This bugs my ass…

Our company recently did a survey to see how they were doing among the staff – you know - to see how employees enjoyed working here. The results were not what the company was hoping for. They found that the biggest problem was with “employee engagement” which roughly translates into employee satisfaction. The numbers were not good which means the staff is not happy.

A ‘big’ effort has been made by many departments to try to improve this rating and some progress has been made. Evidence is shown by one business unit that sat down with their staff, laid out the concerns listed in the survey, and then asked for suggestions on how to fix it. Our business unit, however, decided that they knew what the problems were and exactly how to fix them without working with those that are pissed about the company in the first place.

So initiatives were put in place to correct some problems. Admittedly they do correct some problems in our department, but they don’t do much to address employee engagement. They fixed a problem with goal setting and now every person my properly complete their goal setting for the year. They also fixed some bugs with some software we used (but not nearly enough) and they hold more quarterly meetings for the general staff with the upper echelon to tell us how the company is doing. They of course are patting themselves on the back for having nearly completed all their objectives. Yet still many in our IT group don’t feel the “love” from higher up.

An example of where the company could make easy strides if they wanted to is the following. The tools we have to work with are gradually falling apart due to a policy of “run to failure”. “Run to failure” translates to this - basically you use your computer or software till it breaks. Then the company will fix it or replace it. Unfortunately, they don’t supply you with a replacement as quickly as the original fails. It creates a huge sense of frustration, especially when it’s a server that crashes and you need a new one right away. Panic fills the air and you had better work quick to get it fixed or someone’s job is on the line.

We used to have planned obsoletion - where a product would be replaced close to the end of its predicted life cycle. This way you were always using something that worked and no one’s job was on the line because a server crashed that you told your boss was about to fail any day. He of course says we can’t replace it till it actually breaks. Which means of course, that you’re on the hook for someone’s critical server and you are the lucky one that gets to fix it when it breaks. The same server that would have been swapped out in an orderly fashion with planned obsoletion. The stress continually creeps up as a result. Not a happy way to do your work.

This problem with equipment has not only been applied to computer gear but to our office furniture as well. We work on a floor with a conference room for about 10 people and in it are chairs that are about 6 or 7 years old. They were resurrected from the basement to fill the conference room temporarily but no one ever put in an order to have them swapped out with proper gear. The arms started falling off the chairs and I even cut myself on one of the exposed screws. So we put a request in to have them replaced (back in May) citing safety reasons.

Now if you knew anything about our company, you would know that ‘Safety’ is a buzz word you can’t ignore. Usually when someone cries foul in the name of safety, things happen in a hurry. Apparently not when it comes to office chairs. Our request came back with a promise for new chairs by the end of June. In the interim, someone came by to “glue” the arms back on the chairs to compensate for the safety concerns. Well, at the end of July we still had not received the new chairs so another request was made. We asked for 10 replacements. They brought us 6, stole 2 chairs from one of our break out rooms to make up some of the difference, and called it a day. The laughable part is that they didn’t even use conference room chairs. What we received in replacement was steno chairs that you might use in a pinch to put around a worktable or as a temporary guest chair when someone comes to visit your cubicle. What a joke.

Our company is a multi-billion dollar organization. They can’t afford to supply proper chairs to a conference room? What the hell is going on? If they paid attention to details on these sort of items, then employee engagement wouldn’t be so low. If they do another survey then I don’t expect that they will earn any more points than they did the first time around. Now … where did I put my resume….

That's Crazy!!!

Someone posted an ad on our classifieds at work today. It was for a rental place in Ft McMurray. I didn't realize how expensive it is to live up there till I read this ad. It's a brand new townhouse with about 1400 sq ft of developed space with an attached garage. Hardwood floors, nice bedrooms, jacuzzi tub, yadda yadda yadda... all the nice things you'd expect from a new townhome. However, before you can move in, you need to come up with $8000.00...

Yup you read that right. Rent is $3000.00 per month, and they want 1st and last months rent, plus they are also asking for a damage deposit of $2000.00 for a total of 8 grand. Wow.

That's just stupid crazy....

Rain Check - filled!

Newfie Speed and Sport (aka Canadian Tire) is an entertaining enterprise. Sometimes I am amazed at how they manage to stay in business.

Tonight I decided to go get myself a WINs number and a fishing license so I can go fishing with Darren, Arturo and Blaine tomorrow. I thought it was going to cost me 50 bucks, but it ended up being much cheaper than that and I am now set up for about 28 dollars.

While I was there I thought to myself... "heck, just for shits and giggles - lets see if this guy can find the 11 'in stock' tents that the girl couldn't track down on Tuesday". I explain to the guy all about my situation and how I'd been searching for one of these tents, how I ended up with a rain check, and how - when I keep checking the updated inventory on line, that it insists that Canadian Tire (at this location) has some of these bad boys in stock. "sure I'll go look for them" he says. The crafty bugger actually returns with one!!

Marvelous. :)

It costs me a bit of time, but the guy actually comes through for me. They *were* in the wharehouse, but it appears whoever did the search on Tuesday didn't look hard enough. Lucky me!! So now I have the tent I first bought 2 weeks ago. Only this time it was a 100 bucks cheaper.

Now I just have to find time to set it up and get it ready for next weekend. Maybe I'll do some camping. :)