So, Where Have I Been?
I know I haven't been posting a lot lately. It's because I've been in hell. Actually, two levels of hell that are connected by one common theme:
People can't read and/or follow directions.
Hell number one: Google Apps Hell
We currently use Novell Groupwise for our email at work. The good thing about Groupwise is that it's uncommon so nobody writes a virus for it. The bad thing is that it's pretty outdated and they aren't investing a lot in adding new features to it.
One of our guys submitted a proposal that we switch to Google Apps (gmail but with our own domain name). We decided to make it a go and I volunteered to be the Project Manager because my other PMs are tied up in some big projects. I sort of regret that decision now.
Here's what people can't read and/or follow:
1. I sent an email to the Supervisors:
Here are the training times for the new system. You must send me a list of your employees and the session they will be attending.
Of course, many of them completely ignored it. I started sending reminders and listing the sessions that were full. One supervisor emailed me back from an email where I listed three sessions that were full. He scheduled his three people, one in each of the closed sessions. One of my best buds, forwarded my email to his employees and told them to schedule directly with me. Now, where did I say that? Um, nowhere. He actually forgot one of his employees altogether so I took care of her.
I finally sent out a company wide email with the list of users and sessions and got an onslaught of responses from people whose Supes hadn't scheduled them. I did my best to assign them and we moved on.
2. I sent out the final training session with a note that it's pretty much set in stone.
One Supe came in to my office and said, "I forgot that our department is going to be off site on Wednesday afternoon so can I reschedule everyone?" Several others asked to move people around up to and after their people were supposed to be in training. Those people didn't annoy me as much as the other Supes who told their people it wasn't important to go to training because they were too "busy". That drives me crazy. Training IS important.
3. Everyone got an email giving them a password and telling them they needed to log in to Google before they went to training. And, to set their Google password to their Groupwise password for now.
That so didn't happen.
4. We told everyone that wanted us to migrate their calendars (the first step in the process) to email me and give me their Groupwise and/or Google passwords.
Again, didn't happen and when it did it was annoying. We got bad passwords, people who hadn't logged into Google and even some folks who wanted their calendar migrated but didn't have any events. Frustrating!
Add in to that the fact that we had several technical issues that led to us working 7 hours on Saturday and me working 3 hours on Sunday and I have not been a happy camper.
Hell number two: Buffett Ticket Hell
One of the benefits of being in an official Parrot Head Club is that we get a set of tickets designated for us for every show and we get them at face value. However, the lead in that silver lining is that we get very little notice on tickets.
How little? Well, I found out on a Monday that we were getting a show in Phoenix but we needed to turn in our ticket number by the following Monday. Oh, and we didn't know the price of the show until Tuesday. Oh, and we also had to get everyone to make a decision on three Vegas shows in the same week.
I was the Phoenix ticket coordinator last time The Man showed and I actually considered saying I didn't want to do it again but I knew I would end up being involved no matter what so I just decided to suck it up and do the work.
Here's what people can't read and/or follow:
1. An email went out to all club members with the rules (you have to be a club member to get a ticket, you have to pay by a certain date, the absolute deadline for requesting tickets and the three times you could hand in the money are some of them).
I got people who asked me if they could get tickets for someone who wasn't a club member. I got emails saying they couldn't make any of the three payment opportunities. I got ticket requests hours after the deadline. I also had people who paid for the tickets then wanted to get a refund.
2. I also sent an email to the other clubs that were eligible for Phoenix tickets saying they needed to give me their club totals by the deadline and send me a club check for the tickets.
One club leader sent my email on to her club members and they all started emailing me directly. I told her I would just do it going forward and she said OK then emailed her people to say they should send their requests to her. WTF? Another club leader got me his request early but then sent another "Oh, sorry, some of my club members asked for tickets after the deadline. Can you do anything?" He needed 4 + 2 so I made it work for 4. He then said, "Oh, no we only need 2 now."
Sigh.
It was a very stressful two weeks and I let myself get all worked up. One stupid round of Jager shots later, I've calmed down and am dealing with it all. It has become better and easier.
And, I'm hoping it continues to improve. I don't think I can survive another hangover like that last one.
People can't read and/or follow directions.
Hell number one: Google Apps Hell
We currently use Novell Groupwise for our email at work. The good thing about Groupwise is that it's uncommon so nobody writes a virus for it. The bad thing is that it's pretty outdated and they aren't investing a lot in adding new features to it.
One of our guys submitted a proposal that we switch to Google Apps (gmail but with our own domain name). We decided to make it a go and I volunteered to be the Project Manager because my other PMs are tied up in some big projects. I sort of regret that decision now.
Here's what people can't read and/or follow:
1. I sent an email to the Supervisors:
Here are the training times for the new system. You must send me a list of your employees and the session they will be attending.
Of course, many of them completely ignored it. I started sending reminders and listing the sessions that were full. One supervisor emailed me back from an email where I listed three sessions that were full. He scheduled his three people, one in each of the closed sessions. One of my best buds, forwarded my email to his employees and told them to schedule directly with me. Now, where did I say that? Um, nowhere. He actually forgot one of his employees altogether so I took care of her.
I finally sent out a company wide email with the list of users and sessions and got an onslaught of responses from people whose Supes hadn't scheduled them. I did my best to assign them and we moved on.
2. I sent out the final training session with a note that it's pretty much set in stone.
One Supe came in to my office and said, "I forgot that our department is going to be off site on Wednesday afternoon so can I reschedule everyone?" Several others asked to move people around up to and after their people were supposed to be in training. Those people didn't annoy me as much as the other Supes who told their people it wasn't important to go to training because they were too "busy". That drives me crazy. Training IS important.
3. Everyone got an email giving them a password and telling them they needed to log in to Google before they went to training. And, to set their Google password to their Groupwise password for now.
That so didn't happen.
4. We told everyone that wanted us to migrate their calendars (the first step in the process) to email me and give me their Groupwise and/or Google passwords.
Again, didn't happen and when it did it was annoying. We got bad passwords, people who hadn't logged into Google and even some folks who wanted their calendar migrated but didn't have any events. Frustrating!
Add in to that the fact that we had several technical issues that led to us working 7 hours on Saturday and me working 3 hours on Sunday and I have not been a happy camper.
Hell number two: Buffett Ticket Hell
One of the benefits of being in an official Parrot Head Club is that we get a set of tickets designated for us for every show and we get them at face value. However, the lead in that silver lining is that we get very little notice on tickets.
How little? Well, I found out on a Monday that we were getting a show in Phoenix but we needed to turn in our ticket number by the following Monday. Oh, and we didn't know the price of the show until Tuesday. Oh, and we also had to get everyone to make a decision on three Vegas shows in the same week.
I was the Phoenix ticket coordinator last time The Man showed and I actually considered saying I didn't want to do it again but I knew I would end up being involved no matter what so I just decided to suck it up and do the work.
Here's what people can't read and/or follow:
1. An email went out to all club members with the rules (you have to be a club member to get a ticket, you have to pay by a certain date, the absolute deadline for requesting tickets and the three times you could hand in the money are some of them).
I got people who asked me if they could get tickets for someone who wasn't a club member. I got emails saying they couldn't make any of the three payment opportunities. I got ticket requests hours after the deadline. I also had people who paid for the tickets then wanted to get a refund.
2. I also sent an email to the other clubs that were eligible for Phoenix tickets saying they needed to give me their club totals by the deadline and send me a club check for the tickets.
One club leader sent my email on to her club members and they all started emailing me directly. I told her I would just do it going forward and she said OK then emailed her people to say they should send their requests to her. WTF? Another club leader got me his request early but then sent another "Oh, sorry, some of my club members asked for tickets after the deadline. Can you do anything?" He needed 4 + 2 so I made it work for 4. He then said, "Oh, no we only need 2 now."
Sigh.
It was a very stressful two weeks and I let myself get all worked up. One stupid round of Jager shots later, I've calmed down and am dealing with it all. It has become better and easier.
And, I'm hoping it continues to improve. I don't think I can survive another hangover like that last one.
