Them: When’s the new web site going to be ready?
Me: Aug. 26
One month ago:
Them: When’s the new web site going to be ready?
Me: Aug. 26
Two weeks ago:
Them: When’s the new web site going to be ready?
Me: Aug. 26
This past Monday:
Me: Just a heads-up to let you know that the new web site will be going live in a couple of days.
This morning:
Them: OMG! The new site can’t go live! There are errors in the copy! What if someone sees that before it gets fixed and comes back on us later saying, “But the web site said…” AAACK!
Me: :rolleyes:
The problematic copy on the new web site was taken word-for-word from the current web site, so it’s been out there, incorrect, for who-knows-how-long. They have known for, oh, six months or so that a new student information system was going to change the registration process. I can’t correct things if they don’t tell me they’re incorrect.
The panic-inducing errors, BTW, took me all of 15 minutes to correct – on both the site-in-waiting and the current site.
We recently failed an audit conducted by a third party on behalf of our client.
Because of stuff they’re supposed to be doing, that is in our contract to be doing, that they haven’t bothered to do.
One of the big things they’re cracking down on now was mentioned to me when I started last November as “this is supposed to be important, and eventually will be, but we’re not really bothering with it right now”. So now they’re in “Crack down hard and piss off the employees, because we (the management) were completely ignoring this in the past even though we KNEW we were going into an audit.”
Geez, month after month we’re getting fed this counter-productive “this is what can get you fired THIS MONTH” bullshit, driving morale to tatters, when 95+% of it is entirely the fault of Management neglect. I don’t have any patience or sympathy for Management failing to do large chunks of their jobs and then blaming the employees for it.
So I take Friday and Monday off no one does my tasks and I am still drowning in work. Grouse. The break I take for the hysterectomy is going to so not be worth it if someone capable isn’t hired soon. I love having a paycheck but really we need two more people.
Management: The development team has designed this lovely new website for our customers to use to log onto their accounts instead of the old one.
Tech Support: Nifty. So what’s the plan for getting everyone to use the new site?
Management: Well, on Monday we’re going to use this mass-mailer software that acts exactly like a spam-bot and will trigger even the most forgiving spam filter to send emails out to all of our customers telling them to use the new site. We’ll pull the email addresses from the “email” field of the form they filled out when they first registered their accounts on the old website. You know, the field that’s not mandatory and that most of our customers don’t bother to fill out. Then on Friday we’re going to lock out the logon script on the old website, so that if anyone tries to log in they get a generic “unable to log on” message.
Tech Support: We could do that. Or we could put a message on the front page of the old website telling everyone about the new website. Then on Friday we could set the old website address to redirect to the new one with a message asking them to update their bookmarks.
So last Monday I got a call from one of my bosses. He was on vacation but there was a project coming due on that Thursday. He called to let me know about this. The conversation basically went like this:
Boss: ‘So, there is a new fiber line that was run by engineering. We are going from system X to system Y. All you have to do is patch in the cat to the new switch and flop all the stations cables to the new switch and you are done’.
Me:‘Ok, I am going to map it out and send it to you so I know what is happening’. So I go map all the connections and scan it to email and get it to the boss.
Boss: ‘Yep that is it exactly.’
Me: "Anything else I need to know’
Boss: ‘Nope, your golden. The installers from Z will go to the property A first at 4 am. I’ll have them call you when they head out to your property and you can meet them, probably about 6 am.’
Thursday, 4:15 am the phone rings.
Coworker 1 at property A: ‘Hey, company Z sent out two installers, one is already on site. You need to get over there.’
Me: ‘Crap, this isn’t the way it is supposed to go’.
So I head over to work and get in. The installer from company Z had already hooked up most of the stations. Turns out that the setup is totally different than what I expected and had confirmed with my boss. Not a huge deal but it still sorta sucked. Then it got worse.
Installer from company Z:‘So, there is a station in the cage. you got a run to that?’
Me: !!! ‘Um, no. That wasn’t mentioned. That is at least 500 feet…fuck.*’
Installer from company Z: ‘Also, is the FTP setup to go to the property A?’
Me: ‘No one mentioned the FTP. It ain’t gonna work as these are two separate networks**’.
Installer from company Z: ‘Yeah, I know. You are supposed to install a second NIC on the server at property A. The switch it will plug into is in the race and sports room.’
Me: ‘Shit, that is another 500 foot run.’
Installer from company Z: ‘Ok, let us know when you get that done.’
So we still aren’t done with the install because a) we need a 500 foot cat 5 run which no one told us about b) we need to install and configure a second nic which no one told us about and c) we need another over 300 foot cat 5 run which was also not mentioned.
The odd thing is that my boss is usually good about getting us the exact requirements.
Slee
You can only run cat 5 about 300 feet. If the run is longer you need a repeater.
** The new system that was put in place is a totally separate network. It can’t see the server it needs to FTP stuff to. So another network card needs to be bought, installed and configured so that they can FTP stuff over to our system.
Aah, this is my constant refrain. I am an administrative assistant in the main office of an academic department of a state University.
Here is the script:
Me: Hi folks, it’s April. I know it seems early but we need to start working on payroll for your grad students for the fall semester. Please see me before you leave for the summer, all I need is the information on the attached form and then you can leave.
Faculty: (cue whistling winds)
Me: Hi folks, hope you all enjoyed Commencement. I still need your funding information for grad student payrolls for fall. Late submissions mean late paychecks and other delays for students who are counting on their meagre stipends. Please see me ASAP so we can get this finished.
Faculty: (cue crickets chirping)
Me: Folks, we are nearing the deadlines for grad payrolls (July 15). Without your help, I cannot complete the payrolls. Until I received funding information from you, your students will not be paid and their tuition waivers, benefits etc. will not be in place for the beginning of the academic year. PLEASE see me ASAP, it doesn’t take long and shouldn’t hurt.
Faculty: “I am out of the office until September 1, please contact the main office if you need immediate assistance.”
Me: Hello all, welcome back. Please check over the attached course schedule & confirm your class locations & times and return to me - this is a final check before classes start on Monday.
Faculty: ORDERFIRE, MY STUDENTS ARENT GETTING THEIR PAYCHECKS!?!!? WHY is it so difficult to get anything done here!!! I AM VERY BUSY & don’t have time for this!!
Me: (sotto voce) WTF, you overeducated retards.
If you request and get a DaVinci hysterectomy you can be back to work in about a week and a half … I was sitting up and playing WoW for about 2 hours at a time 3 days after I got worked upon. It was reasonably painless compared to the old style of cutting someone open and gutting them. PM me if you have any questions =)
As an administrative professional of 14 years, I hear ya. I try not to do payroll if I can help it for just these kinds of reasons. What you are describing is one of the most frustrating and stressful things in a job (and seems to be almost universal in administrative jobs) - responsibility with no authority.
No shizz. And, of course, the students come to me with their pockets hanging out & sad tales of nothing but ramen for the next four weeks…it takes a lot of self control to refrain from telling them that their fucking genius mentor just screwed the shit out of them. :mad:
Me on March 5: Here’s the draft for the XYZ5000 software user’s manual. It’s early March and we’re shipping on July 1, but if you could get this reviewed as soon as possible, it would be much appreciated. If there are any corrections and changes, just let me know and I’ll get them in before the printer’s deadline.
Them: Okay.
Me for the next two months, usually once a week: How’s that review coming? Will I have it back soon?
Them, also once a week: Next week.
Me, mid-May: Folks, we’re going to press tomorrow. I’m going to assume everything is okay with the manual since I didn’t hear from you.
Them, mid-May: Sorry, did you say something?
Me: We’re going to press. Last chance for changes…?
Them: But it’s lunchtime!
Them on June 29: Here’s your draft manual. We’ve marked up a number of changes. Nothing really content-wise, but Bob noticed that some of the punctuation didn’t match up with what he learned in Grade 3; and Sue thought it didn’t sound important enough so she wants you to change all the references to the mouse pointer to “interactive graphical user interface pointing indicator,” plus some other changes in terminology which you’ll see; and neither Bob nor Sue will approve the manual until their changes are made, and the rest of us agree with them. Oh, and why didn’t you get us on this sooner? You know we’re shipping the XYZ5000 in two days, right?
Years ago I worked for a language school. We were in constant financial trouble mainly because the CEO was such a disorganized putz. And by financial trouble, I was 6 weks behind in getting paid, and I was one of the most up to date people there. It was crazy.
One day the CEO was bragging about one of his more brilliant business decisions. He had a million stories about how smart he was, business-wise.
It seems that he was approached by about 20 Japanese businessmen wanting to learn English. They were willing to pay something like triple our normal tuition, so that was about $20,000. That was huge money to us. The CEO put off responding to them. He just didn’t have time to deal with them. They made another offer, even more money. He put it off. They made an even better offer, and again he ignored it. Eventually they gave up and went to a competitor.
And then he got to the point of his story. He looked at me like he was a wise sage, imparting wordly knowledge to a student hungry for learning, gleam in his eye, and wisely said, “And that’s how I knew that the universe was telling me that it was not yet my time to make money.”
I’ve been at my current job about 5 years and have this conversation about once a month.
setup Service desk ticket to fix some problem is opened. Addressed same day or next.
User: It’s about time someone took care of that! It’s been broken for a week/month/aeon.
Me: It was reported yesterday. We can’t fix it if we don’t know about it.
User: (Some varient of it still shouldn’t take that long)
Me: If it’s not reported, it ain’t broke.
This is where I attach the original emails, and remind them that the paperwork needed to be in by the Xth of Ymonth, and there have been at least Z reminders leading up to this outcome.
Doesn’t do much good, but it helps my mental state.
Our campus went live with a new online system several months ago…except that we still had to log into the old portal to check email. They said this would be fixed in a few months.
The other day, a new email icon appeared within the new system after the log in process. You click on it…and then you have to log into the old portal again in a new window, with your old password.
And today the icon is gone.
Merge it, people. Make it migrate. Why must we have the Department of Redundancy Department running things?
I think I know the answer here, and I am certainly not trying to tell you how to run your show, but is there some way of notifying the students directly as well, so they can light a fire under their faculty’s feet?
I imagine not, but if the kids knew they were gonna get screwed they might give you a hand in the notification process.
Maybe even a generic timetable posted where students might be likely to see it might help.
Agreed - I should have clarified that each time I contact them I use “reply all” so that the entire six-month-long string is attached.
Somehow they manage to develop an immunity to that sort of logic.
Pah! Details!
:rolleyes:
That is definitely a tactic that I have been tempted to use on occasion…but another part of my job is diplomacy & keeping everyone happy, and pitting students against faculty would likely have an adverse effect on the climate here.
While students usually move on in a year or two, faculty (and their bitter, vengeful grudges) last forever.
One must observe the heirarchy and all that. To be fair, there are occasions when this sort of thing is out of their control, but I’d say that’s about 20% of the time. It helps to have grown up in academia - you can identify the usual suspects pretty quickly, and start harassing them earlier.
Thank gourd for venting at the SDMB. I might be a huge bitch otherwise.
Okay, now the email colored icon is back on again. But I still have to log in again, and then another window pops up telling me to allow the outside program to open, and then I have to log in AGAIN to tell my ISP email that it’s okay to forward the work email to the students within the work system.
Thank you! For all of my bitching, it’s a good job I’m lucky to have.
Now let’s get back to business: would you like to come give a seminar on developing and nurturing efficiency and proactivity in an academic environment?
