Recently I started a job at a prominent college where a database conversion is taking place for student records. They initially thought it would take about 6 months to do, and this is the third year the project is going into. Looking at the project itself I'm not sure HOW it's taken longer than 6 months. I could blow up all the work they've done, start over, and probably have something up and running in under 4 months. Yet all the people working on this project are competent.
So every morning when I get in, a stack of papers has materialized on my desk with changes to make. Sometimes they're just changes to student records, so I'll end up doing data entry sometimes...but if they want to pay me what they are for it, I'm not going to complain. Now for a while I was stretching out these piles to cover the whole day, when they could probably be done in half of that time, if not less. The thing is, EVERYONE here seems to do that, the guy at the computer next to me has a stack of papers on his desk that hasn't really changed in 3 days. My boss acknowledges that a lot of the changes they ask us to make, especially the student record ones, could be done with a PERL script...but I digress.
I've worked in enough offices to know that people slack off sometimes. It's why ATOT exists. But get this, yesterday I figured I'd finish up my work early, which wasn't hard. I go to my boss and ask what I should work on next....she goes "oh! There's some filing to do, the cabinets are over there!" I think she was actually punishing me with filing for finishing early
Anyone ever had a boss do this?? I'm no threat to her at all, I'm a consultant so I'm not taking her job....I'm really confused.
Update: I swear this is true! One of the other jobs we get here is compiling lists of people out of the database, and examining certain parameters of records, then printing off those lists of people or parameters. An example would be, say, to see a class list from 1990. It takes like 5 minutes to get the list up. It?s an incredibly convoluted process (for real, not like my accusations against Boston?s T system). It?s just as bad if you want to see underlying properties for records in the database.
But here?s the kicker, and I swear this true?the guy training me shows me how to get this data up compiled and then how to print it off. The printer next to him stays silent. I say ?where?s the file?? He says ?oh it prints off in the library across campus and then they send it to us via intercampus mail. I?ll get it sometime tomorrow?. Now I?ve seen other examples of reports that have been done, it?s not like it?s on special paper or something. I start laughing and then look at him and see he?s not joking. So I ask ?So you won?t even know if the data you gathered is correct until sometime tomorrow?? He says ?yeah?pretty much, we have to print it off over there for some reason.?
So say an alumnis called up on the phone and wanted to know if any of their classmates lived in the area...we'd have to tell them something like "yes, there's 30 of them, call back tomorrow and I'll tell you who they are"
Update2: So I'm supposed to be learning how to do those requests for lists mentioned in the previous update. Well, the guy in the cubicle next to me has a stack of unfinished ones sitting on his desk. I can see them, they're pink sheets, it's hard to miss. I say 'sooo...you got some more uninfinished requests that you could teach me how to do?" he says "um..hmm...nope.." I didn't know what to say besides "ooh...um....well then..."
I CAN SEE THE UNFINISHED REQUESTS on his desk, it's not like you can do them without filling out the sheets. So basically this guy is leaving in 2 weeks and no one else knows how to do this, and he wont' show me. He gave me one example before using printed screen shots but forgot shots of crucial middle steps.
So every morning when I get in, a stack of papers has materialized on my desk with changes to make. Sometimes they're just changes to student records, so I'll end up doing data entry sometimes...but if they want to pay me what they are for it, I'm not going to complain. Now for a while I was stretching out these piles to cover the whole day, when they could probably be done in half of that time, if not less. The thing is, EVERYONE here seems to do that, the guy at the computer next to me has a stack of papers on his desk that hasn't really changed in 3 days. My boss acknowledges that a lot of the changes they ask us to make, especially the student record ones, could be done with a PERL script...but I digress.
I've worked in enough offices to know that people slack off sometimes. It's why ATOT exists. But get this, yesterday I figured I'd finish up my work early, which wasn't hard. I go to my boss and ask what I should work on next....she goes "oh! There's some filing to do, the cabinets are over there!" I think she was actually punishing me with filing for finishing early
Anyone ever had a boss do this?? I'm no threat to her at all, I'm a consultant so I'm not taking her job....I'm really confused.
Update: I swear this is true! One of the other jobs we get here is compiling lists of people out of the database, and examining certain parameters of records, then printing off those lists of people or parameters. An example would be, say, to see a class list from 1990. It takes like 5 minutes to get the list up. It?s an incredibly convoluted process (for real, not like my accusations against Boston?s T system). It?s just as bad if you want to see underlying properties for records in the database.
But here?s the kicker, and I swear this true?the guy training me shows me how to get this data up compiled and then how to print it off. The printer next to him stays silent. I say ?where?s the file?? He says ?oh it prints off in the library across campus and then they send it to us via intercampus mail. I?ll get it sometime tomorrow?. Now I?ve seen other examples of reports that have been done, it?s not like it?s on special paper or something. I start laughing and then look at him and see he?s not joking. So I ask ?So you won?t even know if the data you gathered is correct until sometime tomorrow?? He says ?yeah?pretty much, we have to print it off over there for some reason.?
So say an alumnis called up on the phone and wanted to know if any of their classmates lived in the area...we'd have to tell them something like "yes, there's 30 of them, call back tomorrow and I'll tell you who they are"
Update2: So I'm supposed to be learning how to do those requests for lists mentioned in the previous update. Well, the guy in the cubicle next to me has a stack of unfinished ones sitting on his desk. I can see them, they're pink sheets, it's hard to miss. I say 'sooo...you got some more uninfinished requests that you could teach me how to do?" he says "um..hmm...nope.." I didn't know what to say besides "ooh...um....well then..."
I CAN SEE THE UNFINISHED REQUESTS on his desk, it's not like you can do them without filling out the sheets. So basically this guy is leaving in 2 weeks and no one else knows how to do this, and he wont' show me. He gave me one example before using printed screen shots but forgot shots of crucial middle steps.