March 28, 2006

There is no tomorrow!

At this rate IÂ’ll be able to retire before I get my access. IÂ’m going to take Leslie's advice in my previous comments and get the Exec Officer involved at this point. IÂ’ve had enough!

I had my first, uh, disagreement with my peers today. My employees are from both lines of business in our office. The supervisors from the line of business I didn’t come from didn’t like how I was doing tracking numbers. That doesn’t bother me, what bothers me is that they didn’t tell me that last week and just waited to complain about it today. I was able to make the changes and they where appeased. However, they do treat me kind of coldly. I think part of it is that I’m the “new” guy. The other part is that I think they resent someone for the “opposite” line of business supervising their people.

TheyÂ’ll get over it, because IÂ’m not going anywhere.

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March 27, 2006

Contagion in Crisis Day 8

For the love of Pete, they really need to get my access sorted out! This has been the eight straight business days that I have not had the proper access to do my job. With two of the other supervisors out this week, that leaves only one other who can get all the stuff done that needs to be! Every time I talk to someone in IT or the Help Desk I get the same story, “It should be fixed tomorrow.” Today I finally got a little testy with them. When they said “tomorrow” again I couldn’t help but to say, “Do you guys have a different definition of tomorrow then the rest of the world? I’ve heard you say “tomorrow" for the last week and it’s still not fixed. Because if by tomorrow you mean next month, you need to make sure the people you are talking to speak the same IT lingo that you do.”

They did not appreciate my observation. I’m fairly sure that when I get to work tomorrow, nothing is working right because I don’t have access and I call them back I’ll get the same song and dance, “We don’t know why that didn’t work, we’ll fix it right away and it should be up for you tomorrow.” So help me if they tell me tomorrow one more time I’m going to snap.

Other then that everything seems to be going really well. I was going to wait 6 months before making any changes. Unfortunately I found some changes that needed to be made, mainly to assist my people in their jobs or to make their lives easier. Before I implemented the changes I talked with the ones affected to see if they felt it would help them. I had a resounding yes from them. Apparently it was something they had wanted but their previous two supervisors never did.

Unfortunately I did hear a bit of workplace gossip regarding me today. I overheard one of my people telling someone else “He’s not a bad guy at all. Actually he’s pretty nice and seems to actually care.” Dammit, stuff like that is going to ruin my reputation!

Posted by: Contagion at 05:56 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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March 24, 2006

Week 1

There is the old saying, “No news is good news.” I call bullshite on that. There has not been one word about my helpdesk tickets regarding my access, I’ve called multiple times everyday for the last week and I’m still not getting anywhere. Oh well I will suffer to persevere.

I discovered early today that my predecessor must have decided that she really retired back in February. Half of the employee information I need is either missing or only half filled out. Nothing has been updated since about the first week of February. I was at work from 6:30 am to 6:00 PM trying to find, replace or recover this missing info. This is information I have to have by the end of next week. If I donÂ’t have it, my employees may suffer from poor reviews and loss of wages.

And in case you where wondering why I left work so early when this information was so sorely needed, please read the below post. Clones birthday party started at 6:00. I was late as it was. Since he is only turning three, I donÂ’t think I traumatized him too much. To be honest he was too busy playing with his brother to even notice I wasnÂ’t there. Once I arrived all he wanted to do was open presents. Yea, IÂ’m a bad dad.

I have to work tomorrow. I donÂ’t know how long IÂ’m going to be there. My entire weekend might be shot. ThatÂ’s the price one pays for the position I guess. Just in case you are still wondering, yes I still love the job.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:47 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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March 23, 2006

Day 4

Again no access, the issue is starting to negatively impact the corporation and IÂ’ve had enough. Today I got one of the executive officers involved in the issue. They owe me a favor and I figure that it will make a good impression that IÂ’m calling it for an issue like this and not some kind of trivial personal issue. Hopefully tomorrow IÂ’ll have it, if not that will make 9 days with out access.

Things are starting to fall into place; I still have a couple of hot spots I need to deal with. No, they are not related to my access. Being a creative person and taking the initiative I started using an older system to get the work done. ItÂ’s not as efficient and it definitely isnÂ’t as accurate, but itÂ’s better then nothing. My employees are way behind on their work. Yay for overtime!

My employees where able to witness that I am willing to sticking up for them. Earlier this week I had to mandate 5 hours of overtime per individual to be put in between Monday and Saturday. At a meeting earlier today they decided that they wanted everyone to be here on Saturday in addition to any OT they have already put in. No one really said anything, but I voiced my concern. “I told my people on Monday they had to do five hours between then and Saturday. Many of them have been putting in their time after work so they wouldn’t have to come in on Saturday. If I told them they had to be here, trust me, many of them would not have put in the OT during the week. This whole thing is wrong; it undermines not only my integrity in their eyes, but all of management. I’m going to uphold my original statement to them, as long as they have their five hours in they don’t need to come in on Saturday.”

I must have been influential because they decided NOT to force them to come in on Saturday. Not that we donÂ’t need it, but IÂ’ve always found that low morale on a Saturday equals lack of production.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:25 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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March 22, 2006

Day 3

Still no access to the systems I need. Even though the day started out with what appeared to be a major breakthrough, it turns out that it was actually two steps back. We finally got me access to one of the systems that I desperately need. We focused a lot of time and attention on getting that access. Once I received it, we discovered that I couldnÂ’t properly use it until I have access to another system. So we wasted all that time and IÂ’m no closer.

The last of the employees that where being difficult came around today. All of them are actually laughing, joking and smiling with me. There are a couple that need some special work, but IÂ’m confident at this point that IÂ’ll have them all comfortable with me with in 2 more weeks. They told me to expect 6 months for that to happen.

I was “volunteered” for a management stunt today. I guess being the new supervisor means that I have to participate, well okay everyone has to participate, but I’m supposed to take a key roll. Fortunately for me I’m supposed to be some kind of surly, sarcastic announcer. I think I can fake that decently.

CanÂ’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Posted by: Contagion at 05:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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March 21, 2006

Day 2

Okay, I still donÂ’t have access to half of the programs I need. That is making life real difficult now. The kicker is that when they gave me access to the half I needed, they revoked me from some others that I had need to use. ItÂ’s going to be a long week if this keeps up.

One of my inherited problems is coming to a head in the next day or two. Now I have the fun of dealing with that issue, which inevitably will bring up issues with the other inherited problems I have. Right now IÂ’m in a lose-lose situation. I cannot make resolve both in a pleasant manner; I knew this going in. Knowing that does not make it any easier on me. ItÂ’s going to be a long week if this keeps up.

Two of my more resistant employees where laughing and actually joking with me today. This was a situation I thought I would have to work on for months to get to this point. There was some serious headway made today with both of them in our employee-supervisor relationship. That makes me feel good. ItÂ’s going to be a good week if this keeps up.

DonÂ’t get me wrong; IÂ’m loving the new job. There are a lot of challenges and obstacles to overcome, but IÂ’m confident that IÂ’ll be able to do it. The other supervisors have been great in assisting me when I have questions and IÂ’ve been able to work out some problems with them.

I have not enjoyed work this much in years.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:21 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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March 20, 2006

Supervisor, Day 1

My first official day as a supervisor went less then stellar.

There were system problems at work on Friday after I left. That means that people could not clock out using the online time clock system we have. When that happens, the individualÂ’s supervisor is supposed to manually enter the punches the next day when the system is working. This morning when I arrived at work I had to correct the punches for 16 people. When I went to correct them I quickly discovered I STILL donÂ’t have access to the systems that I need to do my job. Right now 16 people have some screwed up paychecks coming their way as it was all due by 10 AM, and as of 4:30 when I left, I still didnÂ’t have access.

Then the next bit of fun I had was the joy of advising all of my new employees that they have to put in 5 hours of mandatory OT this week. If you want to make an impression with 16 new employees, this is the way to do it. Now mind that I didn’t say a “good” impression, just an impression. At least they chuckled when I asked them to hold off throwing things at me until the end of the day, as I didn’t want to sit around all sticky with fruit and vegetable juices all day.

Next I had to settle into my new desk. The person I replaced retired. She was a nice lady; she was so nice she left the desk completely loaded with all of her stuff, in case I needed it. Since she didn’t want any of it anymore, she just left it where it was, including personal effects. It took me 3 hours to go through everything that she left. I’ve always been part pack rat, but I have nothing on my predecessor. She had 3 staplers, 5 staple pullers, 6 boxes of staples, 34985720987459872459872346 pens, pencils and highlighters. 4 packages of legal pads, at least 500 hanging file folders, 30 pads of post it notes, more paperclips then I could fathom and an obscene about of pushpins. I also found reports and documents from 1993 as well as three boxes of floppy disks, 5 ¼ inch, that nobody seemed to know what they where and we don’t even have a computer in the office that has that size of drive so I could check out what they were. There where corporate reports from the 80’s and 90’s.

I have to go through every item before I can toss it. I feel like an archeologist digging through a newly found, untouched site. IÂ’ve only made it through about 1/3 of the drawers so far; I have a long way to go.

I canÂ’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:00 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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March 16, 2006

IT good

Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come. In order to get me ready for my new position on Monday, they have to change my profile on the systems at work. In doing so they had to delete my current profile. When they did that I no longer have access to half of the systems I need to do my current job. Now my job is ten times more difficult. Fortunately I only have half a day left at it.

At least everything should be working when I take over as supervisor. If not this is going to be pretty darn frustrating.

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March 15, 2006

Good times.

Finally got home from work today. Not too bad, only about an 11 hour day. I was able to spend most of the day learning the aspects of my new position and about my new reports. For the first time in years IÂ’m excited about work. IÂ’m really looking forward to being able to work with these people and hopefully make their jobs easier.

I know there are a lot of rumors at work about me flying around. They are worried that IÂ’m going to come over and make all kinds of changes. After today I decided IÂ’m going to stick with my original game plan. If itÂ’s not broke, donÂ’t fix it. IÂ’m going to take the time to get to know my reports first and see what they need. If they have something that they feel would make their jobs easier, IÂ’ll see what I can do. Until then, I think IÂ’m going to leave things the way they are.

I just want them to be comfortable with me. From my own personal experience, I know there is nothing more stressful at work than getting a new supervisor and having them make a lot of changes.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:27 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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March 14, 2006

Busy, busy man.

One of the company offices in a different city was hit by a tornado Sunday night. Being the nice guy that I am, I volunteered to step up and do my job for both my office and their office this week. Meanwhile IÂ’m learning the systems and tasks for my supervisor position that starts on Monday. IÂ’m looking at 12 hour shifts for the rest of the week.

To say I’m busy is an understatement. Normally I wouldn’t do all of this, but if it was my office that was hit I would want someone to step up and help me. Yet, this whole time all I can think is, “My last week”. And a smile spreads across my face.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:26 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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March 13, 2006

I guess I am good.

It’s funny how someone goes from zero to hero when they are no longer going to be around. For the last 3 months I’ve been told that I suck at my job, which was one of the major motivators to put in for the position change. When it was announced that I had received the position, the manager I reported to suddenly became concerned “whether or not they could find someone capable of replacing me.” Her words, not mine. When they told her last Thursday that this Friday, the 17th was going to be my last day she flew into a panic.

An emergency meeting was called between her and my peers to go overÂ… can you guess? Reports of all things! ThatÂ’s right, the same crap weÂ’ve been going over for the last 3 months we have an emergency meeting to discuss. Why? Because IÂ’m leaving and they want them universal for when they find my replacement. We were all supposed to bring in a print out of each report we do and discuss how we use them. Then she was going to decide which reports she wanted us to use.

I went first, showed my examples, explained how they where used and where the data came from. Only one report that I use, the other office uses and they got it from me. When it was the turn of my counterpart from the other office to go over hers, she made the comment, “After looking at (Contagion’s) reports, I’m switching to those. They are quicker, they are easier to read and they have better data.” She then went on to explain that while mine take about 15-20 minutes to run, hers takes 1 to 2 hours. My one report system does the work that equates 4 of her reports.

Then we started going over one of her reports to track productivity. I was listening carefully, even though IÂ’m leaving, because this has always been something that is annoying to track. While my counterpart was going over her report, I couldnÂ’t help but ask questions and get clarification, make suggestions and in general improve the way it works. The manager was impressed because this was a problem they have had for 6 months and couldnÂ’t resolve. 30 minutes of my looking at it, I had pinpointed their problem areas, corrected it and solved a majority of their problems, including making sure they have the correct information.

This meeting that was supposed to last an hour, ended up going on for two hours. Now this week they want to pick my brain some more before I leave. It feels good to finally be appreciated for the roll that I had in the company, even if it is too late to change anything. They want to schedule more meetings this week to go over some other things, but I donÂ’t have a lot of time. ItÂ’s too bad they didnÂ’t take me up on my offer of helping them with these back in December, or ever couple of weeks since.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:05 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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March 10, 2006

Now I'm important.

It was a long day at work today. Between meetings (regarding my new position), my normal work and people who are interesting in my current position sitting with me to see if they want my job I barely finished anything. The next couple of weeks are going to be really hectic for me. I didnÂ’t realize how much blog fodder I was going to get from this whole escapade.

I’d post more tonight, but I’m getting ready to go out. One of my friends from work is relocating to Arizona and we’re having a going away party for him tonight. I will leave you with this tidbit; now that I have this new position the “Contagion sucks at his job” opinion went down the drain and has been replaced with “CRAP! Contagion is only has a week left before he transfers!”

Posted by: Contagion at 12:23 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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March 09, 2006

How to introduce yourself to your new employees.

When being introduced to someone of the opposite sex it is a good idea to not great them by saying, “I’m looking forward to having you under me.”

It could be taken the wrong way.

Fortunately for all that heard, there was much laughter.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:01 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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March 08, 2006

Contagion the Supervisor

I GOT IT! Well it looks like my charm paid out. I over came the stigma of it being a lateral transfer for the supervisor position. That means no more minions. Since IÂ’ll have direct reports IÂ’m going to have to be more polite in my nicknames for them. This of course means no more minion stories; IÂ’ll actually have to be nice to my reports. But maybe when I need to pull a stunt IÂ’ll go over to my old stomping grounds. The timing couldnÂ’t have been better either. My new manager (From the other office) is up to old tricks again. Now I donÂ’t have to care as that in a week IÂ’ll no longer be reporting to her.

And before anyone starts in on the EEOC BS about me getting the position; the candidate I beat out would have also filled more EEOC requirements than I did.

Now if youÂ’ll excuse me, IÂ’m going to go do a little celebrating.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:10 PM | Comments (27) | Add Comment
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March 03, 2006

Interview Part 2

I had my second interview earlier today. Normally I have a good idea how the interview went. Either by the interviewerÂ’s body language or ad-libbed questions at the end gives you a feeling of the interviewerÂ’s oppinion. This time the two of them both sent off very neutral vibes, which is not a good sign. That and when I was leaving I went to shake one of the managerÂ’s hands and instead she wiped her nose with a tissue. She did have a cold and I honestly donÂ’t believe it was intentional. Her hand may have been moving toward her nose before my hand was extended in a handshake.

ItÂ’s not like I expect to get the position, in fact if you recall I didnÂ’t expect to make it to the second round. Right now I just look as if IÂ’m on borrowed time. If they do pass me over, then I will just apply again the next time something opens up. The experience of interviewing really was what I was looking for. This whole ordeal has been worth it just for that.

IÂ’ll know for sure by the end of next week at the latest.

I sure could go for a beer about now.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:01 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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