March 30, 1989
Dear Everyone:
That “Holtz” is as slippery as an allegory on the banks of the Nile!!!
Last Thursday was our first meeting with the “CITC” people who will be working on the programming end of rewriting Schedules. Right off the bat, “Holtz” announced that we had been reviewing the feasibility of the Master-Org / Sub-Org Scenario and that “We have reached the conclusion that it won’t work.”
After fighting tooth and nail with him for nearly two months, he suddenly capitulated and presented our side of the argument as HIS idea. Well, OK. If it saves us from the nightmare of Controlled Series, we’ll go along with it.
The next order of business was to consider Generic Series. The idea behind Generic Series is that there are a lot of organizations that have the exact same records, like copies of purchase orders, that they keep for exactly the same amount of time. Why not have Series already described, approved by Tax and law departments that anybody can use if they want to?
You’d sort of have a “sample case” of Generic Series that you could take into a meeting with a client. You have this sort of record? Here’s a Series already made up; try it on for size. Fits OK? Great. How about another.
The idea is to cut down on the time spent on ordinary, everyday stuff and quickly get to the more specific items that pertain only to that particular group. And it would make "Tiddly and Wink" happy because they wouldn’t have to approve a Generic Series more than once. Also, when "Wink" is looking for records having to do with a lawsuit, they could order all the boxes with a Generic Series, knowing that they would get everything that all the Operating Companies have on a particular subject.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Trouble is no two organizations work exactly the same way. One may keep their purchase orders until what they bought comes in and then toss the paperwork. Another keeps theirs until the warranty runs out. A third keeps theirs until the piece of equipment falls apart and they have to buy a new one. Everybody’s different.
So, for this morning’s meeting, I had written up about 6 pages of pros and cons and What-would-happen-if…’s for us to discuss to see if Generics would really do us any good. “Sue Fuller” of CITC was in the meeting as were “Holtz”, “Melanie” and I. Quite casually, “Holtz” mentioned that an organization manager could decide that he wants his people to all use the same Generic Series and… BINGO!
We’re right back to Mast-Org / Sub-Org Scenario.
Slippery.
And the reason he’s so good at it is because allegory is his stock in trade. “Holtz” doesn’t live in the Real World. He lives in Fantasy land. Ask him for specifics and he shrugs and says “I don’t know… but let’s stay flexible."
Flexible! “Holtz’s” idea of inflexible would probably be an eel.
Poor “Sue’s” eyes sort of glazed over as we (“Melanie” and I) ran around in circles (verbally) trying to hang onto the squirmy character.
And I get to write the minutes of this morning’s meeting for the rest of the group who managed to find reasons why they couldn’t attend. Lucky me!
In other news (this will have to be a short letter, this morning’s meeting carried over into my lunch break)…
I had a meeting with “Alma” last week (we all did) about the ranking session, where I came out in comparison to the other 12 people in my salary classification (low in the upper third), and how good a job I did last year.
The upshot was that I did such a great job that I’m going to get a really nice raise… next December.
I agree. It’s dumb. Even Fran Tarkenton said it was dumb; but that’s the way the company operates. Because of when I came into this job, I will (unless they change the policy) always get my raise for last year’s work in December.
On the other hand, It’s nice to get extra money at Christmas time.
The odometer on my bike now reads 6950. “Murray” and I figure that means that I’ve reached Hong Kong. Except the “Murray” thinks I should have gone 3400 miles and then turned around. That way, I’d almost be home by now.
I think I’ll continue to head east until I hit the Great Wall of China, then veer southeast towards Italy.
Love, as always,
Pete
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