Love, As Always, Pete

The Weekly Letters, by A. Pedersen Wood

October  9, 1991

Dear Everyone:

I'm back! (Hands, how many people noticed that I was away?)  I have returned from two fun-filled weeks in “Livermore”, “Hobby” and “Oklahoma City”. 

The first week in “Livermore” was your basic 12-hour days of trying to hammer the basics for using CRMIS into one supervisor, one pretty sharp guy and one complete air-head whose primary concern was her make-up bag which she refused to entrust to the airline, then left at the Oakland airport, requiring a special trip to fetch it. 

Fast-forward through the first week.  Week two:  Fly to “Hobby”, one of America's largest outdoor saunas.  Hot and humid.  Don't stand still too long or moss will start to grow on your south side.  This is a place where it can be pouring rain and still be in the upper 90’s. 

Consequently, many of the downtown office buildings have enclosed walkways bridging the streets.  It's possible to go from the Four Seasons Hotel, through a shopping mall called the Park and into the Company Tower (formerly the That Other Company Tower) without ever leaving the air-conditioned comfort of modern urban technology, much less setting foot on the ground.  Since it's connected, one way or another, to so many office buildings, that Park does a flourishing business at lunch time. 

We were actually only downtown one day, Wednesday.  Monday and Tuesday were spent in southeastern “Hobby” where the Records Center is located.  Just as hot and humid, but you do have to go outside from time to time.  The people from the “Austin” and “Lafayette” Record Centers had flown in to join us for a series of conferences and meetings.  All very useful, informative and boring. 

On to “Oklahoma City”.  Just as hot, but much less humid than “Hobby”.  And less crowded.  At the height of the “rush" hour, I counted maybe have-a-dozen cars as “Rowena” and I made our way “downtown” to the Company building.  The two days in “Oklahoma City” were to be a follow up on the training we had done in “Livermore” the week before.  The situation was pretty much still the same.  The sharp guy caught on to everything on the first try.  And the air-head kept disappearing to go to the ladies room and paint her fingernails. 

Speaking of nails, my manicurist up and quit on me, a fact I only discovered last Saturday when I showed up for my appointment and she didn't.  The woman who owns the beauty salon said “Ruby” had decided not to work for a few months.  I decided that this was a God-given opportunity for me to go back to natural nails.  I went home and sanded about 2 mm off the ends, which is quite a lot when you stop to think about it.  My typing has already improved considerably, even if my spelling hasn't. 

In other news… 

Company is experimenting with “alternate work weeks”. This started with the Loma Prieta quake, two years ago, when a lot of people had trouble getting to and from work because the Bay Bridge was out.  After the emergency, CITC was asked to do a pilot project to see how well alternate hours would work under “normal" circumstances. CITC, Company Information Technology Company, is the computer branch of the company.  They always get to do the pilot projects because they are largely populated by young people, fresh out of college, who don't have a lot of preconceived notions and aren't set in their ways. 

As an instructor I had once put it:  “You can do things in CITC as a matter of course that would get you keel-hauled if you tried it in CRC.”  (CRC is Company Resources Company, notoriously conservative.) 

So, for the past couple of years, CITC has had people working for 10-hour days with a three-day weekend; people working 80 hours over nine working days, with a three-day weekend every other week; people working four days in the office and one day “telecommuting” from home.  The reports have been favorable.  I've spoken with one woman who said not only would she not go back to 5/8 (5 8-hour days), she would no longer consider working for a company that didn't offer alternate work weeks.  Welcome to the 21st Century. 

Right now, it's only in the proposal stage.  And the whole work group has to agree on the same schedule.  I can't see that happening in the near future.  All the same, I like the idea of getting every Friday off.  (Or better yet, every Monday off!) 

 

Love, as always, 

 

Pete

Previous   Next