June 19, 2005
Dear Everyone:
We have something at work called “KnowledgePlanet”. It’s a software program, that’s why it has the cutesy name. Most people just call it “KP”. The company uses it for scheduling educational sessions. For instance, each year we’re required to take a class called, “Emergency Preparedness – Office Buildings.”
I log into KP and run a search on “Emergency Preparedness” and the class is displayed. I then click on the class name and get more information, including upcoming classes. I then click on “register” for the class that I want to take.
KP not only registers me for the class, it even sends me an appointment to place on my schedule in Outlook. KP also keeps track of all the classes that I’ve taken in the past. It’s way cool.
Now, as you know, I often give training on our electronic document management system. Those classes get listed in KP and people can search for them and sign up for them all automatically. The problem, for the past couple of years, has been getting the information about the classes into KP in the first place.
When we started all this, about 2 years ago, the KP administrator was a person in the Human Resources (HR) group who had a bit of a reputation for being something of a flake. Lots of time away from work, unable to meet deadlines, and it was like pulling teeth to get her to put one of our classes into KP before the class was already over. When they started laying people off after the last “cost recovery” restructure, it came a no surprise when she was one of the first to go.
Then we had someone else working as the KP administrator. After a short while, she started acting flakey as well. This does not mean that KP turns all people into flakes. I knew another “administrative assistant” who was a KP admin and she was a dream to work with. Unfortunately, she also got the axe.
So for the past year, we’ve been asking if we could take the training to become KP administrators ourselves. That way we could enter our own classes, print rosters, register people as having completed the course, all without having to “bother” the flake whose job it was to do these things for us. For about a year, there has been one excuse after another. KP is scheduled to be upgraded; we’ll arrange for training right after the upgrade. (That was last October.) There are no training classes available right now. (This we discovered was untrue.)
Finally, about two weeks ago, someone sent out a message announcing that a special “abbreviated” training for KP administration had been set up for next Tuesday and Wednesday. Each session would take four hours. Unfortunately, our Training Coordinator will be out of the office next week, but I was available, so I responded to the message to sign me up.
This week I got the notice about the class.
It will be a “virtual” class.
I will be in my “office”, on my computer, with a special headset
that includes a microphone so I can hear and ask questions.
The actual instructor will be in
My first thought was: “Aack!!!” Like the refrigerator magnet says, “Not a morning person doesn’t BEGIN to cover it.” Then I read the part of the message that said to be in the office, logged into the system at least a half-hour BEFORE the class begins, to fix any technical difficulties. My second thought was: “AACK!!!!!!”
Be at work by
Then I started to think:
“Hey, I can do this.
Shucks, I used to get to work at
How many alarms?
At
At
Remember: “Not a morning person…”
Love, as always,
Pete
PS. I
forgot, the lamp comes on at 4:00, so that’s the first alarm.
P.
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