September 23, 2010
Dear Everyone:
I knew, when I returned to work last week, after a
week of vacation, that I would be "up to my eyebrows in alligators", but
I didn't realize how big and hungry some of them would be.
Email:
First thing I did was open my email, and it was filled with frantic
messages from people who sent me things the week before, when I was on
vacation. My "Out of Office"
auto-reply simply stated that I was away from my office and to forward
anything "important" to the Supervisor.
Never mind that said Supervisor was also out that week.
For heaven's sake, there was a
Holiday that week.
Who wouldn't take off if they could?
I considered the usual, "If X, then contact Z, if
Y, then contact A.
Who's on
First, What's on Second, I-Don't-Know's on Third."
Too complicated.
Plus, it wouldn't hurt for the (new) Supervisor to get an idea of just
how busy I am.
Problem:
The email system was out of whack.
Took the better part of the first day to get it fixed before I
could even address all the issues sitting in my overcrowded Inbox.
Next Up:
ARMA. (That's the
Association of Records Managers and Administrators, International.)
Back in August, when we had our Chapter Board of Directors
Planning Meeting, the President decreed that we would meet on the fourth
Thursday of each month, except November, when it would conflict with
Thanksgiving. For this month
he either forgot, or just didn't care.
For whatever reason, he scheduled this month's meeting last
Thursday, which, if you look at a calendar, was the third Thursday of
the month.
Then:
My Homeowners Association meets the third Thursday of each month.
At first I thought the conflict between ARMA and HOA was resolved
by the "new" schedule, but not this month.
I had to choose between the two, so I chose ARMA.
After all, I don't get any Continuing Education Credits from
ICRM
(Institute of Certified Records Managers) for attending a Homeowners
meeting. Although, while
inching my way up the
Interstate, I kept thinking, "Why didn't I just
stay home and go to the HOA meeting?"
And finally:
Company's "Humankind Volunteer Week" was last week, in our case
on Friday. This used to be
called "United Way Volunteer Week" and it is still associated with the
United Way, which the Company supports in a big way.
About eight years ago, there was a huge
scandal involving some
Big Wigs in the United Way organization and since then, people have
shied away from giving them money.
They have since cleaned things up, and had a large Public
Relations campaign to get people "involved" again.
In the meantime, the Company came up with "Humankind" as an
umbrella for donating, volunteering, etc.
And they still use the United Way to help identify and coordinate
with "volunteering" to "help" various organizations.
So, messed up email, ARMA and "Volunteering" all in
a row. No time in all that
to toss together a Letter.
Good thing I mentioned last time that things might be hectic.
As for the Volunteer thing.
Our youngest co-worker was "picked" to organize our group into
some sort of activity. She had her work cut out for her.
Some didn't want to do anything outside.
Others didn't want to do anything inside.
Manager insisted it be "worthwhile".
Try to find a day of the week when everyone was "available".
That coincided with when the organization that needed "help" was
available. She finally
settled on the "Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP)" which runs a
shelter and a "soup kitchen" in one of the poorer sections of Richmond.
(Note: There are no
"rich" neighborhoods in
Richmond. Nobody
lives in Richmond if they can manage to live somewhere else.)
So after a late night with ARMA, I needed to be at
the office early Friday morning to pick up some co-workers and drive to
Richmond. When we found the
place, it actually had a parking lot, so we didn't have to park on the
street. We had the "usual"
welcome by the executive director, then a "tour" of the facility, which
was actually built for its purpose (shelter for
homeless families), then
were put to work in the kitchen.
Our manager and I were put in charge of desserts:
Taking cookies, cake, etc., from plastic packages (donated when
the "Sell By" date expired) and piling them neatly on trays for doling
out at the counter.
Manager's joke: "It's a
crumby job, but somebody has to do it."
When all the desserts were regimented, we moved on,
he to cutting carrots, me to helping make tuna sandwiches.
Then we manned the lunch line.
First person placed salad on a plate, passed it down.
Next person spooned green beans onto the plate.
Then I added a piece of bread (from the basket previously filled
by two other co-workers) and passed it down to the "main course".
There a person tried mightily to serve spaghetti (in meat sauce)
using metal tongs.
I could tell that this person was very
detail-oriented. He kept
trying to make all the portions absolutely equal.
A good character-trait in an analyst.
Not so good in a food line.
One woman asked if she could have a plate of "just
spaghetti" because her "little ones" wouldn't eat salad or green beans.
They just wanted to "play" with the spaghetti.
So we grabbed an empty plate and filled it with spaghetti.
And thus avoided "wasting" perfectly good food.
At times others would make special requests, such as a slice of
wheat bread instead of white, or the other way around.
Eventually, they closed the doors and the executive
director informed us that, while we had fed over 200 people, the Company
"team" from the day before had fed more.
Then we ate lunch; the same as we had served, except we got to
choose how much of what we wanted.
And I got to sit down.
By then, my feet were beginning to hurt.
Not as much, obviously, as if I were pounding the pavement,
looking for work. Part of
all this is, of course, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."
Speaking of which:
The much anticipated/dreaded ROM (Resource Optimization
Management) is going on this week.
Lower-level managers from all over the world assembled last
weekend here in the
Bay Area.
They are all meeting somewhere in “Tracy”, a town a dozen or so
miles that-a-way, the assumption being that keeping them away from work
will allow them to concentrate on playing
tiddlywinks with people's
lives.
Rumors abound, of course.
One rumor: Everything
is going so well and smoothly that some managers are already back in the
office. Another rumor:
Managers have been told this will be a "Monday-through-Monday"
meeting, working through this weekend, despite any travel plans.
In any case:
There's nothing I can do about it now.
Might as well concentrate on the
document management system
Computer Based Training (CBT) that I've been working on all these
months. The Good News:
I've figured out how to use the Random Question feature in the
software. Next up:
Aggregation! (Don't
ask.)
Pete
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