AJ got net access this week, but he's still not sure we all trust him.
Monday: LeeAnn came in 7 minutes late - her neighbor's car had blocked her drive. She looked OK, and the big guy had given her a lift in on his bike. We all said oh, but she said he's just a friend. It turned out that he's a friend of her ex-boyfriend.
AJ called us together for the morning meeting and said he'd decided over the weekend to implement an "open door" policy, and he'll always be available at any time for any one of us to go in and discuss our personal problems with him. He said this week he'd be available every afternoon (except Friday) between two and four, if anyone wanted to come see him. I don't think anyone will.
I rang the printer service people to find out when the engineer would be in, and they said between ten and twelve today, or maybe between two and four. I said which, so they said probably between three and five. I said we all needed the printer, so they said it would be about four, definitely. So I waited and finally the engineer rang me at about three-thirty to say he'd be in tomorrow morning. I told him his office said he'd be here today and we all really needed the printer as soon as possible, but he said they'd had several emergencies. I said our printer was an emergency, so he said he'd come in as soon as he could, and that would be tomorrow morning.
Tuesday:
The printer service repair engineer came in at about ten-thirty, and took about an hour to go through every check he could think of. Finally I went over and asked how he was doing, and he said it's not working. He asked me what had happened to it and I told him about the power interruption, so he said ah, it could be a fuse then, and went back into the depths of it. He came out and said yes, it's an internal fuse, and it'd gone. It should last about ten years but it'd gone sooner due to more power interruptions than it was built to deal with. I didn't tell him it got an interruption every Wednesday, just said could he replace the fuse then. He said no.
He said the only way to do it was replace the whole of the unit part the internal fuse was in, so he rang his office and made arrangements for a replacement to be shipped out to us. I then have to phone up when the spare comes and arrange another maintenance visit for him to come out and fix it - about three days to a week.
I went in to AJ and said the big printer was going to be out for a while, and he said OK, tell the others they'll just have to manage without it. The others don't seem too pleased about it, although Mike didn't say anything.
Wednesday: AJ came in and said we had email now, didn't we? I said yes so he said oh good. He went off and then came back in again about half an hour later and said the email wasn't working. I went over to his office with him, to find the program was open and he could see his email. He said there was one he'd been sent he couldn't see, so I checked to see if there were any outstanding and there weren't. I even pinged the server, and everything seemed OK.
I told him there didn't seem to be any to pick up and asked him who'd told him there was one, and he said he'd been told in an email from Head Office. He opened the email successfully and said don't look at it because it's confidential, but it says in the email "click here with your mouse to get the rest of the information." I said where and he put his hand over the screen and said I told you not to look. I said OK, is it underlined and in blue text? He said how did you know, did you look? I said no, I didn't look, you told me not to look, but if it's underlined and in blue text it's a hyperlink not an email, and you can't open it because you haven't got net access. He said I thought I had access, so I told him no, you've only got email access. If it's underlined and in blue text it's a hyperlink, and they're net - Internet - something different - and you have to have net surfing rights to use them. He said do we have net surfing rights as well as email rights, so I said some people do, but most don't. I said I'll ring Guru Bob but AJ went sort of funny then and said no, don't do that. I said why not, if you need it then Guru Bob will get it organized for you. He said OK then, but maybe others should have it too, and you should tell Guru Bob that.
I didn't tell him I already had net surfing rights myself, as that would be cruel.
AJ followed me back over to my desk and I rang Guru Bob but he wasn't there, so AJ said send him an email from me and tell him I need net surfing rights, and Amy will too as she'll need to get things for me when I'm too busy, and Donna will so she can cover for Amy when she's away, oh and Andy had better have them too. Maybe Fiona should as well, and you'd better say James too. But tell him just those - we don't want just everyone with net surfing rights, do we? You don't need them for a start, nor does LeeAnn, and Mike's hardly ever in the office so he definitely doesn't.
I waited until he'd gone and emailed Guru Bob - let him sort it out.
Thursday: I had an email from Guru Bob waiting for me this morning, saying of course I'd continue to have net access, and Mark would be coming over to set up AJ and Amy. He said he'd sent an email to AJ too, telling him this. So I waited to see if AJ would say anything to me about it.
AJ finally came in about three-thirty and said I've had an email from Guru Bob to say someone's coming in to give me and Amy net surfing rights, and he's agreed to my demand that you have them too so you can train Amy on how to use the Internet and, once she's OK with that, show her how to go onto the World-Wide Web as well. You'll only have to train Amy as I'll be able to manage without training, apparently it's very simple to use. I've agreed with Guru Bob that you'll be allowed to keep net surfing rights after you've finished training Amy too, as long as you don't use the Internet too much and don't use the World-Wide Web at all. I heard last night from another CEO that his people were given net surfing rights and some of them went onto the World-Wide Web and abused it. That won't happen with my people. I won't be using the World-Wide Web myself, just the Internet, so I'm putting my trust in you and I know you won't let me down. I said no, I wouldn't.
Friday: AJ said at the morning meeting how nobody had come in to see him yet with any personal problems, following the implementation of his "open door" policy. He said this was worrying as it showed he didn't have our trust, and so he'd be available to see anyone who wanted to come see him over the weekend at home, as long as it was on Saturday before seven in the evening, and could we make it after four as he always spent the mornings with his family. He'd be available all next week too, in the mornings between ten and twelve, and to arrange a confidential appointment with Amy. His door was always open.
After he'd gone to Head Office for the afternoon meeting, Mark came in to set AJ and Amy up for net access. He said he'd thought Guru Bob would have gotten me to do it rather than have him come out, but I said I didn't mind as it gave me someone to talk to who had more than half a brain. We borrowed AJ's laptop to see if we could get it and my PC to network direct to each other, but Mark said he couldn't stay long as he had to get back to Head Office for three-thirty. Donna came in at five minutes to five to see if we were going home or not, and we had to stop the game and delete the settings, and put it back in AJ's office quick as we both didn't realize what the time was.
read 00/11/13-17 or read 00/11/27-00/12/01 