My company's started doing a lot of business with colleges and universities this year, and it turns out they're just as good at planning things in advance as we are. What's that? Two weeks until the start of the semester? Looks like it's time to do everything.
Nothing like working every single day on what should be a three day weekend.
Me and two other coworkers got handed a project to finish from someone who was leaving on Friday (who in turn had received it from someone else who left in a hurry).
Ten thousand lines of code; not a single one of them a comment, no documentation, no specification, and what looks like 3 different versions that were being worked on simultaneously.
A surprising amount of meeting time today has been devoted to schemes of revenge.
Well, turns out the school's won't be able to give us access to finish up today, so there's no more need for me to be in the office at least. Gonna be frantic as hell tomorrow, but until then I can enjoy the rest of my labor day at home, fixing the bug I just noticed that will ruin everything if it's not taken care of by tomorrow. God damnit.
I already have Mondays off normally I just put in vacation today so they wouldn't even think about calling me (it didn't cost me hours, it was just a reminder not to let someone off and expect me to cover). Also I was several states away for most of the day. I took off for most of the week too, just because I could and I still have like 12 more vacation days left.
Colleges and universities have their head so far up their ass its amazing we trust them to teach people.
I swear you could rename mine the Ministry of Misinformation and Subterfuge and it'd be accurate
The people who run things and the people who do the educating usually aren't the same people.
A school can be horribly mis-managed and still have awesome educators. I'd say mine is a perfect example of that. Faculty? Amazing. Admin? Screws up basically everything they touch, on a good day it takes at least twenty minutes of haggling to even get them to agree to see if it they can fix it. Treasury makes at least one mistake on every bill, Records has lost every form I've sent them at least once (that's right, they managed to lose the same form twice), Dining Services still doesn't realize being ridiculously overstaffed at all times is at least part of the reason their budget is out of control, Housing has accidentally left students homeless...
+1
Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
I work for a valet company. One of our clients is a "boutique" hotel uptown. Somebody in a cargo van with a trailer pulls up say the hotel told them we couldn't take their vehicle (correct), so it'd be cool if they left it in the loading zone during their stay (not correct). We have gotten instructions from management in the past about similar situations, but the local PD and city consumer services have stepped up enforcement on loading zone misuse, so I called my supervisor to check. His response was that I was most definitely not to do that, that he had personally informed hotel management not to promise that when they were on the phone with this guest (apparently management promised anyway), and that there wasn't anything I could do other than help them find street parking. They are annoyed that they aren't getting what they wanted, but seem satisfied that I've done everything I can.
I did that (not easy, given the size of their vehicle and that most of the street parking is blocked off for the farmer's market), and promised to let them know if a closer spot opened up. They complain during check-in, so I inform hotel management of what I did and why I can't do any more (various legal restrictions), management seems satisfied.
About an hour later, management comes out with the guest demanding to know why I wasn't parking him up front. I just told him that I couldn't do that (I don't want to pay the fine). Manager's pissed, trying to take it out on me, wanting me to fix his fuckup.
Look dude, if you don't want to look bad in front of guests, how about you not promise them that an outside company is willing to break the law for them?
Turns out he hadn't bothered to ask what the guest was upset about. He thought he was still going to be charged for hotel parking, and didn't think that was cool, and didn't want to get up in the morning to feed the meter. We are a valet company. While we are willing to do what we can for guests, we don't have access to the hotel's billing system or their concierge process. Guess what those things fall under?
Their driver came out later to thank me and explain the everybody knew what was up with that whole situation, so that was cool.
Colleges and universities have their head so far up their ass its amazing we trust them to teach people.
I swear you could rename mine the Ministry of Misinformation and Subterfuge and it'd be accurate
The people who run things and the people who do the educating usually aren't the same people.
A school can be horribly mis-managed and still have awesome educators. I'd say mine is a perfect example of that. Faculty? Amazing. Admin? Screws up basically everything they touch, on a good day it takes at least twenty minutes of haggling to even get them to agree to see if it they can fix it. Treasury makes at least one mistake on every bill, Records has lost every form I've sent them at least once (that's right, they managed to lose the same form twice), Dining Services still doesn't realize being ridiculously overstaffed at all times is at least part of the reason their budget is out of control, Housing has accidentally left students homeless...
Housing regularly overbooks the dorms and has hotels on standby so they can move people in as people drop out 2-3 weeks in.
And you're right, admins are different than profs. They are awful.
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
0
PwnanObrienHe's right, life sucks.Registered Userregular
Colleges and universities have their head so far up their ass its amazing we trust them to teach people.
I swear you could rename mine the Ministry of Misinformation and Subterfuge and it'd be accurate
The people who run things and the people who do the educating usually aren't the same people.
A school can be horribly mis-managed and still have awesome educators. I'd say mine is a perfect example of that. Faculty? Amazing. Admin? Screws up basically everything they touch, on a good day it takes at least twenty minutes of haggling to even get them to agree to see if it they can fix it. Treasury makes at least one mistake on every bill, Records has lost every form I've sent them at least once (that's right, they managed to lose the same form twice), Dining Services still doesn't realize being ridiculously overstaffed at all times is at least part of the reason their budget is out of control, Housing has accidentally left students homeless...
I went to a for-profit art school.
"Here's your life drawing teacher, he can accurately replicate a person's pose, expression and every anatomical landmark or quirk with a few pencil strokes. Not only will he teach you to be a better artist he'll regularly offer sound life-changing advice. Here's our financial aid office. None of them can count. They will give you the wrong forms every time. Hector here WILL try to swallow a sponge..."
Colleges and universities have their head so far up their ass its amazing we trust them to teach people.
I swear you could rename mine the Ministry of Misinformation and Subterfuge and it'd be accurate
The people who run things and the people who do the educating usually aren't the same people.
A school can be horribly mis-managed and still have awesome educators. I'd say mine is a perfect example of that. Faculty? Amazing. Admin? Screws up basically everything they touch, on a good day it takes at least twenty minutes of haggling to even get them to agree to see if it they can fix it. Treasury makes at least one mistake on every bill, Records has lost every form I've sent them at least once (that's right, they managed to lose the same form twice), Dining Services still doesn't realize being ridiculously overstaffed at all times is at least part of the reason their budget is out of control, Housing has accidentally left students homeless...
Housing regularly overbooks the dorms and has hotels on standby so they can move people in as people drop out 2-3 weeks in.
And you're right, admins are different than profs. They are awful.
I get that. The problem is when freshies show up with their families, everybody's already tired and emotional, and they not only still haven't placed them in a room, but haven't communicated to the front desk that they do, in fact, have a room for them (somewhere) even though it's not on their paperwork. So you have a stressed out family getting told by a desk worker that it looks like little Johnny is supposed to have arranged his own housing.
It always gets resolved pdq once housing gets called, but they handle it in a really crappy way. The whole thing would go away with a slight improvement in communication, but that's not gonna happen.
Mark, I just got back from Leakey and am *super* sore but I feel like we got a lot accomplished in a really short time span:
1. Ripped up some scrub trees next to my grandad's cabin, did some pulling of the root system so we won't have such a hard time getting them out again, about 2 hours there
2. Walked up and down the trail/drive-path up to the cabin for several hours, marked out a bunch of limbs and canopy to cut back this Thanksgiving, that took up waaaaay more time than expected, about 4 hours
3. Started scoping out some big, straight cypress for the drive-path ... we've had serious problems with the caliche running off too fast in the rain and we're going to start using the cypress as breaks to even out the path, got some serious rock-breaking and -hauling ahead of me come November, but I'm looking forward to swinging a sledgehammer for a couple of days and busting up all that sharp shale and flint into something that shreds tires less ... about 6 hours
Saturday was spent getting to the house and today was spent getting back.
So, yeah ... that was my entire Sunday and I fucking loved every minute of it away from cell towers and civilization; I did bring my tablet though, gotta have some chess and Sudoku and Angry Birds. :P
Now that I have moved house I need to make an important decision.
Do I wake up six minutes earlier and walk to the train station that is further away.
Or so I sleep in ten minutes, and catch the train from the closer station and come in ten minutes later (it is flexible hours)
Plan on catching the early train, then oversleep and catch the late one.
+16
Caulk Bite 6One of the multitude of Dans infesting this placeRegistered Userregular
So, apparently maglights are shoddily put together pieces of crap. The one I just bought keeps shutting off due to loose connections that I have to jostle back into place by hitting it somewhere (or on something). I'd bring it in to trade for a different one, but I'm now remembering similar troubles with my old one too.
I'm considering taking it apart to try and fix the issue.
So, apparently maglights are shoddily put together pieces of crap. The one I just bought keeps shutting off due to loose connections that I have to jostle back into place by hitting it somewhere (or on something). I'd bring it in to trade for a different one, but I'm now remembering similar troubles with my old one too.
I'm considering taking it apart to try and fix the issue.
Buy a Streamlight, never have issue again.
I can also speak highly of my Bass Pro XPS.
Neither of those make a good billy club when you need it, but they do fit inside your palm if you need to get somebody's attention.
diablo III - beardsnbeer#1508 Mechwarrior Online - Rusty Bock
Posts
Yes, but completing the work over labor day and then my birthday (and no later than that) is a new twist.
oh well, i'm up and showered all ready.
I've already been answering emails for 3 hours and conducting phone calls since 4:30.
Now I get to interview 3 candidates back to back to back.
I have a shotgun in hand, some dead birds in my bag, and the beer in my cooler is still cold from yesterday?
This is the life
Turns out it was. They just finished recording it for market.
Something I wrote is going to be on the local radio for three months, representing a regional business.
Guy told me: "...it was perfect, they just had to add the address to one of the lines, and called it good." So I'm pretty chuffed about that.
What's an American holiday without drunkenly discharging firearms?
I would like to be able to hit the birds. Sadly, it seems some devil has taken the pellets out of every other shell
Nothing like working every single day on what should be a three day weekend.
I swear you could rename mine the Ministry of Misinformation and Subterfuge and it'd be accurate
Spy school?
Ten thousand lines of code; not a single one of them a comment, no documentation, no specification, and what looks like 3 different versions that were being worked on simultaneously.
A surprising amount of meeting time today has been devoted to schemes of revenge.
A public university in the great state of Texas where our legislators love giving schools money to misappropriate
With classes provided by Professor Weston and Coach Axe.
Not complaining though, literally the only one in the building, getting so much done its insane.
PARKER, YOU'RE FIRED! <-- My comic book podcast! Satan look here!
I answered two customer calls in my underwear this morning, and had a conference call at 1pm while I was grilling and drinking beer.
It's like a dream job that only lasts one day a year.
Secret Satan 2013 Wishlist
This sure is an... Interesting, collection of people.
But, they're grilling up a bunch of corn to give away, so... Yay free corn at work day!
I hear the lecture material is unbelievable!
We didn't for one or both of two reasons: A) we're project temps;
Not sure which, but we'll find out in a couple months for Thanksgiving.
Either way, it was a pretty chill day.
Thanks Obama.
The people who run things and the people who do the educating usually aren't the same people.
A school can be horribly mis-managed and still have awesome educators. I'd say mine is a perfect example of that. Faculty? Amazing. Admin? Screws up basically everything they touch, on a good day it takes at least twenty minutes of haggling to even get them to agree to see if it they can fix it. Treasury makes at least one mistake on every bill, Records has lost every form I've sent them at least once (that's right, they managed to lose the same form twice), Dining Services still doesn't realize being ridiculously overstaffed at all times is at least part of the reason their budget is out of control, Housing has accidentally left students homeless...
Probably the truest that statement has been.
I work for a valet company. One of our clients is a "boutique" hotel uptown. Somebody in a cargo van with a trailer pulls up say the hotel told them we couldn't take their vehicle (correct), so it'd be cool if they left it in the loading zone during their stay (not correct). We have gotten instructions from management in the past about similar situations, but the local PD and city consumer services have stepped up enforcement on loading zone misuse, so I called my supervisor to check. His response was that I was most definitely not to do that, that he had personally informed hotel management not to promise that when they were on the phone with this guest (apparently management promised anyway), and that there wasn't anything I could do other than help them find street parking. They are annoyed that they aren't getting what they wanted, but seem satisfied that I've done everything I can.
I did that (not easy, given the size of their vehicle and that most of the street parking is blocked off for the farmer's market), and promised to let them know if a closer spot opened up. They complain during check-in, so I inform hotel management of what I did and why I can't do any more (various legal restrictions), management seems satisfied.
About an hour later, management comes out with the guest demanding to know why I wasn't parking him up front. I just told him that I couldn't do that (I don't want to pay the fine). Manager's pissed, trying to take it out on me, wanting me to fix his fuckup.
Look dude, if you don't want to look bad in front of guests, how about you not promise them that an outside company is willing to break the law for them?
Turns out he hadn't bothered to ask what the guest was upset about. He thought he was still going to be charged for hotel parking, and didn't think that was cool, and didn't want to get up in the morning to feed the meter. We are a valet company. While we are willing to do what we can for guests, we don't have access to the hotel's billing system or their concierge process. Guess what those things fall under?
Their driver came out later to thank me and explain the everybody knew what was up with that whole situation, so that was cool.
Housing regularly overbooks the dorms and has hotels on standby so they can move people in as people drop out 2-3 weeks in.
And you're right, admins are different than profs. They are awful.
I went to a for-profit art school.
"Here's your life drawing teacher, he can accurately replicate a person's pose, expression and every anatomical landmark or quirk with a few pencil strokes. Not only will he teach you to be a better artist he'll regularly offer sound life-changing advice. Here's our financial aid office. None of them can count. They will give you the wrong forms every time. Hector here WILL try to swallow a sponge..."
I get that. The problem is when freshies show up with their families, everybody's already tired and emotional, and they not only still haven't placed them in a room, but haven't communicated to the front desk that they do, in fact, have a room for them (somewhere) even though it's not on their paperwork. So you have a stressed out family getting told by a desk worker that it looks like little Johnny is supposed to have arranged his own housing.
It always gets resolved pdq once housing gets called, but they handle it in a really crappy way. The whole thing would go away with a slight improvement in communication, but that's not gonna happen.
I mean, we're talking about college admin people in the job thread.
Kinda seems like her wheelhouse.
@Dead Legend
Mark, I just got back from Leakey and am *super* sore but I feel like we got a lot accomplished in a really short time span:
1. Ripped up some scrub trees next to my grandad's cabin, did some pulling of the root system so we won't have such a hard time getting them out again, about 2 hours there
2. Walked up and down the trail/drive-path up to the cabin for several hours, marked out a bunch of limbs and canopy to cut back this Thanksgiving, that took up waaaaay more time than expected, about 4 hours
3. Started scoping out some big, straight cypress for the drive-path ... we've had serious problems with the caliche running off too fast in the rain and we're going to start using the cypress as breaks to even out the path, got some serious rock-breaking and -hauling ahead of me come November, but I'm looking forward to swinging a sledgehammer for a couple of days and busting up all that sharp shale and flint into something that shreds tires less ... about 6 hours
Saturday was spent getting to the house and today was spent getting back.
So, yeah ... that was my entire Sunday and I fucking loved every minute of it away from cell towers and civilization; I did bring my tablet though, gotta have some chess and Sudoku and Angry Birds. :P
And I get reception at the ranch, but I tell people I don't so I don't get bothered.
That's Lakey for all you yankees
Do I wake up six minutes earlier and walk to the train station that is further away.
Or so I sleep in ten minutes, and catch the train from the closer station and come in ten minutes later (it is flexible hours)
Satans..... hints.....
Plan on catching the early train, then oversleep and catch the late one.
I'm considering taking it apart to try and fix the issue.
Buy a Streamlight, never have issue again.
I can also speak highly of my Bass Pro XPS.
Neither of those make a good billy club when you need it, but they do fit inside your palm if you need to get somebody's attention.