April 3, 2008
Dear Everyone:
Are you sitting down?
I have a monumental announcement to make.
I actually
completed a project!
No, not GIL 3, that will go on for years.
I’m talking about the project I was doing for the “Winks” Group
over in Building T.
You may recall that, back in early February, the
Active Files supervisor for the “Winks” Group came to my supervisor and
manager asking for someone to help him out.
One worker was out on maternity leave; another had just left
earlier than expected for her own maternity leave; and a project supervisor
was getting ready to leave for a new job.
I was assigned to help 50% of my time, the other
50% going, inevitably, to GIL 3.
At first we kind of spun our wheels figuring out how best to use
my (expensive) time. But
then we decided that I would work on two sets of boxes of records that
the “Sovereignty” and “Really Expensive” groups had indicated were no
longer needed.
So I started going through the “Sovereignty” boxes.
I found many interesting things, such as some Resolutions by the
Board of Directors. At
first, I wasn’t sure what these were.
They were paper “books” with tissue cover sheets, then elegantly
printed resolutions, with nice things to say about a person, and spaces
for each member of the Board to sign.
It was the names that gave me a clue.
“Dr. Collaborating Snuff”.
“Freddie T. Johnson”.
These were people who used to be on the company Board of Directors.
In fact, “Freddie Johnson” was the previous CEO.
“Colly Snuff” left the Board to join the present
Bush
Administration. So when
someone left the Board, the Board made a Resolution that basically said
what a nice person he/she was.
Lovely, elegant, unsigned
copies, kept by someone to use as a template for the next time.
For the record (no pun intended), copies are not records and do
not need to be kept. Into
the recycle bin with them.
In fact, by the time I’d finished the inventory I had 12 boxes, out of
20, of records to be reviewed for destruction.
As soon as I finished with that lot, I started on
the “Really Expensive” boxes.
These had less to do with property and more to do with legal
advice to various departments and operating companies.
I finished the inventory last Friday.
On Monday, I put together the Destruction Review
packets and presented them to the project manager.
Since they had no more work for me to do, I boxed up my stuff and
sent it back to Building E.
Project completed. Customer
satisfaction surveys sent.
There are things I will miss about working in
Building T. It’s right next
door to the Credit Union, so that was convenient.
It had a couple of
“blue” parking spaces right near the door
(although once inside, you had to walk the length of the building to get
to the elevators.) And
because the parking lot was on the eastern side of the building, my car
was always in the shade in the afternoon.
And the people were all friendly and easy to work
with. I got them to agree to
save the printer “cover sheets” like my group in Building E does.
So that’s twice the number of sheets of paper I’ll be able to
donate to my friend’s school.
And it’s an excuse to visit the people in Building T about every
week or so to pick up what they’ve accumulated.
But there’s one thing I won’t miss.
Because of all the lawyers in Building T, the dress code was
“business casual” even on “casual Friday”.
So we couldn’t wear jeans on Friday.
Starting tomorrow, I’ll get to wear jeans again.
It’s the little things that count.
Pete
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