1:34 a.m. - 2003-03-01
Time Bombs
I picked up the new Steve Earle CD - Jerusalem - today to celebrate my first full paycheck. My guys keep ragging me because they know I don't really like Country and Western music, but lately a lot of my picks have that designation. However, Steve Earle's songs seems a lot more akin to Bob Dylan's, Leonard Cohen's, or Rod McKuen's best work. C & W? Nope. Good? The Best.
Attended a team meeting of the technical records group. It was helpful in that everyone talked about their major projects completed last month and those that are on-going. Knowing what everyone else's focus is helps me do my job better. Knowing what is occurring in other sections of the company helps me understand the decision making process - or lack thereof - better too. Interesting times here I think. Reporting was done just by going around the table - everyone had 5 minutes or less. The PC tried to claim the work that both D and I had done last month. D corrected her on that. Apparently she spent a lot of time last month dealing with accounting because she couldn't explain why she had billed some of the hours she submitted. Given what she tried to do in the meeting today, it isn't surprising.
My two liaisons from the data management company - A and T - had a meeting with T2, the tech records senior supervisor this morning too. Things, as they stand, are fine from her point of view. T2's language in a couple of instances the past couple of days has seemed to echo the PC's opinion of me, but maybe I'm just a little sensitive about things that sound like putdowns. T2 is about a decade older than me and some of that generations' choices of self expression just sound that way. The lawyer I worked for is about the same age and still called his admin staff "my girl(s)", seeing nothing wrong with it. The fact that it raised the hackles of most of the females within hearing distance, never dawned on him - I just put it down to a generation gap. Might as well pick the easiest explanation until things prove otherwise.
A called me later to let me know what was said, but he also expressed a lot of concern about some of the things he was observing from his perspective. His observations confirmed mine and that gives me some concern. Normally he can find something positive to work with in every situation, but he was struggling with this one.
End of the day T2 came by and changed my assignment - again. In the team meeting when it came my turn to report, I just noted I had completed project one, then described a bit of what I was coming across in project two. You could see it was a surprise and caused some concern as T2 asked some pointed questions for clarification. That's why I chose to talk about it in an open forum - so it wouldn't get lost or twisted around in some of the antics going on with the PC and those she can manipulate. It was apparent a couple of the other specialists picked up on the implications right away.
Some of that material shouldn't be seen by any but senior people in the company, but I've seen the PC digging around in them. Also what worries me, is that a lot of what is listed being in the boxes isn't there. When asked about it, T2 had stated she "wanted to make it real easy for me - don't worry about reconciling the inventory to the box." I don't want to be in a position in another month, where I could be blamed for documents going missing that weren't there when I started. If I'm not allowed to do the work properly then I would just as soon that neither I nor the data management company be put at that risk, by someone who doesn't seem to understand the implications of not following through. After the tempest created around the title line in the last records, where instructions were incomplete, it is obvious that that is a reasonable possibility.
Data missing from shipments, data in the database unaccounted for on the shelves or in the checkout system and data missing from files that are in situ. Add in new data sitting in documented files that hasn't been entered into any system and files that haven't been catalogued, lying all over the place, being removed at whim from the data room and it becomes very worrisome for a number of reasons. Lack of timely access for staff, loss of company assets because no proof exists of ownership, liabilities unnoticed in the collection. Whole boxes of data no one knew existed sitting in a warehouse. None of that is unusual in this industry. A couple of companies I've worked for literally had a warehouse full of material unaddressed, one for over a quarter of a century. What brings these things to light? External audits, lawsuits, mergers or takeovers. What else is ticking away?
�
�
