7.9.06

People (not) Ready

there is a microsoft commercial that has a guy going to his new job and people are very helpful in telling him how things work. everything from getting a cup of coffee to finding orientation.

my new job is people not ready. i got my id card the other day when i checked in with human resources (actually they filled out a slip of paper and then sent me down the hall for the card from student services). i asked the guy at student services so this will work as my library card, right? and he said yes and it also functioned for copies and the cafeteria and some other stuff i can't remember. so this morning i went to the library to check out books. card doesn't work. the girl says go next door to "mike-holl" to activate it and she disappeared. like i know what "mike-holl" is. and did she mean next door like the offices that were next to reference or the next building? so i thought i'd try to figure it out by reading a faq on the library web site. nothing useful. so then i asked the reference desk person. didn't know anything about it. so i went to the next building, wandered around for a minute and found a door with a guy in it and a small sign next to the doorway that said "micol". asked him about it. he said i had to go to information services to get it activated. (at least he was nice and didn't pretend i should already know all this stuff. when i asked where IS was he actually gave good directions.) so i went to IS and asked about activating my card. oh the guy who does that just went to his other job so you'll have to come back in the afternoon. and i asked for a sheet on how to set up my voicemail for my office phone. oh well once we get you in it should be self-explanitory. but i still left empty handed. they are going to get crap from me this afternoon. i want my card activated and they better have written instructions from me.

anyways. the chemistry dept. is very very helpful and nice, but the rest of the campus.... definately people not ready.

oh ya, did i mention that they lost the I-9 i sent down and somehow missed sending me other paperwork or lost what i sent. at least i am getting paid.

5 comments:

forkev said...

I am cordinating with our HR director to streamline hiring ANYONE in our organization. I got a call yesterday from a person who wanted corporate email who I was told was temp, and they told me they'd been upgraded to part time/long term. what on earth, why can't the organization help out a new guy instead of letting us bottom feeders transfew eachother around until someone has a heart or takes a risk and does what is requested without verifying the story (that was my choice)

Anonymous said...

Good grief, how frustrating! I hate inefficient systems... but yeah, at least you're getting paid...

Unknown said...

as a follow-up i talked with jeremy last night. he said they all hate me over at IT. (he asked jennifer helbley? and they said yes. curiously noboby asked him why as the new guy he knew who i was. jeremy didn't own up to knowing me and i don't blame him.)

why do they hate me? becuase when the telecom guy delivered my phone i asked for the following: a cord to go from the wall to my phone and written information on the voice mail system. turns out they had both item and the guy delivered them to me, which was nice and i said thank you very much. they also hate me because when i went in the afternoon to get my card activated i told the guy that it would be nice (and i did try to say it nicely, but probably didn't succeed) if they either put the activation system for the cards where you obtained the card or put a sticker on the card to tell you it wasn't activated. no response.

in my defense, jeremy didn't know about activating the card (and he works in that dept.) and he thought my requests sounded reasonable. but he is better with new people so he didn't try to say that to his co-workers/subordinates.

Anonymous said...

What a disaster, most IT departments now have someone who does doc's and other help-sheets for new people, its sad to see yet another SDA org not see the value in people centric attitudes.

KAN said...

take your complaints to the HR dept. They are the ones who shoud be equipping you as the new employee with info you need.

If they need help on organizing, have them contact HR at WWC. Last I knew they had a pretty good system set up for new employees.