Gerhardt
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Gerhardt
I like my job, I do. Actually, I love it. But that's not to say that there aren't days we do things so stupidly I wonder how we stay in business. A few examples.
1. We have someone contracted with us who, in a period of 3 years, lost us $2M, in addition to the amount we paid her. She lies and cheats constantly, yet we keep the contract in place. I started keeping track of and reporting her misdeeds a few years ago but stopped at the end of last year. My boss asked about it. "If she's still on the payroll in 2016 we deserve everything we get." He thought about it and I think silently concurred.
2. I've reported a number of IT system problems, and the number is growing at an increasing rate. I was asked last week to stop because they already have a backlog of over 300 major problems reported and they're struggling to prioritize them and don't want the burden of adding more to be prioritized. We are not an IT organization, but our IT department is the largest in our company.
3. Last week I received a call from someone trying to submit an order, but was unable to do so. I reported the problem to the support center (Help Desk) and received a return call from them this morning. She said a business analyst told her that I should be able to help the person. "If I could help him, I would have. The system won't let the order go through. Can you send me a copy of the email Mary (the bus. anal) sent you?"
"No, they've asked us to keep those confidential."
"Ah, national security. So what's this magic I'm supposed to work to get the system to place the order?"
"uhh..." *don't tell anyone, but she forwarded the email to me on the sly*
I emailed the bus. anal. "Can you contact the customer and assist him in getting the order placed because I am unable to get it to go through?"
Two hours later I received an email reply. "I didn't realize that is for an order not yet placed. Please contact the customer and have them create a new account and let's hope that works."
WTF. She wasn't even paying attention.
But somehow we thrive. Last year was our best year ever, I think around $1.3B. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the larger you are the more things like this can happen. It certainly couldn't happen with a smaller company and the place survive.
1. We have someone contracted with us who, in a period of 3 years, lost us $2M, in addition to the amount we paid her. She lies and cheats constantly, yet we keep the contract in place. I started keeping track of and reporting her misdeeds a few years ago but stopped at the end of last year. My boss asked about it. "If she's still on the payroll in 2016 we deserve everything we get." He thought about it and I think silently concurred.
2. I've reported a number of IT system problems, and the number is growing at an increasing rate. I was asked last week to stop because they already have a backlog of over 300 major problems reported and they're struggling to prioritize them and don't want the burden of adding more to be prioritized. We are not an IT organization, but our IT department is the largest in our company.
3. Last week I received a call from someone trying to submit an order, but was unable to do so. I reported the problem to the support center (Help Desk) and received a return call from them this morning. She said a business analyst told her that I should be able to help the person. "If I could help him, I would have. The system won't let the order go through. Can you send me a copy of the email Mary (the bus. anal) sent you?"
"No, they've asked us to keep those confidential."
"Ah, national security. So what's this magic I'm supposed to work to get the system to place the order?"
"uhh..." *don't tell anyone, but she forwarded the email to me on the sly*
I emailed the bus. anal. "Can you contact the customer and assist him in getting the order placed because I am unable to get it to go through?"
Two hours later I received an email reply. "I didn't realize that is for an order not yet placed. Please contact the customer and have them create a new account and let's hope that works."
WTF. She wasn't even paying attention.
But somehow we thrive. Last year was our best year ever, I think around $1.3B. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think the larger you are the more things like this can happen. It certainly couldn't happen with a smaller company and the place survive.