walls but paint, and she didn't bat an eye. Now? The only thing missing is floor trim, and I get demands about needing it all done right away!

I don't get it.

Our house is quite old, and it's also three stories tall. The main problem with this is the major weight-bearing wall that runs the length of our house. It rises the full three stories, and is a main wall for our bedroom, my daughter's bedroom, and a computer room/office area we've got. But I've noticed in all the remodel and repair work that I've done on the house that it's this wall that is causing our house to settle weirdly.

It's a BIG wall. Because of it's size, it's settled, but the location of the wall is near the center of the house, and it has caused the house to settle inward towards the wall.

I can tell, because of the lines around the house when measuring.

This wall is off about a quarter of an inch. That one isn't quite square. The door jamb isn't quite centered...

These things don't seem very bad, until you're the one trying to fix the small unslightly blemishes to make the house look better.

The wall isn't square? How is that going to be a problem?

Well, the corner you decided to put the bathroom vanity in isn't square, so the sink insert you've got now sits weirdly, and won't stay in place. How do I fix that? Caulk, caulk, and more caulk! If I can hide the gaps, maybe someone won't notice!

Windows are levelled when installed, but now you can see from the outside that they don't match the level of the trimwork around the house.

Um, I can't really _do_ anything about this one. The trimwork is the original trim, and it follows the exterior of the house. As I've said, the house is settling, and for the windows to be installed correctly, they are now out of square with the rest of the house. There's really nothing I can do right now to fix this.

I'm NOT going to pay the extra cash to have someone come out, jack up my foundation, and put cracks into the walls I've just spent the last couple of months fixing.. At least not until I'm ready to sell this place and move somewhere else!

Well, I think I'm done for now.

Like I'd said before, we have our disagreements, and when we do, I tend to air my feelings here. She knows this, and has come to grudgingly accept it.

This is one of those times. I kind of know what I'd like to have done, but I just can't get everyone else into the same boat.

Wanna buy a house? I could make you a great deal....

Yet more bitching about work..

Yes, I'm going to rant and rave about work stuff again.

However, before I do, I sent some questions to my wife's blog at her request. I think you should check out her answers, and see what you think!

Anyway, on to my raving....

Yesterday, I had one CRAZY workday.

Let's start this thing out right, and I'll paint you a small picture.

When this warehouse was built, it was decided to build in a small rural area that wasn't being utilized extensively by anyone, and would be easily accessible from the main freeway. They found this spot, and proceeded to install an ENORMOUS warehouse here. I'm not kidding about the size. This warehouse is over 975,000 square feet of space (floorspace), and rises over 180 feet. Plenty of space to store things!

Anyway, things seemed well. That is, until the first real rain hit. Then we promptly lost phones. That's when we found out some seriously bad news.

The city around where we'd built this place had installed sub-market cabling in this area, since before we'd come here there was nothing but cows and fields.

Moving a heavy indutrial zone in here blew out all of the specifications for the underground conduit and wiring that ran through this area. Because of this problem, ground water was now able to seep into the undergroun cabling, and effectively shut off any communication we could have with the "outside" world after any kind of heavy rain.

We brought up this finding and our concerns, and were reassured that the city would replace the cabling as soon as it was able. Passified, we went back to get our work done.

That was 5 years ago. Since then, each and every winter and spring we deal with the serious loss of phone communication. This will also include cable, and electrical at times too.

Yesterday was one such day. It had been raining here for about 3 days, and the water tables were getting high. At the end of the workday on Wednesday, my connection to the corporate network was getting dicey, and phones were becoming heavily laden with white noise and static. I contacted the local phone company to come out and fix the issue.

They never showed up on Wednesday. At 5pm on Wednesday we lost ALL phones and data lines. It was a total death blow to my warehouse, as with no corporate server to work on gave us no ability to update inventory or stock. Thus my warehouse ground to a complete halt, and workers were sent home.

I came back to the warehouse on Thursday assuming that the phone technicians would have taken care of the trouble, and everything would be running again at normal pace.

Nope.

Workers were sitting around chatting, managers were discussing options, and nothing was being done out on the warehouse floor.

My General Manager spotted me, and called me into his office, demanding an explanation.

I proceeded to show him the emails I'd left, and the calls I'd made to take care of the problem BEFORE it got to this point. He agreed that I'd taken the right actions, and proceeded to chew a new one on the phone representative that he'd had on his cell phone.

I contacted my corporate advisor, and they started putting pressure on the phone company from their side as well.

In all, the warehouse was effectively shut down for nearly 18 hours, costing my company approximately 2.5 MILLION dollars in lost time and revenue.

Because I didn't stay past my quitting time to wait for the phone technicians to show up the day before, I got my butt chewed.

So, thanks to all of this, I was in a REALLY bad mood.

Enter in my "second" part of my job.

Not only do I work the technical side of this warehouse dealing with the network administration and upkeep, but I'm also part of the Quality Control group.

Being on the QC team means that we do daily audits of trailers being sent out in order to assure the stores that the product they ordered is correct.

Well, because of some slacking on the QC side, the department was behind on the number of annual audits needing to be done. My head QC manager decided to "bulk up" yesterday, and we did double the amount we normally do.

One lucky group of loaders had to deal with us 3 different times.

Yeah. Three.

The first one wasn't so bad. They didn't like being slowed down too much, because they wanted better hourly numbers, but they were willing to work past it. They started to seriously complain on the second one, and it took nearly twice as long to complete because of talking, whining, and going to their manager to "demand" a transfer to a different trailer.

Being in the piss-poor mood I was in, each whine and grumble from them just get me off a little bit more. Somewhere in the middle of the second audit, and listening to a basic temper tantrum from a middle-aged man, I broke.

I called my manager, and informed him that I'd be doing yet a THIRD audit in the same trailer. With the same people. He approved it, and informed the shipping and loading managers. That act caused a fuss that I've never seen before in an adult male.

Whining, moaning, pointing fingers, I half expected one of them to throw themselves on the floor of the trailer and pound on it with their fists and kick their feet.

This display lasted nearly 45 minutes before they finally agreed to settle down and load the store.

45 FREAKING minutes!

After much delay, and quite a bit of grumbling and moaning on their part, we got the store audit started and we finished in about 35 minutes. As I cleared out the gear, and headed to my office, one of the loaders proceeded to thank me for the work. I ignored him.

He followed.

I walked.

He asked me to tell him what I had a problem with.

So, because of his request, I did.

I told him that I understood about the pains of dealing with the slow audit process. I understood about wanting to get work done as quickly as possible in order to have the option to leave early if the chance presents itself.

But I also informed him that the QC part wasn't my only job. I told him about my sincere hatred of someone wasting my time by doing childish things.

Needless to say, I wasn't nice about the whole thing at all.

I was actually quite the jerk.

But I really don't like it when folks kill my time by doing something stupid and childish.

The time they spent crying could have been better served doing work, and 10 minutes after we finished the store, they would have finished their tirade!

So.. Guess what I got to deal with this morning?

Yeah. The manager for those two isn't going to act on the incident, and DEMANDS that I apologize for my actions the day before.

Um.. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

I think I'll waste his time today, and see how he likes it. If he enjoys it, then I'll apologize. If not, he can kiss my ass.

Hope you all have a good weekend. I'm looking forward to getting out of here for a while!

Awhua?!??

OK..

Normally, I'm not one for really picking on folks....

Wait, wait.. I take that back.

I'm usually the FIRST person to pick on someone about strange things.

However, with this one, I decided to leave well enough alone. So I'm going to blog about it, and snicker under my breath.

The person in question is one of my "upper management" people. This person has repeatedly told me about his education, his skills, his schooling, and why all of this makes him a far better candidate for a higher-paying job than me.

To be honest, I could care. I've got the job I was shooting for, I'm resonably happy, and I don't have to deal with the corporate asshats nearly as often as someone even one step higher on the company ladder.

This person has been nagging me since the end of November for a new monitor.

The problem has been that it's a "fuzzy" picture.

I'd go into the office, and see nothing but a crystal-clear screen. So I wouldn't do anything about this problem.

Lo and behold, last week I noticed something while walking past the "faculty" lounge.

This said manager was using reading glasses to read the paper.

Does anyone else make the connection here?

Yeah.

While using the monitor, this manager refused to use their glasses. Thus, a "fuzzy" screen to read.

Well, I got sneaky. I started a polite conversation, and pulled out my own glasses to read. This opened up a discussion on prescriptions, and I mentally noted what their prescription was for.

Then, dear reader, I went online, and ordered a "privacy screen" that also doubles as a set of reading glasses for this manager.

It arrived yesterday, and I put it over the screen. I got a call about 10 minutes later thanking me for the "new" monitor that I'd replaced the "old" one with.

Yeah. I'm sneaky like that.

But heck, as long as they're smarter than me, I know that my job will forever be safe!

Bah, Humbug!

Today, as you can tell, I'm posting.

Yes, this isn't one of my "usual" days for writing. I can give you ONE reason.

I'm at work, I'm on overtime, and the only reason I'm here is for some conference call that just couldn't be rescheduled for a time when I'd NORMALLY be in the office.

So yeah, I'm not really happy about being here, even if I'm getting the pay compensation.

Something about being at your work before you're ready to go back really puts me on edge. I don't know what it is, but I really just wasn't ready to have to be back here yet. In my mind, I've still got ONE full day off coming before I have to deal with this stuff, and yet here I sit, in my control room, machines whining, and I'm taking out my frustrations here by posting about my pissy attitude.

Sorry folks, my Blog, my rules.

I often wonder what it would be like to be that upper corporate office, and make other folks dance to my tune. Would I rub it in their faces, and give the "I said to make it happen, now get to it!" kind of attitude, or would I be more compromising?

I dunno. There are times that the Attilla the Hun type of attitude really appeals to me, and there are other times when I'd much prefer to be a peacekeeper.

I guess it all really depends on who's trying to pick on me as to how I'd prefer to act at any given moment.

Pick on me, reap the whirlwind. Treat me nice, and be treated nice in return.

Isn't that just about true with each and every person?

More tales for the New Year

I really, REALLY hate this time of year.

Work gets slow.

And when work gets slow, managers tend to have extra time on their hands..

Restless managers are NOT good. They get into things, they "tinker", and they just get to be a MAJOR pain in my butt.

Let me ask you something..

Just because you don't have something to do, do you go out and start taking parts and pieces off of your car because you think it'll run better?

Do you give the licensed mechanic advice about how to do his job because you read somewhere that doing this one job will save time and money?

What? You don't?

Then explain to me why so many folks assume that since they own a computer and can operate a couple of programs, that they can tell me what needs to be on their computer, what needs to be removed, and how I can effectively "speed up" the networking lines and communication?

Simple fact is that if I were to bring any of these folks into my office, they'd be floored at what was in there, and no clue where to begin.

When it comes to major installations like mine for computer stuff, please let the folks who know what they're doing get their jobs done.

I mean, if you want to get your job done, that's fine..

But please.. PLEASE let me do my job as well, and don't screw around with things you know NOTHING about!

Let me give you this example:

Today I came into work with two computer towers sitting on my workbench. This was news to me, because when I'd left on Friday everything was cleared, and all was good in IT-land. Upon further inspection, I find a Post-It note on the side of one of the machines.

It read: "Removed some unnecessary programs from the desktop, and now it won't work" *manager's initials here*

I sigh, and fire up my workstation computer. After slaving the "dead" tower to my workstation, I go over the programs that were uninstalled before the comp went dead.

Here's a list of the "unnecessary" programs that were removed by this helpful manager:

Microsoft Word.
Microsoft Excel.
Powerpoint.
Microsoft Office suite 7.9
Outlook Express
Lotus Notes
and finally:
System Comp Manager.

This last was the one to kill it.

The System Comp Manager is the script written by MY network manager for all computers linked to the network. Without this script in place, the network then will delete all company hardware from the machine attempting access to the network, effectively shutting it down.

Was dipweed manager to know this?

No.

All he needed to do was leave the machine alone, and let the computer do the job it was designed for.

All in all, he removed the basis for the paperwork templates he uses for reviews (Word), the templates he uses for production reports (excel), the templte he uses for weekly updates (powerpoint), the email program he uses for inter-office and personal mail (Outlook Express), and the corporate email system (lotus notes).

Let's just say that I came a bit unglued this morning, and I used my best judgement in allowing someone else to talk with this specific manager...

I put a call into my supervisor's office, and sent them the entire details of what happened.

This was about 2 hours ago, and I still haven't seen or heard from him since the call was put out that he was needed for a phone conference in the front office.

I hope he learns his lesson!

More next week on things you really shouldn't do to the office computers!