May 8, 2002
Dear Everyone:
The culmination of the Information Management Conference (next week) and the conversion to the new (to us) Records Management software (Memorial Day Weekend) has resulted in a bit of an overload in some areas. Specifically in the area of getting ready for the Conference and testing the changes to the new (to us) application.
So I sort of got drafted into helping with the testing. This is OK as long as I have a charge code to charge my time to, which I have. However, Murphy’s Law being what it is, things keep coming up to get in the way. Lately what’s been getting in the way is another project going on in “Livermore”.
I now work for the Global Records Consulting team. We’re here to help you with your records. In fact, part of the team is actively working with Corporate “Winks” to pull together the (formerly) “Another Company” Corp “Winks” records. Many of these records a currently being stored in “Livermore”. Contract workers have been hired to go through these boxes of records and enter them into our (soon to be converted) Records Management system.
So naturally, I agreed to train these contract workers in using the system. This is one of those things that keep getting in the way of what I’m supposed to be concentrating on right now (testing that other system). And, as long as I was training those people, the person in charge of records for Corp “Winks” decided to send along some more of her people for training as well.
Also, the person in charge of the Corp “Winks” records contract workers suddenly realized that I was still working in “Livermore”, which means I can “fill in” for her when she’s busy elsewhere. Hence I am now riding herd on the contractors.
Let’s talk about contractors for a moment.
These are part-time workers.
They are frequently part-time workers for a reason.
One of those reasons may be a house full of kids.
The part-time worker needs to get off work at
When “Frankie” and her family were living in
A Good One was a gem and the house was always neat and the meals were always on time and the children were always clean. The Bad One was more like babysitting someone else’s teenage daughter.
Contractors are a lot like that. If you get a gem, when you say, “Jump!” they reply, “How high and where to?” If you get the other kind, when you say, “Jump!” they reply, “Not now. I’m going on break.”
There’s the diligent one who listens carefully when you give work direction, asks intelligent questions and gets the job done right, if not on the first try, at least on the second one. This is the one you’d love to hire if the brass would only let you.
Then there’s the twenty-something who’s really fifteen years old, with approximately 10 years of experience at being a fifteen-year-old. Why can’t she come and go whenever she pleases? Why should she do the work the way you showed her when she’d much rather do it her own way, with a lot of unnecessary flourishes like color-coding that ties up the color printer for hours at a time? And, by the way, why shouldn’t she use our system to print her wedding invitations?
A couple of us are good and ready to trade this one in on a new teenager and hope for the best.
But enough about that. “Jeannie” and I actually did make it to the movies last Sunday. “Jeannie” had expressed an inkling to see Spider-Man. Toby Maguire, who was so splendid as the sensitive, idealistic orphan in The Cider House Rules, plays Peter Parker. Peter is a timid nerd until he’s accidentally bitten by an experimental “super spider”. Suddenly, he can climb walls, shoot webs and make mincemeat out of the school bully.
Willem Dafoe plays the villain, dubbed the Green Goblin by a newspaper editor. This film was directed by Sam Raimi, which means you have to watch for his brother, Theodore, among others. The object of the game is to be the first to spot Theodore. Sam was featuring his brother in bit parts in his films long before Ron Howard started casting brother Clint in his movies.
But Sam doesn’t stop with his brother anymore. He tries to include everyone who’s ever worked for him before. Since he was involved recently in TV shows like Hercules and Xena, Warrior Princess, there are a lot of cameos to watch for.
Speaking of cameos, “Jeannie” has ceased to collect cameos from eBay and has now taken up collecting vintage costume jewelry in rhinestones. We tried cleaning a few of her pieces with my sonic jewelry cleaner and now she’s on the hunt for a sonic cleaner of her own.
Programming Note: As next week is the aforementioned Information Management Conference, I don’t know if there will be a Letter next week. It will depend on how busy I am and/or how tuckered out I am by the time it’s finished. ‘Til then…
Love, as always,
Pete
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