In Their Infinite Wisdom…
Let me take a moment to explain a little bit about my job. Without getting too specific, I’m something between a Help Desk Tech, Asset Acquisition Consultant, and a Program Manager (little bit of each, I suppose) for a piece of software used to manage the inventory of a specific asset at a large company. The software manages the acquisition, billing, record keeping, and all that good stuff. I work under the Program Manager for the Client Account, who works onsite across the state at the client’s site, and I have my desk at our client’s building in West Michigan as well.
I joined the party a week before the official launch of the software across this company’s Michigan locations. As it will be with any new technology, it was a little bumpy, but started to smooth out a little bit. We’ve had about ten weeks to work out kinks, and were just starting to get there.
So our company, in their infinite wisdom, purchases the upgrade package from the software supplier, which was installed this weekend.
All of a sudden, some of the most basic processes and procedures we’ve been working with to accomplish our tasks on a daily basis are no longer the “right” way to do things. As a matter of fact, for some of the most simple system housekeeping we were able to do in the past (say, changing the unit cost on an item), we now get tripped up by a “budget error,” which is
only being set off because the “old” files in the system (anything created prior to this past Monday) are
no longer compatible for updates in the system. They can exist “as is,” but if I typed a “4” instead of a “5” on Friday, and wanted to change it today, I’m going to have to set up a completely new unit file, disengage the unit from its current file, and engage it to the new one.
What was a ten second change will now take about five minutes.
That’s just freaking ludicrous. Hell, even MS Excel allows you to open “old” Excel files and work with them. I can’t change one lousy number in an “old” file at this point.
This is really distressing because ALL of our files, technically, are “old” files.
Sigh… Just when you think your job is getting easier, they throw another wrench in the gears…
By the way, not that I need to
answer to anyone about why I didn’t have a Monday update, but it was
not due to “having a girlfriend.”
It was because I had to do some computer-based training at home for my company’s main accounting program.
For five hours.
Staring at a laptop screen.
Taking training on a DOS based system, through the DOS based system.
It wasn’t exactly relaxing for my eyes to go through all that crap. So, when 5PM rolled around and I was done (well, as “done” as I was going to be), I didn’t exactly feel like sitting at the PC and pounding anything out. Wait, that came out wrong…
So I had a glass of wine and watched TV. And had another glass of wine. And watched TV. I didn’t see K all day, so don’t blame Monday on her there kiddo.