April 23, 1993
Dear Everyone:
We're very close to finishing
with sending out the Annual Destruction Review.
So far, it's been rather like
trying to lift a somewhat hysterical elephant out of a tar pit
single-handed, while people stand around throwing rocks at you.
In other words, it could've been easier.
Two weeks ago, we began running reports.
We could only run eight on a weeknight, because they tend to
still be running in the morning; and after about 7:00, you get charged
the highest rate. Weekends are
90% off (Sale Price!), so we ran as many as we could over Saturdays and
Sundays.
All of the reports were addressed to “Elaine” in “Livermore”, regardless
of which one of us actually did the ordering.
With so many reports churning out
at the printers at “Printout Support”, I figured “Elaine” would be
pretty notorious among the weekend crew.
By Monday, we expected a whole truckload of paper to show up in
“Livermore”.
No reports.
None.
By the end of the day, “Elaine”
bravely called “Printout Support” to ask where our reports were.
They didn't know.
But…if we could give them the Job
Numbers, they could start a trace on the missing reports.
(In the meantime, another 8
reports ran over Monday night. And
disappeared into the unknown.) The
Job Numbers were squirreled away in the Transaction Logs.
I went into the Transaction Logs
to find the Job Numbers. (Is this
beginning to sound like a game of Dungeons and Dragons?)
I faxed the Job Numbers to “Elaine” who faxed them to “Printout
Support”. The next day, “Printout
Support” called to announce that they had found our missing reports…sort
of.
Sort of?
Well, they had sent reports to “Pleasant Hill”.
Now, if you look at the map, you
might notice that “Pleasanton”, where “Printout Support” is located, is
16 miles south of “Pleasant Hill” (where they sent the reports) and 6
miles north of “Livermore” (where the reports were supposed to go).
And you might wonder why they
would put our reports on a truck and send them 16 miles to “Pleasant
Hill”, just so they could be put on another truck to send them 22 miles
south (passing “Printout Support” on their way) to “Livermore”.
We wondered, too. In fact, we
used a lot of wonderful four-letter words trying to find our reports.
It turns out that there is no
"direct mail link" between “Pleasanton” and “Livermore”.
So, anything addressed to
“Livermore” is automatically shipped to “Pleasant Hill” to be
re-rerouted to “Livermore”. On
Tuesday, “Elaine” and her boss, “Murray”, had a little chat with the
“Printout Support” lead and set up a deal where they would not
automatically send anything addressed to “Elaine” to “Pleasant Hill”.
Unfortunately, there's always
some chuckle-head who doesn't get the word.
There are still five sets of reports missing.
However, we saw no need to hold up
all of the reports just
because a few weren't ready. Yesterday,
we gathered the 90+ % that were
ready to go and sent them out. God
willing, “Elaine” will get the last ones today and they'll go out before
the weekend.
Yesterday afternoon, I had to leave 45 minutes early for a dental
appointment, to get two teeth worked on.
All I could think of was, "If we can just get these reports out
to the Records Coordinators by this afternoon, then I can go to the
dentist and relax!"
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |