response 286 of 318:

Mar 8 00:34 UTC 2006

Well, she did shoot those two guys last season, and she was adequate (if
not heroic) this morning when being pursued.

Kim will probably end up working next to Chloe in the next couple of
hours.  She's a "fully trained CTU analyst" (from day 3, remember?)
and CTU has a bit of a staff shortage all of a sudden.

response 288 of 318:

Mar 8 00:41 UTC 2006

The bummer for me with 24 is the frequent ad breaks. It makes it all not
worthwhile.

response 290 of 318:

Mar 8 00:45 UTC 2006

24 is hard to watch without a DVR, not mainly because of the ad breaks
but because of the serial format which makes it difficult to feel caught
up after missing an episode.  But that's also what makes it good.

response 292 of 318:

Mar 8 13:11 UTC 2006

Best way to watch "24" is on DVD.  No ads.  Of course, it means you're
at least a season behind...

response 294 of 318:

Mar 8 16:44 UTC 2006

Now you've  done it - given it all away. But think of all the time I'll save
not watching. 

response 296 of 318:

Mar 8 18:43 UTC 2006

re. 292:  not if you have connections!

response 298 of 318:

Mar 10 21:42 UTC 2006

Earlier I was happy because I got my computer at work up and running 
again.

Now I'm unhappy, because it died again.  A product which I will soon be 
supporting, has killed my computer twice now when I installed it.

response 300 of 318:

Mar 11 04:26 UTC 2006

Nah, Sterling Commerce will take care of the problem.  It's a software
problem; some program is conflicting with the one I was trying to install.

response 302 of 318:

Mar 18 00:35 UTC 2006

 IBB I had a bad day at work. About a year ago, some major changes were
made in my department at work. Changes that I predicted would not work
well. As it happens, I was both right and wrong in my predictions. Our
metrics have gotten worse as I predicted but they are not nearly as bad
as I thought they would be. Apparently they are bad enough though. At a
staff meeting today, we were essentially told to stop being so lazy and
to improve our metrics. Oh well. Eventually, they will have to see that
the problem isnt that the staff is being lazy, it is that they made some
bad decisions. 

 I dont think I am going to change much about how hard I work as a
result of that meeting and I know that my co-workers feel the same way.
I mean, I work pretty hard now. I work harder than I was working a year
ago but I am getting worse numbers. One thing that seems clear though is
that as a team, we will probably not get big raises this year because we
havent even come close to meeting our goals. I dont like that but I know
how the system works and I know that when the non-supervisory staff dont
meet goals and when it is a situation where *no one* has met their
goals, the management dont get raises either. 

Of course, all of this sucks in a way because it could mean our entire
department gets outsourced. I tend to think that isnt going to happen
though because one of the results of their new system is that the new
hires are failing worse than anyone which might mean that if they fire
us all and hire an outside company to do the job, things will be even
worse for the company. We'll see. If we do get layed off, at least for
me, the timing is good. I am only about 12 credits away from *finally*
getting a degree which would theoretically help me in any future job
searches. 

Oh, and it has come to my attention that other people's response to the
metrics has been to start cheating. There is part of me that is kind of
mad about that but part of me wonders if it might be such a bad idea. I
mean, it seems like numbers are all they care about. If I can see the
cheating on the numbers my co-workers do, surely the management sees it
too? 

I am totally reminded of a Dilbert cartoon I have on my wall at work.
Dogbert answers the phone and says "Dogbert's Tech Support" 

 The caller says "I..." 

Dogbert interupts him and says "Shut up and reboot!" 

The caller says "Hey, it wor..." 

Dogbert interupts him again and says, "Shut up and hang up!" 

The final frame has Dogbert thinking, "My average call times are sure
improving"

I guess that is just how it goes when one works for a large company. 

response 304 of 318:

Mar 18 01:06 UTC 2006

What are 'metrics'?

response 306 of 318:

Mar 18 01:21 UTC 2006

Metrics are just standards of measurement. In our case, because we are a
help desk, the metrics tend to be things like the number of calls that
come in, the length of the calls, how quickly the issue gets resolved,
how fast the calls get answers, etc. My team is the advanced team so we
have slightly different things we are measured on. Basically, we are
measured on how many problems we solve per day. We are supposed to solve
8. I am about in the middle of my team but I am the highest of those who
arent cheating by cherry picking easy cases and I have been solving an
average of 3.7 cases per day. But even among the cheaters, no one is
getting better than 6 cases per day. 

response 308 of 318:

Mar 18 01:36 UTC 2006

Oh man, like anyone working in a cube farm, I LOVE that movie.


"You've been missing a lot of work lately"

"Well, I wouldnt exactly say I have been missing it, Bob"