1:03 PM - 19.03.05
Walk a Mile in my Shoes
I think there is someone deliberately trying to close down this site. The staff at Diaryland take their work very seriously and work hard to keep it operating smoothly. Twice now they've transferred servers and still been crippled by the damage done. I still remember that one web blog service that sent an email to my personal inbox saying that they had harvested it from this site. They wanted me to transfer over to theirs. Wonder if there is a connection. Maybe a criminal investigation is overdue on the hack attacks.
So Friday at work was good at first. My new supervisor had told me that working on coding the material that head office requested was the priority. As a result, I continued trying to get through analyzing the records that were pertinent to that. The problem is that a lot of the indexing that was done before the boxes were sent offsite was not precise enough to be certain exactly what resides inside each box. In addition, some of the boxes I've asked to be retrieved from offsite do have the contents listed - but also considerably more as well. Given that I am supposed to be finding all international data, it poses quite a problem. Partly it is because the coding I am supposed to assign could be way off if the undocumented material is not taken into consideration; thus valuable records could be destroyed before it is safe to do so. It also means that I am required to use the one public software package that is supposed to help determine the status/nationality of any given company. Unfortunately that software is only as good as the companies reporting their take-overs, mergers, trades and what have you. Because I am using it a lot more and have actual physical data to check it against, it is becoming apparent that the information is not accurate. As I've also noted before, the relationships between and among the different companies are very complex. In some cases it is hard not to come to the conclusion that several companies that seem to be free standing are actually just one body with several heads. That mythical hydra. At the end of the day, when I sent in my weekly report I included several screenshots as well. The listings of affiliates are all just for one company. That one instance clearly illustrates those many heads just for one company that is mislabelled to begin with. The end of the day is no time to address such things, but I hope that the report will allow me to raise my concerns about the accuracy of that software and the amount of time and effort that researching the roots of these companies is taking.
It would be easy to say just don't worry about it so much, except for the material presented in the second meeting we had in the morning. The first meeting was actually quite entertaining. The department is hosting an open house for all staff next month and all records staff were invited to help in the final planning. Yes, well. Twenty females all sitting around a tale in a little boardroom trying to plan a social function. Just like the old days when I chaired parent council meetings as a volunteer. Only I wasn't chairing this one and I was very grateful for that. I've noted in some of my earliest posts, dear diary, that women define and wield power very differently than males. One of those areas is in who determines or leads in modelling the "social graces". Personally, I don't care what colour the napkins are as long as they can absorb the fluid or goo that one is trying to mop up. However, I have seen women almost come to blows over who decides the theme and colours of a function. Don't get it. I learned early to send that type of planning to a subcommittee with the caveat that if someone wanted to have a say in the decisions they had to attend those meetings. No trying to change everything at the last minute through the main council sessions. Those who complained at the actual functions found themselves assigned to one of the more labour intensive tasks the next year. Put in the time doing the work or shut up about it.
The second meeting left me feeling really queasy, even though it is the one I really wanted to attend. It was a presentation by a US lawyer on the reponsibilities of records management staff with respect to maintaining and preparing documents for discovery in preparation for a court case. Basically most of the reponsibilities discussed landed squarely in my court for execution. Yes, others in more senior positions have to sign off first, but a lot fo the spade work has to be my responsibility. That's fine as long as I have the tools to do that task well. However, going back to my comments about what I am finding hidden in boxes being brought back from the warehouse and the poor quality of the soaftware data that I am supposed to base my decisions on, I feel as though I've been put behind the eight ball again. Don't worry about it was the feedback I got. Famous last words.
Anyway the cats are getting really restless, so I'd better head off a rebellion by feeding the dears. Besides I believe my youngest wants to do some of his own researh right now. I'll tell you about the moccasin dream tomorrow.
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