Writing on the Wall
So a new woman started a little over a month ago. She's Indian, and moved here from the deep South. She didn't sell the house in the South, but rents it out. The deal is she works three days a week at our firm, and two days a week for a nearby city, as a city attorney. I'm not sure how, but she managed to get her son into one of the best public high schools here in the city. Before Turkey hired her, he went around asking if people thought her thick accent would be a problem. This was an improvement over what he first said, which involved the term language barrier. I assure you, there is zero language barrier.
Hey, did I ever tell you that I snagged a job working at a law firm in Oakland? It was a few years ago, through an agency. I quit after two weeks, because despite the fact that it wasn't a new position, they not only weren't ready for me, but couldn't get me set up. Nobody could show me where I was supposed to print to, not even the IT guys. The lawyer I worked for, couldn't figure out a system for giving me work. I'm pretty adaptable - you want to bring me the work, email it to me, that's fine. If you want me to come to your office for assignments, that's fine too. But this lawyer Michelle just couldn't pull it together for some reason (and it's not like I was her first secretary).
So I called the agency and told them I was quitting, because they weren't organized and they weren't setting me up to succeed at my job. People need to be given the tools to succeed in their lives.
At my current job, there is no IT department. Turkey hired an IT company and they charge us by the hour for phone assistance. Every so often they come to the office to fiddle with computer stuff. Their bills are opened by me, and they're funny. "20 minute phone call with Turkey's Personal Assistant explaining why she can not use laptop in bed."
There's something that's not quite kosher with the IT people. They're often very unhelpful. If one of their guys comes to the office, and someone asks them a question about how to use something computer-related, they always say they don't know. Even Turkey gets frustrated by them. But he won't fire them and hire someone else. The Office Manager told me the main IT guy has something he holds over Turkey, and that's why he won't fire them. Weird, right?
Anyway, so we hired the single mom lawyer to work part-time. It took like two or three weeks for her first day. We knew for well over a week when that first day was, and so did our IT people. When she arrived, did they promptly connect her to the network? No. Did they promptly connect her to be able to print? No. So what happens is if Turkey wants her to work on anything, someone needs to email her the document. Then she has to work on it, then email it back to someone for them to save the updated version back in the system. Every time she needs to print something, she emails it to me. Any time she is told to call or email someone, she has to ask me to look up their contact info in Outlook on my computer.
This is not a good system, as I am often busy and can't print what she needs right away. One day while I was on the phone with someone as we both looked at the same web page, she came over, stood right next to me, and tried to take the mouse away from under my hand to click to the screen she needed. I was beyond furious.
Later, when I'd calmed down, I talked to her about it. That I knew she was in a very difficult position by not having access to everything she needs. But just like she needs to be patient sometimes with me, whoever is waiting for her to bring them information also has to be patient with her. Meaning Turkey. I offered to explain to him that I couldn't always do what she needed immediately, but she told me it was okay, she'd do it.
It's so much worse than it sounds, as horrible as it sounds. You're working blind. Someone asks you to write a letter, and you can't even look in the computer to see if any past letters have been written to this person. Turkey loses files constantly, so looking in the physical file is not always an option.
The other difficult thing for this new attorney is that she shares an office. She has one skinny desk to work on that's about four feet wide. That's it! There's a part-time billing guy who uses the other desk in the office, and Personal Assistant stands at a filing cabinet in that office when she's there (which I think is rude, since she can set up camp elsewhere).
There's been a weather problem since she started. She likes her office to be hot. Last week she turned the heat up to 90. Ninety! (I bet she does hot yoga.) The billing guy started showing up to work at odd times, and Office Manager finally found out he can't stand being in that sweat lodge. One day she came in and said the thermostat was set to 55, and expressed outrage. That's no more outrageous than setting it to 90 though. So it's been a bumpy start.
Hey, did I ever tell you that I snagged a job working at a law firm in Oakland? It was a few years ago, through an agency. I quit after two weeks, because despite the fact that it wasn't a new position, they not only weren't ready for me, but couldn't get me set up. Nobody could show me where I was supposed to print to, not even the IT guys. The lawyer I worked for, couldn't figure out a system for giving me work. I'm pretty adaptable - you want to bring me the work, email it to me, that's fine. If you want me to come to your office for assignments, that's fine too. But this lawyer Michelle just couldn't pull it together for some reason (and it's not like I was her first secretary).
So I called the agency and told them I was quitting, because they weren't organized and they weren't setting me up to succeed at my job. People need to be given the tools to succeed in their lives.
At my current job, there is no IT department. Turkey hired an IT company and they charge us by the hour for phone assistance. Every so often they come to the office to fiddle with computer stuff. Their bills are opened by me, and they're funny. "20 minute phone call with Turkey's Personal Assistant explaining why she can not use laptop in bed."
There's something that's not quite kosher with the IT people. They're often very unhelpful. If one of their guys comes to the office, and someone asks them a question about how to use something computer-related, they always say they don't know. Even Turkey gets frustrated by them. But he won't fire them and hire someone else. The Office Manager told me the main IT guy has something he holds over Turkey, and that's why he won't fire them. Weird, right?
Anyway, so we hired the single mom lawyer to work part-time. It took like two or three weeks for her first day. We knew for well over a week when that first day was, and so did our IT people. When she arrived, did they promptly connect her to the network? No. Did they promptly connect her to be able to print? No. So what happens is if Turkey wants her to work on anything, someone needs to email her the document. Then she has to work on it, then email it back to someone for them to save the updated version back in the system. Every time she needs to print something, she emails it to me. Any time she is told to call or email someone, she has to ask me to look up their contact info in Outlook on my computer.
This is not a good system, as I am often busy and can't print what she needs right away. One day while I was on the phone with someone as we both looked at the same web page, she came over, stood right next to me, and tried to take the mouse away from under my hand to click to the screen she needed. I was beyond furious.
Later, when I'd calmed down, I talked to her about it. That I knew she was in a very difficult position by not having access to everything she needs. But just like she needs to be patient sometimes with me, whoever is waiting for her to bring them information also has to be patient with her. Meaning Turkey. I offered to explain to him that I couldn't always do what she needed immediately, but she told me it was okay, she'd do it.
It's so much worse than it sounds, as horrible as it sounds. You're working blind. Someone asks you to write a letter, and you can't even look in the computer to see if any past letters have been written to this person. Turkey loses files constantly, so looking in the physical file is not always an option.
The other difficult thing for this new attorney is that she shares an office. She has one skinny desk to work on that's about four feet wide. That's it! There's a part-time billing guy who uses the other desk in the office, and Personal Assistant stands at a filing cabinet in that office when she's there (which I think is rude, since she can set up camp elsewhere).
There's been a weather problem since she started. She likes her office to be hot. Last week she turned the heat up to 90. Ninety! (I bet she does hot yoga.) The billing guy started showing up to work at odd times, and Office Manager finally found out he can't stand being in that sweat lodge. One day she came in and said the thermostat was set to 55, and expressed outrage. That's no more outrageous than setting it to 90 though. So it's been a bumpy start.
Labels: Rage Against the Green, Turkey, Work
posted by Green at 9/05/2011 10:21:00 PM
1 Comments:
I wouldn't blame her if she left like you did. Nothing says "Welcome to the firm!" like having no access to any of the tools you need to do your job.
I've seen thermostat battles turn ugly. We had a manager and a VP end up in a screaming match in a large open area with about 10-12 cubicles at one point over what amounted to 10 degrees. Both were just interested in maintaining a comfortable work environment, but neither came away looking particularly good.
IMO, the people on the cooler end should have more say since it's a lot easier to add a layer and still look professional than to appear office appropriate while stripping off a layer or sweating profusely. This is why I carry a cute, neutral colored cardigan at all but the hottest times of the year.
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