September 29, 1988
Dear Everyone:
Resume breathing! The BART strike has been averted.
[BART is Bay Area Rapid Transit, the train that took me to work each
day. Evidently, they were on
the verge of (yet another) strike at this time.]
I have completed my “Improving Personal Effectiveness” course. I can’t say the I feel any more effective (or ineffective) than I did before. They didn’t tell us until after we’d signed up for it that this was a totally new class and we were to be the guinea pigs.
We started with a video on behavior modification that was so condescending that it would have insulted anyone who got past the fifth grade. Since the entire class consisted of “exempt” personnel, i.e., people who are exempt from the Fair Labor law that says they have to be paid overtime if they work over 8 hours, and since the video tapes were clearly aimed at people in the lower-paid strata of the company, we nixed the tapes early on.
In fact, one person pointed out that there were NO non-exempts in the class, like they were afraid of our mixing together. Non-exempts commonly work as secretaries, word-processors, file and mail clerks. The company title for these types of workers is “grunts”.
We also touched on Time Management, something we’ve each had a minimum of 2-3 full-day seminars on. Then we had a 2-week interval for all of this stuff to soak in and start working before the next session.
Session 2: Teamwork (“The Company” is big on “teamwork”) and Communicating (verbal and non-verbal). Then 2 more weeks before the next session.
Right in the middle of this I was sent to another class, this one on Stress Management. Guess what we talked about. Behavior modification and time management. Now all of this stuff is swimming around in my head like minestrone.
Last, but not least, Session 3: We spent better than half the day talking about “Active Listening”. Then we had “Professionalism”, the idea being that we are all “professionals”. This fits in real well with the old Company practice of calling all exempts "professionals" while referring to non-exempts as "grunts". The ones who need this class the most, especially the last part, are the very people who are excluded from taking it.
Anyway, the class is finally over and I only have to do an in-depth evaluation of “what I got out of this class” (I got out of 3 days’ work, what do you think?) PLUS a deep heart-to-heart talk with my supervisor.
Next week I get to do something called Performance Management. It seems that Company has done numerous studies about why the company isn’t doing as well as it should; and the reports keep coming back with the same conclusion: The people who work for the company are dissatisfied.
Well, said upper Management, that can’t be right. Do the study over and change your conclusion.
Then they hired outside consultants to do studies. Same conclusions. The higher up you are, the more satisfied you are. The lower you are, the less you feel that you have a say in your job. (This is news? They paid thousands of dollars for this?)
So now Company has come up with Performance Management. This is a project to get people to feel that they have a contribution to make. And that Management will listen.
So I have to go to a 2-day seminar to learn about goal-setting and how you’ll be judged on your personal performance. Of course, you can easily make a game of this. Like sitting back and counting how many times the Project Leader says “getting in touch with…”
But guess who’s not involved in the Performance Management.
Right! The grunts.
They SAY that the non-exempts will be included some time next year.
In all, some 52,000 employees are going to go through this 2-day seminar. So, of course, Building Management picked now to renovate ALL of the downtown conference rooms; and our sessions are being held at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel on Cyril Magnin Street.
[Cyril Magnin, long known as “Mr. San Francisco” was a popular society
figure. He also did a cameo
as the Pope in the 1978
Goldie Hawn,
Chevy Chase movie,
Foul Play.]
So I went to Rand McNally to get a new map of San Francisco to find out what street had been renamed after His Eminence… and came out with a book on Ashland! (Yes, I also got the map. Cyril Magnin Street used to be part of Fifth.)
I’ll bring the book with me when we go to Ashland next summer.
In other news…
For those of you who have been waiting to hear if RCCS ever made it into CRMIS, I’m afraid it’s slipped badly in the Priorities Race and is now running a slow sixth. (However, “Murray” took pity on it and took the printout with him to “Livermore” today. If he gets a chance, he may find a way to get the computer to swallow RCCS once and for all.)
Nearer the top of the list, “Exploitation’s” Records Retention Schedule is up and staggering! I had a meeting with the assistant to the Exploitation Manager and he’s content to let “Valerie Lowe” and me do the work for him. We’ll compile a checklist that his people can mark off if they use certain records or not. Normally, it wouldn’t be done this way; but the fact of the matter is that, after 14 years with EL&P, I know more about this guy’s records than he does. So this is actually the easier way.
[Of course the department wasn’t really called “Exploitation”.
That would be too honest.]
Next week, once I get through Performance Management (when am I ever going to get any work done with all these classes?), I’ll be meeting with someone in “Privateering” and we’ll really start the ball rolling.
I’m also up to my hips in “Annual Destruction Reports”. Doesn’t that sound fun? It’s mostly trying to find someone who will admit to owning boxes in the Records Centers that don’t really need to be kept anymore. People have a real problem with throwing things out; they send them to storage instead. My personal favorite is the box filled with unused 1968 desk calendar refills. You never know when something like that will come in useful!
I’m enclosing the Disneyland photos with Mother’s letter. If anyone is wondering: Yes, there IS a reason why I’m standing in front of a sign reading “Zippety-Doo-Dah”. There’s a person in our office who calls another person in the group a “Doo-Dah” (someone who doesn’t do much work). She decided that he needed a first name, so… “Zippety”. Now she calls him “Zip” for short. One of these days she’s going to slip and call him “Zip” to his face. I can’t wait.
Anyway, I knew she’d get a laugh out of it so I had "Jeannie" take the picture.
Time to get back to work.
Love, as always,
Pete
I was recently made aware of a great site called "Secret to Amazing Time and Calendar Management". Check it out! Pete
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