July 5, 1989
Dear Everyone:
One of the disadvantages of writing a Letter on your lunch break is that you always run the risk of dripping salad dressing on the keyboard.
Not much news to report. This is the first day I’ve been back in the office since last Thursday. I was in “Pleasanton” (“Company Park” and rented office space in “Grey Farm”) all day Friday, and everyone who could took Monday as a vacation day. The reason I was in “Company Park” Friday morning was to take a class in Beginning WordPerfect. This is an IBM software package for word processing and it’s WONDERFUL! WordPerfect is to typing what typing is to Brother Dominic and his quill pen. I can’t wait to get my hands on “Holtz’s” floppy disks to make some copies for myself. (“Holtz”, at present, is the only one in our group who already has the software. Rather than buy a new set, I plan to pirate his.) Unfortunately, “Holtz” took not only Monday, but the rest of the week off as well; and I’m not computer literate enough to figure what to copy from which disks. “Holtz” has hundreds of disks.
[At the time, I was
unaware of the software licensing issue.
Naturally, I didn’t do anything of the sort.]
Right now, if I want to write a report or a recommendation to one of my clients, I write it on VM, print it, highlight what I want done in bold, underlined or centered and take it down to word processing on the 3rd Floor. Then they RE-KEY everything I’ve done onto their WorkPerfect disk and print it for me. Once I have WordPerfect for myself, I can key it any way I want and just take the disk down to them and have them print it without repeating a lot of keystrokes. This saves everybody a lot of time which is one reason why the Company is encouraging everyone to go to WordPerfect as the software of choice.
However, the WordPerfect class was only for half a day. It ended at 12:00. Now, I could have driven back into the City to work for a couple of hours before it was time to go home. Or, I could find something else to do in “Pleasanton” for the rest of the day, thus saving a lot of back and forthing over the Bay. This I elected to do.
I decided to spend the afternoon in Bishop Ranch where “Enabling Technogiggles Department” (ETD) rents office space (“Company Park” is full). ETD is one of my clients. I have to come up with a new file structure for them, with the added twist that it has to fit into the new “Integrated Document Handling System” (“IDHS”). ETD is one of the first groups to move into “IDHS” and, as such, they are also one of the groups that are paying for the purchase of the “BUSiness” software that “IDHS” is based on. This is a different kind of software than Word Perfect. Instead of cute little disks, we’re talking Cray supercomputers here.
Anyway, the ETD Central Files needs a new file structure. The one they’re using right now was set up in 1939. We know this because some of the folders have paperwork in them dating that far back. They still have, carefully filed, the phone number of the person to call in the event of an emergency, December 12, 1944.
Part of the problem with a system this old is that the person who set up the files has long since retired (if not died) and the people who are using it don’t know what belongs where. Take “CCS”, for example. “CCS” stands for “Company Cleanup system”, which could mean anything. What it actually does mean is a system for getting more “XXX” out of older, depleted “sources”. But you wouldn’t know it from the name.
I once had a file clerk who put “CCS” paperwork under Subsidiaries because she assumed that it was the initials of another “Company” company. ETD decided to put it under Telecommunications which is itself filed under “Company USA”, Supply and Distribution. Why they thought “CCS” is a part of telecommunications is anybody’s guess; but who would ever think to look for telephones and telegraph under the people who bring us “sewer spills” and leaky “septic systems”?
The trick here, compliments of Henry David Thoreau, is to simplify, simplify, SIMPLIFY. Get away from the complicated hierarchy of the “Dewey” decimal system and into the easier alphabetic system where, if you know the name of the subject, you know the name of the file. I set up an alphabetic file system for a woman in Ventura last year and when I called her later to see how she was doing, I asked how the new file index was working. She said: “Great! I never have to look at it. I just look at the paper and go straight to the file.” That’s the way it’s supposed to be.
“Terri”, the ETD Central Files lead, and I kicked some ideas around and I spent a few hours measuring filing inches and equipment and then I went home.
Saturday, I made a list of all the things I needed to do over the 4-day weekend, half of which I ended up lumping under “Clean Everything”. You know how house-cleaning expands to fill the time available? Well, I had about 3 hours in which to “clean everything” and I pretty much did it in 3 hours. I even cleaned the yard (translation: swept the patio). I think I swept up about 5 pounds of old birdseed, plus about 3 cubic feet of dead leaves. (Where do they come from? The dead leaves, I mean. It isn’t autumn. And why do they all land on my patio? At least there aren’t any magnolias. I knew a woman who used to say it was no wonder the South lost the Civil War – everyone was too busy sweeping up all those dead magnolia leaves!)
I also got my hair cut, went to a Star Trek Convention, featuring William Shatner (easily the most entertaining of the Big Three: Kirk, Spock and Dr. McCoy), saw the new Batman move (somebody PLEASE comb Kim Bassinger’s hair!) and cut out and put together two new sundresses.
The one thing I didn’t get around to doing was riding my exercise bike. I’m at 7260 miles, still in China. It takes bicycling through a country to realize just how big it really is. I’ve been in China for quite a while now and I figure, if I’m very, very good and ride 10 miles a day, I’ll be at the Western Border by Christmas.
Love, as always,
Pete
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