New work laptop, HP ProBook of some sort, new and recently purchased. Even has a USB-C port. I go to connect my monitor and the son of a bitch doesn’t have a display port connection, only HDMI. None of my monitors are HDMI, only DVI and I have display port adapters, not HDMI adapters. Ok, that sucks, but what is this? The laptop still has a VGA connection. WTF?
None of this matters, even if I did dig up a VGA cable. Because the fucking laptop isn’t booting up anyway
Any “new” computers we get from corporate are either refurbished, or they’re bargain models that have had Windows 7 installed on them. (Yep, we still use Windows 7…some computer out in S&R relies on a piece of software for which there is no Windows 10 equivalent.) My refurbished computer was shipped to me in an oversized cardboard box with a single sheet of bubble wrap for protection. Amazingly, it survived the journey with only a chunk of paint/coating missing from the case.
Sheesh. (Yes, I know. If they had brains they’d have figured something out already. But sheeeeeesh.)
I would say it’s because of the coronavirus pandemic. Taping them off prevents people from spreading it by touching common surfaces.
Heh…
Our IT department is outsourced now…I had a hell of a time convincing them that I really am an engineer, and that the teensy computer they sent as my first replacement was completely inadequate for using AutoCAD LT. So no, they probably aren’t familiar with compatibility mode.
We don’t have to worry about this, because the entire company is signed up for a weekly cybersecurity newsletter so that we know how to spot threats. 
(Yes, really. This is the official line from corporate’s cybersecurity guru.)
This is a very good question, because there’s at least one computer on the network that runs Windows 10. I’m guessing that IT isn’t willing to come down here (even in non-plague times) to conduct training, and our former resident IT guy no longer has the patience after what he went through when we upgraded from XP to 7.
Maybe, but the inside of our store is closed to the public. The only people using the fountains would be the employees that are touching the same registers etc. all day.
Higher up wanted to “help” because our line was so long today. Nobody appreciated her sniping because we can’t work miracles re: ratio of customers to staff.
It was, however, gratifying listening to her huffing and puffing through, “Okay, this guy doesn’t have an order?”
Yeah, we have to get their request manually, yes they’re ordering products we haven’t carried in weeks, or ever, yep you hafta then ask WTF they want from our actual inventory, yeah this happens 10x a day despite the giant “Pre-Orders Only!” banner, yes this slows everything to a crawl, yes we do this all the time, oh you’re crapping out after 90 minutes because it’s hot, we do this for ten straight hours a day.
There is something I really hate about being a business analyst:
Being expected to become a subject matter expert on the way the end-users use the system, but not being allowed to, you know, ask the users how they use the system. This has been a problem with all of the BA jobs I’ve started. I perceive a huge fear that wanting to learn from the clients sends a message that we (my organization) don’t know what we’re doing. I get it, but when you hire a new person they can’t learn it from clouds and trees. Why can’t they realize that they can frame the perception as “here is why we’re the best: we have our new analysts learn from you! We want them to learn your jobs inside out so that we can provide the best possible support.”
Telling me to walk through the system only tells me how to learn what the features and functions are, it says nothing about how the end users use it.
Telling me to ask our internal developers and QA team only tells me how the system is constructed, not how the end users use it.
Not knowing how the end users use something runs the risk that the product developers will add “improvements” that wind up making the product less useful, by screwing up certain aspects of the functionality.
Absolutely! My issue is how they expect me to gain this expertise while actively preventing me from acquiring it. So then I get directives like this for changes to a customer-facing design document:
“Many departments don’t use this functionality so I want you to go into our internal development system and research it. Include that information in the document along with details about how those departments will be affected by the change.”
On a tangent, another gripe I have today is something that comes along with having two managers, which I knew would happen but hoped it wouldn’t be too bad. (Conflicting direction) It actually isn’t too bad in this current job. My gripe is how they so subtly gaslight me when there are conflicts. Like manager A will tell me to remove examples and make the document briefer, then Manager B says to add examples and more explanations. When I verify with Manager A that he agrees, he says he doesn’t see any conflict or contradiction. ARGH!
Why can’t we resolve the conflict without gaslighting? Is that so hard to do?
This is dumb, and feels so petty, but it’s bugging the hell out of me:
Work has “sell XYZ product” contests sometimes. Last time, another girl sold 3 before her shift ended, and then later that night I tied her - we sold three apiece.
That was last week, and the promised prize (a product worth about $15-17) never materialized.
Can’t speak for her but … I don’t care, really, about the prize. (Okay. That’s not true. I would have been happy to receive it. Or even half.) But I’m going to snortle, loudly, when they announce the next sales contest.
TL:DR - don’t have sales contests (among hourly wage slaves with no commissions) and then not even cough up the prize.
If I didn’t have expensive hobbies, I would pack my shit and walk. I’ve had enough of my workplace.
Our order processing system allows you to enter internal notes that print on each item’s pick ticket. Among other things, this is meant to be used as a way to convey special instructions to inspectors and test technicians. On one item, I had attached a special note reading TEST WITH ‘X’ FLUID. The testing department used the more convenient ‘Y’ fluid instead. No great harm has actually been done, other than learning that reading is still apparently for chumps at this company.
Spent all Monday morning sorting through a big box of material samples, carefully labeling each one and even indicating which sample went with which line on the job. I got a call from inspection today – “Is there some kind of list that explains where all this stuff goes?” 
Bonus: late this afternoon, this same person wheeled a cart all the way to my office to show me the leftover parts (that I had labeled as being “not needed”) and let me know that I hadn’t indicated a line for these pieces.
Test technician came to my office to let me know that a procedure I wrote called for incorrect mounting of a part to be tested. I thanked him for letting me know about the problem, and also mentioned that I had looked at a procedure written years ago for this same part and wondered about the vague mounting instructions. I also let him know that I would revise the procedure and get it back to him. He then proceeded to tell me at least eight more times (I lost count) about the problem with my procedure, along with his attempts to make it work. I kept repeating that I understood the problem, and that the procedure would be revised, but he would. not. shut. the. fuck. UP. 
(Honestly, this behavior is really out-of-character for him; he typically gets right to the point, then goes about his business when he learns that a solution will be put in place.)
TL;DR: I’ve not done this before, is there anything I need to do ahead of time? Nope, we’ll take care of it, and let you know when it is ready. There was stuff that could be done ahead of time, so now it is not ready.
I needed a new server, so I decide it is time to put it in a campus data center instead of hosting it in my department. This is what the university prefers, and I agree with their reasons. So I contact the data center and ask how the process works. They tell me to order the server, have it shipped to them, they’ll rack it, and configure the management system.
Once the server has shipped I contact them again to see if there is anything more that I need to do to access it. They tell me nope, it’s all good. The server arrives, they rack it. Then they order two IP addresses, one for the server, and a private one for the management system. That takes a week. First, why does it take a week to allocate two addresses? That should have taken five minutes. Second, even if it only takes five minutes, why didn’t they do it as soon as the server ships. It’s not like their earning interest on the unallocated IP addresses or something.
So finally, nearly two weeks after the server actually arrived it’s racked and the management system is configured. I try to access it, but my VPN is not provisioned to access the management network. If they’d told me to get that done two months ago, when this whole process started, then it would already be done, and I could actually access my server.
As it is, I’m still waiting for my request for access to actually get assigned and ticketed, because it’s the first week of classes, the absolute worst time to try and get anything done. That’s why I started this whole thing two months ago, so it would be done by now…
Tomorrow will be hell day.
I will be losing 130 cases that I have worked incredibly hard on, spending hours on the phone with clients, offering assistance, giving boots to the butt as needed, walking them through the misery that is my agency.
I will be receiving 230+ plus cases that supposedly will be basically babysitting; however, providing coverage recently on some these cases has shown it’s going to entail a lot of cleaning first.
I’m not a happy camper.
And the pcl/pdf workgroup? The other guinea pig stepped back, so for the past few weeks it has been only me testing. Sometime in the next two weeks I (and only I) will have the joy of training a dozen other guinea pigs, along with mentoring them through the process. The new guineas are a cross section of workers based on their self-assessed comfort with technology. FML.
I am furious. We were promised case transfers would be handled one way - oldest out first. We were told we could request to keep some of these older cases. Basically, don’t worry about newer cases.
So I didn’t.
Instead chunks of my caseload, with no deference to age of case, are gone.
Asked the supe WTF? She changed her mind this morning, no big whoop.
Yes, it is kind of a big whoop. Cases where I have spent hours upon hours garnering the trust of the clients, finally got them to take action - gone. Cases with really tricky legal issues - gone. Cases in mid-process of major changes - gone.
May I ask for some of those cases back? Nope.
“Let it Go… Let it go…”
Time to put the number of days to retirement on the wall.
15 years. Fifteen long years.
My dumb self went to another county for six months back in 1998. In those intervening months they abolished Rule of 90, which would’ve allowed me to retire with full benefits in about 9 years.
Gah. Background: I work with FrameMaker. They’ve recently released a new version. I use a lot of plugins and scripts to do my job because they take care of a lot of grunt work.
BUT:
One of the 3rd party plugins I depend on is not working. It’s supposed to automate the insertion of embedded markers for indexing, but while I can create the index entries, the plugin isn’t creating the markers, and I think it also wasn’t updating or deleting the ones I had there but wanted removed so I could fix a few things (I deleted using a find and replace instead of the plugin because I didn’t think to use the plugin to do it, so I can’t verify that). I can probably get away with not providing an index (it was my first one and it’s lousy—it needs an update I don’t have time to do), but any index is useful and right now I can’t create one unless I do it by hand. Which, let me tell you, will take a long time that I don’t have right now.
I just emailed the developer, and I hope he has some ideas. All the other plugins I use are working, including the others purchased from the same developer.
I think Adobe messed with the API for conditions. This plugin depends on conditions to work, and if Adobe changed something and the developer didn’t catch it, I’m toast.
Is the water coming out of the bathroom or breakroom taps nonpotable? Sorry, I don’t do bottled water unless it is the only water available. In general, tapwater is potable though may taste ‘off’ because it isn’t hyperfiltered like many bottled waters are.
Sorry. Me again. I’m so over everything here. It’s frustrating because I truly love what I do (and considering it’s considered a universally reviled job, that says a lot). I don’t mind change when change is needed. I like progress. I love shiny new toys. Between new cases, stupid electronic filing systems, the pcl/pdf thing?
And today I was reminded that I am required to do a process breakdown (ie multi hour meeting) on a process I haven’t done since the peacetime emergency began in March.
This is a clusterfuck.
I want alcohol.