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"

response 310 of 318:

Mar 18 02:01 UTC 2006

"Yeah, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working. I do that
for probably another hour after lunch too, I'd say in a given week I
probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work. "

response 312 of 318:

Mar 18 14:23 UTC 2006

Those are quotes from the movie "Office Space"

http://imdb.com/title/tt0151804/

response 314 of 318:

Mar 19 03:57 UTC 2006

Uhhh....hmm....yeah.....

response 316 of 318:

Mar 19 04:14 UTC 2006

<holding your mom's foot in one hand and Vernors in my other>
Why don't you move it a little to the left? That's right. Great. Oh, 
hello, Nathan. What's happening? Uh, could you give me those TPS reports 
ASAP? Mmmkay?

response 318 of 318:

May 16 23:51 UTC 2006

HACKED BY GNAA LOL JEWS DID WTC LOL