Now What?

Yeah, here I am again.

No, not a lot of bad news.  There is a little.  My current employer is continuing on in their merry way, and doing well.  

I am, however, a bit of a canary in a coal mine for certain things.  I am a fairly loyal person, and I want to basically reduce inefficiency as much as possible.  I recall reading, back in the 90s, that the more complex a job is, the longer it takes someone to go from "trainee" to "productive."  At the time I was working in a rather complicated field, time and attendance systems.  It was a lot of fun, because it combined a couple of fields.  First up there was the whole IT nature.  We were installing software on computers, connecting devices into a network, and then teaching people how to use the software.  All of this on top of knowing how to configure that software to collect an employee's work time events and calculate them for the employee's pay.

I will submit that there are very few things more important than an employee's paycheck.  Certainly the top two items are employee safety and corporate culture.  A close third would be a challenging and rewarding job to do to earn that money.  And when I was doing this job in the early to mid 90s, workplace safety pretty much fell into the "could I get crushed by X?"  and not "is some nutjob with a gun going to come into the office today and kill people because they're having a bad day?"  I do acknowledge that it was a possibility in the 90s, but it sure did not seem to be happening on a regular basis.  

As for me, today, that second item, corporate culture, is something I worry about.  And it's not in the grand measure of "is this a good place to work?"  For me, recently, it has become the rather jarring departure and reassignment of some people whom I've come to greatly respect as I worked with them for my employer.  That's where my "loyalty" comment fits in.  I've been the fellow who pulls the covers up a little tighter to his chin and says "nah, it's fine, there's nothing going on..."  Right up to the end of the company.  Or worse, when the job is sent overseas.  Again.

Before you dismiss that, I'll point out that I've had jobs outsourced to local contracted resources, overseas, and neither one of those has been pleasant.  In a couple of cases, I've had the employer realize their mistake, and ask me if I would come back.  I learned a long time ago, as a child, that one can never have too many friends and allies.  Good, reliable people, not the flaky sort who disappear the moment you say "hey, you got a minute?"  I try to be as self-reliant as possible.  I like being able to take care of things myself.  I love learning new things, I like a challenge, and I do enjoy being able to help others.  I do not like wasting people's time.  Back in those early 90s, a co-worker suggested that I start keeping a list of tips and things.  It made sense in a deep, self-reliant sort of way, and I've been doing it ever since.  

Back in the 90s, it started as a document I called "Bag of Tricks" after a comment another co-worker made when I literally pulled a tool I'd made out of my tool bag (yes, I had some tools in a professional tool bag for some of the work I needed to do), and it has been one of those thing that's been very employer-and-job-centric.  When I was installing time and attendance software systems, I had an entire directory on my hard drive of utilities that were simple, but helpful.  

The top example of that was a little 18-byte program (yes, we used to get them that small) which would eject the CD-ROM tray back in the day.  We had been looking, at the time, for a tool that would eject a floppy disk - back when that process was entirely mechanical on the PC.  I did know there was a command that could do it on a Macintosh computer, but I was working on PCs.  We wanted that because we had the uncomfortable feeling that backups weren't getting done.

That's right, kids, I said "backups".  Back in the day when a backup was small enough to fit on a 1.2 to 1.4 MEGAbyte container, the software we used had a database of employees and their time records.  When it comes to "things that need to be backed up" this was right near the very top of the pile.  I expect "your company's entire accounting database" would be the peak, and a close second would be either the time and attendance data or the employee files themselves.  In those days, we were making a lot of noise about "the paperless office" and we weren't any closer then than we are today.  But backups were important.  We even built an option into the menu that allowed the user to put a disk into the computer, hit a key, and then the backup would finish in a minute or so.  

The goal was to get the disk to eject so the person doing the backup would put it in their pocket and take it home with them that night.  Before you get all up in the air about "data security" I will note that in order to review that data, you would need a number of tools, the most basic being a small program my then-employer had developed and sold industry-wide because it converted SOME of that data from "It's a file" to "hey, I can put that in a spreadsheet!"  It would consist of the employee's name, their payroll ID - not their bank information, just the number they used to punch in and out - maybe their department, and their current work hours by day of the week.  So you could rebuild payroll if the building burned down overnight.  And while that never happened, we did have a few situations where the primary computer for that employer was not functional the next day.

In the three of those situations I was involved in (we had four when I was there), two of the three had current backups.  One did not.  Fortunately, it was a pretty small organization, and they were able to rebuild their data from a backup the day before the day things went off the rails, and they just adjusted and paid everyone according to the paper schedule, plus a little bit across the board just in case.  And I was gone from that employer a year later, never heard of any legal challenges or other troubles.  

But the point was to remind folks to take the backup off-site.  Then, one day, one of my more challenging clients called, as they did, about three times a week.  Their system was incredibly complex.  They had multiple locations, and they used their time-keeping system to also keep track of production.  These days, we have two different systems - one is a time and attendance system, the other one is what we used to call an Enterprise Resource Planning system - or even Manufacturing Resource Planning system.  It essentially insured that you had on hand all of the materials you needed for the production of your widgets, thingamabobs, or whatever.  We did have systems that could do that, but I had been told by the person who was the head of payroll that her organization was not going to purchase "any more software from you folks" to do the job, and if the system she had couldn't do the job, it was going to get tossed out.

No pressure.  I'd been with the organization about a year, knew the system well, knew the capabilities, and had already earned a bit of a reputation for finding unique solutions to client challenges.  Granted, this was my first multi-million-dollar client, so there was a fair amount of pressure I put on myself, but it was, as we say now, what it was.  Had to be done.  

After a rather confrontational meeting which my ... well, the folks who were supposed to be more familiar with the client, let's just say, were not prepared, I was.  Yeah, I know, I'm a Boy Scout.  Er, an actual Eagle Scout, so yeah, I had to uphold the honor there.  The primary issue was that some folks at some of this client's other locations, who had not been involved to this point, had now been told things were going to change, and like most folks, especially when given an ultimatum, reacted just like most everyone will.

I had to present, in a coherent fashion, how the entire system would work.  And I started by explaining to the folks that had not been part of the project yet that things would change for them, but the most critical part of that change was that we would be configuring the system so it worked with the rules they currently used, and they would have the control to make the changes and enter the information they would need.  The only thing that would change was, rather than driving the records to the headquarters, or faxing fifty-plus pages of information (to those old thermal paper fax machines, remember those?), they would connect their computer to one at the corporate office, and transfer the files.  It might take all of twenty minutes, for the larger remote locations.  

The shocked faces I saw when I told them they would continue to have the control, oversight, and authority they currently had, most of the resistance crumbled.  The two remaining holdouts ended up being some of our greatest champions for the project once they completed their training, which I also had to do.  So I had that little feather in my cap.

But back to the point.  I got an absolutely panicked call from the head of the project.  I'd been out on site the week before, as she had been upgraded to a new computer, one with all of the bells and whistles.  And, I swear, my hand to God, she was in a blind panic because of a problem with her computer.  There was this spot she used to keep her coffee cup out of the way on her desk, and, well, yeah, you guessed it, it had disappeared.  She had one of the first CD-ROM drives I'd encountered in a work computer.

I'd run into the concept more than a couple years prior, when a particular computer game, Wing Commander, came out.  It came on a whole batch, I think around 16-20 of the high-density floppy disks, which held up to 1.44 megabytes of data each.  Or you got the version with something like 26 of the 5 1/4" 1.2 meg floppy disks, or the fancy one, where everything came on one CD.  And that one sold out quickly in my Software Etc. store I managed.  Yup.

But there was a CD-ROM drive, and she was using it as her cup holder.  This preceded the jokes about the cup holder, but it was there.  Not like the later "slots", this one extended pretty much all of the drive hardware, and you dropped the CD, or your coffee cup, on it.  But someone had caused the drive to retract, and she didn't know how to make it come back out.  She was in such a blind panic that she was almost in tears.

Much earlier in my work career I had learned that there are days when the single most important part of your job description was the last line - at least, the last line in most of them, which reads "other duties as assigned/required."  I remembered my little tool, and I thought "I wonder if this will work?"  I offered to connect to her computer via a dialup connection - we had those - and she accepted.  I called into her computer, did a few things on the screen that she could see, and then said "let me check and try a few other things."  I transferred over that little tool, and ran it.  

She shrieked.  On the phone.  And said "It's back!"  

I did not know it then, but as the next five years unfolded, she was one of my biggest fans.  She had called my boss a few weeks later, and told him all about how she started working at the client six months before she had gotten married, had been running payroll for sixteen years, and still had not been able to take her honeymoon because she had to work every week Monday and Tuesday to get payroll done.  What I had done had allowed her to take a three week vacation, and not worry.  And everyone got paid.  Correctly.

A few years after that, after a number of other suggestions and ideas, my employer started a "user fair".  Some folks thought there was no dumber idea than allowing our clients to get to know one another and share stories about our horrible technical support.  Turns out it didn't work that way.  Most everyone who showed up was thrilled, and the folks who were slightly less enthusiastic about us found a giant conduit to getting us motivated to resolve any pesky issues they had.  

But back to me, and the present.  I'm going to shine up and roll out the new and improved resume, and see what's out there that might fit me.  Because I'm worried my job is in danger?  No.  Because I'm seeing things that concern me, and because I have, for too many years, been the fellow saying "nah, it's fine, we'll be OK, things are changing for the better!"  I believe my current employer will continue to be there in the future, doing well.  I'm simply looking to "kick the tires" on a new ride to see if I like the fuel economy and if the stereo sounds better, as it were.  

So we'll see what we see when we see it.  Fingers crossed...  And oh, yeah, I wouldn't mind a raise, either.  I mean, at my previous employer, my pay doubled over 6 years.  While that sounds spectacular, the truth of the matter is that when you start out low, it's not hard to double.  Now, when I moved from that employer to this one, my pay has only gone up about 15%, but you know what?  That's pretty darned good.  When you factor in inflation, maybe not, but then again, I have to remember that, when I started getting paid by the hour, some ... dear Lord, 45 years ago, minimum wage was around $2.40 an hour, or so.  I could buy a bottle of pop for 25¢ each - yes, I said "bottle" as in "glass" - and gas was around 75¢ a gallon - pretty spendy for those days.

So yes, I am an "older worker" who still has some miles left to go.  And want to be able to continue to be a part of the team and make a contribution, and be, rather importantly, a good follower - because any leader of any sort benefits by having people who do follow their lead.  Any good leader will tell you that after their communication ability, the biggest asset that leader has is good followers, including some who may eventually be able to replace them.  Why is that?  If you have people trained to step up and fill in for you, that means you can be promoted and step in for someone who is above you in the organization!

So there endeth the lesson for today, or if you prefer, the drivel train hath run out of drivel.  Have a wonderful weekend.