Y --> X as Applied to the Concept of Social Privilege

I hold a view on things that many people, particularly those most affected, find offensive.
I hold the view that "privilege" is not an appropriate label for the societal advantages that being male and being white provide for someone.

My stance on this is based on the idea that the middle-class white male should be the base starting point for everyone. Everyone should get that level of opportunity and non-bias applied to their efforts to build a solid and sustainable life for themselves.

If we apply the Y to X methodology of problem solving to this situation we see that my view is actually correct.

First off we must define the problem statement.
What is wrong?

The thing that is wrong is that not all parties get treated equally.
It has nothing to do with gender nor with race; it has entirely to do with the mere existence of bias in the system.

This is, essentially, the "first split" of the problem and it results in three groups: people who are advantaged and have success handed to them, people who are able to achieve success without dramatic hurdles impairing them, and the disadvantaged who are often unable to achieve success regardless of their own abilities and efforts.

The next split, if one were to proceed toward trying to solve this problem, is to examine the data regarding conditions that lead to the three different groupings.

Rather than outline this from the "bottom up" methodology I will skip directly to the obvious conclusion. The advantaged group and the middle group are, mostly, white males.

This creates a false appearance of privilege because the other demographics see, clearly, a correlation between skin color and gender that is then interpreted as a potential causal mechanism. It is not. If it were a causal mechanism then all white males would hold all positions of power and no one else would be able to achieve any.

So let's split off that as a current demographic cause of the privilege experienced in the higher group as compared to the middle group. What remains is inherent wealth. Wealth is something that everyone in the advantaged group possess. They possess it in abundance. They possess it in enough quantity that they can set is aside to grow more wealth at rates that are hard to spend. (We could do another split on this group to examine those who earned their wealth versus those who inherited it, but I find that to be unimportant for this line of logic).

Examining the key difference between the second and third groups outlines a vast difference in the available wealth. The second group is able to meet their basic needs while the third group is struggling on a daily basis to ensure that they are fed and housed, etc. It is nearly impossible to break through the upper wealth barrier when your needs are met, and equally difficult to break into stability from poverty.
Thus the lower two groups cannot be privileged and the bottom group is actually oppressed by their socioeconomic status. This validates my opinion that middle-class white males are NOT privileged. They are the default starting point; the rich are the privileged and the poor are the disadvantaged.

The gender bias, like the wealth bias, is not a situation of males being privileged; it is also a situation of oppression.

By putting forth the accusations of privilege toward those who are obviously also struggling the blame of the overall situation is being misdirected and in such a way as to mask those really at the heart of the issue.

There are a lot of people who benefit from not being among the oppressed who fear the erosion of their own position through the elevation of the remainder. They should worry about this. Removal of the oppressive factors against women and minorities will force the more mediocre of the white, middle-class males to compete more for their own current position. This is not the same as privilege; it's increasing their competition by removing oppressive factors against those who are the opposite of privileged.

Examining the picture in this manner in a more widespread situation would bring about as much shame on those who fight to preserve the situation, perhaps more since they are then to be seen as supporting active oppression rather than relying on their own privilege. Examining the situation in this light will highlight those who are most privileged and that, in the end, will work to their detriment. This is why they are perfectly happy to distribute the claim of privilige in such a way as to dilute their own responsibility in the eyes of the oppressed.

We need to reverse our perspective on this and start calling those who are not privileged as being oppressed instead of examining the idea of all white men as being privileged.

I see the situation for what it is; I see that many people I know have opportunities that the "American Dream" promises and many more are encountering roadblocks along their way due to their skin color or gender. I see my own struggles and I know that I am NOT privileged; I am working through life as best I can. I have seen privilege - I have seen the rich who get everything handed to them. I see those who can treat people terribly with a complete disregard to anyone else. THAT is privilege; not struggling through day-to-day life.

We need to work at this problem not from accusing people of having an unfair ADVANTAGE but, rather, accusing society of being able, and willing, to create a disadvantage for a vast portion of the population.

How can we level the disadvantages out?

More from RadioShackSucks.com - The Haikus

These are compliments of myself and one of my co-workers... I'll post more as we write them...
The first (and viewable in another post):
Special order stuff
Shipped directly to you
Need name and address

New watch battery
five dollars for me to change
More money elsewhere

New watch battery
Pop off back with screwdriver
Do not stab yourself

"I want a remote"
said the mean cranky old man
"Give me tis one now"

No we do not sell
Crappy patch antennas here
Please look elsewhere

"What is wrong with this?"
"There is nothing wrong with it?"
"Why is it on sale?"

"I am just looking"
Get the f%$k away from me.
I will steal stuff now.

"Do you match prices?"
"No we do not" said the clerk.
"Do it anyway."


Rugrats clocks suck a@s
We ordered too many
Now forever ours.

Toilet paper gone?
How are we supposed to work
Far too many hours?

Employees work hard.
Company steals from us.
Why should I bother?

Too much time at work.
Not enough money to live.
My debt grows larger.

School is expensive
They claim to help pay for it.
Lies, too many lies.

I hate my job much.
I should have left long ago.
I'm not coming back.

This job really sucks
I should leave while I still can
Can't find better now.

My empty paycheck
Disappears every time
Monthly cash outflow

Little old lady
Completely helpless today
Get with the times, please

Women at the shack
can know just as much as me
customers think not.

other places hire
more incompetent people
I am paid far less

"This is defective"
Cardboard still in the unit
"Now it will work fine."

Stupid little kids
Make messes for me to clean
Parents just don't care

Investment broker
Too ignorant to admit
that we might be right

District meeting day
happy fun for employees
we all hate them much

leaving job very soon
going to get twice the pay
twice nothing still zilch

Antenna goes in
RF out to the TV
Baffles too many

Morons do not know
How to use their VCR
RTFM, please.

Throw money at me
You cantankerous old man
I don't wan't to help

No I do not know
Phone numbers for other stores
I suggest phone book.

Incompetent man
Always extreme technophobe
"Change my batteries"

2 8 99
My original hire date
no tenure for me
(Note: tenured employees received $.15 / hour more than non-tenured. "Tenured meant a year at full time or the hours equivalent. This was posted 2-20-02)

Other retailers pay
As opposed to slave labor
So why am I here?

Endlessly spinning
This little planet orbits
R.S. kills us all.

Do you have questions?
I have some of the answers
for stuff purchased HERE.

I bought this elsewhere
It needs a power supply
No, too expensive.

You bought it elsewhere
How am I supposed to know
how to fix that thing?

I want to use both
VCR and Antenna
without cable change

use them the right way
antenna into vcr
then to the TV

no more shack for me
i quit and now i am free
radioshack sucks.

I found an old archive of RadioShackSucks.Com....

I posted some funny things on that site a long time ago. I am glad the archive exists so I can retrieve and save those things.

Here they are, in no particular order (minor edits made if I discovered a spelling mistake in the original)

Story 0
(A story that I am surprised I did not post on the forum but which I distinctly remember)
It was a Sunday.
An older man entered the store.
He demanded hearing aid batteries very loudly.
We helped him find them and assisted him in changing them.
He made the adjustments until he could hear.
He then berated us for working on a Sunday because it is The Lord's Day.
I outlined that we would all be happy to not have to work on Sundays and that it was not our choice to do so.
He continued to berate us and the company for being open on Sundays.
I pointed out that if no customers came in to the store to buy hearing aid batteries on Sundays there would be no reason for us to be open.
He got angry and did the closest thing to storming out of the store he could accomplish.

Story #1

Any of you ever have someone too dumb to own a cordless phone. I don't mean a cellphone, but just a normal, household cordless phone.

I had a customer, a little old lady, who purchased a cordless phone (the $25 christmas special)...

She came in the very next day holding the power cord, the phone cord, the base and the handset. Her statement: "It came in four pieces! What am I supposed to do with them all!?"

I quietly and politely took the phone base and the two cords and I plugged the cords into the base and said, politely "This cord plugs into the electrical outlet and this one plugs into a phone jack."

She, first of all, did not understand that the phone and the electricity were two different jacks and then when I explained it did not understand why she needed both.

I finally convinced her that she did need both to make it work. Then she tried to tell me that she did not have any phone jacks. I asked her if she had a phone currently, she said she did. I told her that it is plugged into a phone jack. She did not believe me, but was willing to go double check.

She came back the next day with the phone. She said that I had been right and that there had been a different plug that the phone had been plugged into... she claimed she had gotten it all plugged in. She also said that she had received calls but was unable to make them.

So i tested the phone. It worked. She was surprised. She went away and came back again later that day with the same problem. So i hooked it up and asked her to call home. she just started dialing, I attempted to explain to her that she needed to push talk first, but that concept was above her abilities. I ended up taking a return on the phone.

Story #2

I recently had the misfortune to deal with a customer who was trying to make his internet connection faster. He cannot get a cable modem, nor can he get DSL. Therefore he is stuck on a 56K dialup. He came in to buy a new phone line. He was, and still is, convinced that this new line will speed up his connection. He argued with us. He insisted. If he had a bad cable to begin with this might be the case, but he claimed to have tried different cables both new and old with no noticeable result. He refused to believe that he can't increase his speed above 56k without getting broadband. He claimed it worked fine in a textbook, but that reality was a different case (which, I must admit is the way many things work, as textbooks demonstrate ideal world circumstances). He tried to tell us that when he upgraded from a 5200rpm hard drive to a 7400rpm hard drive that his internet connection sped up. He also tried to tell us that his download speed was increased by increasing his RAM as well. We tried to tell him that both of those things increase his ability to process information that he has already downloaded, but not the download process... he refused to believe us. He left angry.

Story #3

A woman came in. She said she needed an antenna for her TV. I asked what type. She said "you know, the simple ones" I said "rabbit ears?" and she looked at me like i had just spoken greek to her. I walked her over to the antennas and pointed out a pair. She agreed that that was what she needed. She then asked how one hooked them up to a TV. I told her, she did not understand. I decided to draw her a picture, she seemed to understand. I rung up the sale and she left, taking the picture. She returned the antenna the next day, unopened, because it was too complicated for her to hook up and that her husband would come and buy what he needed later. (updated note: she lived 45 minutes away and drove an F350; the rabbit ears cost $2.99 plus tax)

Story 4:

A man called one of my co-workers the other day. Apparently he had purchased a cellphone headset the day before and was experiencing difficulty with it. He wished to talk to another co-worker of ours regarding the issue, however that co-worker was not in. The individual that answered the phone offered assistance. The man on the phone accepted. The phone answerer asked "which headset do you have and what problems are you experiencing?" to which the man replied "Well, if you can't answer it then say so!" and he hung up the phone.

Story 5

At christmas time we were on extended hours. We rarely saw any customers at all until roughly an hour after we would normally have opened. 

Our store, along with every public place in this country, has doors that open outward to obey fire regulations. I know this rule, you know this rule, everyone should know this rule. In addition to this our store has little signs immediately under our hours sign stating "PULL" quite simply.

One day a lady attempted to enter our store at around noon (we normally opened at 10am) by walking into our door. It was quite humorous because she tried to push the door open and it would not move so she ran right into it. This agitated her. She stepped back and looked at her watch, then looked at the hours sign, looked in at us and stormed off.

About a half hour later she repeated this performance, with the exception that when she looked in at us she looked even more agitated.

Yet another half hour passed. She repeated her performance a third time, only this time there was a customer present and instead of being agitated she was very angry, she even started cursing at us through the doors. The customer asked why we didn't go help her... we informed him that she had done this twice already that morning and then asked him "If she can't figure out that the doors open outward do you really want to be the one to have to answer her questions about technology?" He immediately said "nope" and laughed. She then stormed out toward the parking lot almost getting hit by a car because she failed to look both way before walking into the traffic lane.....

Story 6:
A gentleman (I do like to be polite to/about customers when I can) who needed a part. I do not recall now what the part was, only that it was a part that is rare, not used very often, and not in high demand by the average customer. But it was available through RSU. I informed him of this. I informed him that we could place an order here in the store and he would pay $X plus tax and shipping and that the product itself would be sent directly to his home or office or whatever. First off he was extremely annoyed that I did not have the product in stock and demanded to know why. I informed him that it was a rarely purchased product for which there was too little demand to keep it in stock in every store. He, grudgingly accepted this explanation as he, himself had never known anyone to need the part before. I started to ring up the order and got to the address screen. This man was thoroughly consumed wit anger over the idea that I would even DARE to ask for that private information. I attempted to explain to him that I cannot place an order to have it shipped to his home without knowing where his home is. Apparently, this concept was too advanced for him as he said "forget it" and stormed out of the store. The customer in line behind him failed to understand what his problem was.

Story 7:
This one is something that happens all the time, usually about once per day.

My current store is in a strip mall or shopping plaza... whatever you prefer to call it.

Immediately next to us is a store that sells cigarettes and pretty much nothing else.

We have customers that enter the store frequently, walk about halfway in, stop, look up, look thoroughly confused then turn around and leave. When I first noticed this phenomenon I was confused, but then I watched where these people went. They all went next door. I am, however, still confused as to how that many people (many of them are repeat offenders) can fail to recognize the difference between a RadioShack and a small, non-chain smoker's store.

Story 8:

My current store has been around for 4-5 years.

It opened when another store about 2 blocks away closed (they essentially moved the store, even though it has a different store number, etc).

About 3 times a week I get customers that come in and ask how long my current store has been there. I inform them that it has been 3 to 4 years (i figure if I err on a conservative side then they are less likely to call me on it). Many refuse to believe this. One man in particular refused to accept it. I informed him that according to my manager, who has been the manager for my store since it opened, this store has been here for about 3-4 years. He proclaimed that I was either in error or I was lying to him (at least he was smart enough to understand that there are, in fact, more reasons for misinformation that lying) and that he was going to go to the store up the street (he referred directly to the one that closed when my store opened) and ask them how long my store had been opened. I, for lack of anything else to do, informed him that he was perfectly welcome to try, but he was unlikely to find an answer there as the store closed about 3-4 years ago, when my opened.

He left.

Story 9:

I probably could look around and find another place to post this.... but since i know that this thread exists I will post it here.

Today I had an older man come into the store.

I don't even remember what he bought, but I do remember that he freely gave his N&A to me.

Then he handed me his card for the purchase, and I ran it. It went through and the receipt printed.

I had him sign his copy and looked at the card.

The signature on the card was mostly legible, without knowing his name I would have been able, after looking at that signature, to tell you what his name was.

The signature on the slip was mostly illegible. Knowing what his name was made it almost possible to decipher the majority of it.

The following (approximation) conversation occurred:

Me: Do you have any ID with you?

Man: Why do you need that?

Me: The signatures don't match, sir.

Man: What signatures?

Me: The one on the back of the card and the one you just made on the slip

Man: Yes they do.

Me: Sir, I am sorry to say they do not, so I do need to see some ID to verify.

Man: (rummaging through his wallet) YOU'RE

WRONG. They DO match.

Me: Well, sir, that is kind of a subjective call and I don't think that they match.

Man: (pulling out ID) YOU'RE WRONG.

Me: (Taking ID) Thank you, sir.

MAN: YOU'RE WRONG!

Me: Here you go.

MAN: YOU'RE WRONG.

Me: (nothing)

At this point the man just stands there, holding his newly purchased product in his hand, looking at me angrily.

Me: I hope you have a good afternoon.

At which point the man looked thoroughly pissed and stormed out of the store.

I am quite certain he wanted an apology, which I was not willing to give as I was most certainly not wrong.

The customer immediately behind the older man agreed with me. He, in the two seconds (or so) that he was able to see the back of the card, was able to determine that the signature on the paper looked nothing like the one on the card and was about to say so when the customer left. Instead he just informed me that he was about to interject as a neutral party that I was most certainly not wrong.

I almost hope that the older man calls the district office. I really want them to realize that I handled myself politely and coolly with an irrational and irate customer when I have less than 10 days left in this horrible company.

Story 10:

On or near my last day we had the MEGA-B1TCH come back into our store. I normally don't like calling people names (I don't mind labeling them "ignorant" or "stupid" but names are something I rarely use) but this woman earned it, twice. 

The first time she was a mean, bad, demanding customer. 

Anyway... this particular day she came in and was complaining about her walkman and headphones that she bought at our store. Surprise! she didn't have either with her to trouble shoot. She didn't want to bring them back, she just wanted us to replace the headphones as she was certain that was the problem.

My manager said "Well... I can replace either piece if you have it with you, but I can replace nothing without the original to take back. And I cannot test to see which piece is bad without one of the two pieces here"

She didn't like that, had a minor argument about good customer service and replacing products when needed and then she left.

She did come back later, with the walkman and the headphones.

The problem was that the sound was too low for her to hear while working out in the gym.

I played it. The sound was low.

I turned up the volume on the unit, the sound was low. Then I turned up the volume on the headphones too. The volume went up.

We proved it worked. She decided she wanted a new walkman anyway as turning the volume up on it did not make anything louder (of course had I turned up the volume on the headphones first she would have wanted a new set of those for the same reason). We had exactly on of her model walkman in stock, as always it was the display. She didn't want the display because "it has been handled a lot"

We informed her that it was the last one in the store and she could choose which thoroughly handled walkman she wished to take out of the two in front of her.

She chose the new one and we placed the used one back on the shelf as we had proved that it worked perfectly.

Arg.

Every time she comes in it is something completely asinine that she has a problem with. Something which, if she would let us, could be fixed. Something which could be fixed by her simply RTFM.

I am glad to never have to deal with her again.

An Interesting Comedy of Errors

If one of the days this week had been a movie then the volume of freakish errors might have been funny... to anyone not in IT.

To me, who is not only in IT but also the person whom the errors occurred to, it was the farthest thing from funny.

For the sake of brevity I will minimize everything. I also hope my misfortune of the day in question brings some perspective on other things that may seem bad to both myself and others.
Also - I hope it amuses those who can find humor in it. I'm sure someday I will be able to find amusement in it.

The story begins with the knowledge that there is one, singular individual in my place of employment whom I cannot afford to have anything go wrong with their computer. My first interactions with this individual were hostile (from them) and they firmly believe that we're doing just about everything wrong in the technology department here. They don't do this job, but they think we're doing things wrong anyway.

A day earlier this week this user approached me because something was not working on their computer. As it was the end of the day I told them that I would happily fix the issue first thing in the morning the next time I was in their building.
The day of fixing arrived and I went to collect the computer but the user was in a meeting. I had to choose to interrupt the meeting or try to catch the user when the meeting was over. I chose to wait as it seemed the less potentially dangerous mistake to make.
I caught up with the user shortly after their meeting and collected the computer to work on it in the tech office.
I tried every trick I knew and I was unable to correct the problem at hand. This meant a re-image was necessary.
I backed up the user's data using a THOROUGHLY tested and valid backup procedure. Then, before kicking off the imaging process I tested to make sure that the backup had worked correctly. It had. All the data was there and it was valid.
I kicked off the imaging process. It ran, without incident, through to completion.
It is important to note that I have developed a new little application that makes the automated backup and restore process easier to use. To do so it, basically, adds a GUI layer to execute the known-good scripts. Part of the imaging process places this application on the laptop's admin's desktop. I deliberately chose NOT to use this application as I have not tested it in a production environment and I couldn't afford to have ANYTHING go wrong with this process.

I ran the "tried and true" command line script that works perfectly EVERY TIME. I've run it on my own data. I've run it on MANY other users' data. Once I perfected it and put it into production I have had no errors from the script - only errors when the hard disk (either origin or destination) were failing.

The script started normally. It did the things it normally does. Then, halfway through the process, it errors out and the drive unmounts (not the other two partitions of the physical disk, just the one in question) and re-mounted. It re-mounted EMPTY.

That's right: the data was GONE. Some settings (not enough to be useful) and half a file (wouldn't open in the appropriate file) managed to be restored before it crashed. Nothing useful remained.

So I altered my day to finish setting up the workstation so the user could, at least, work on new stuff and set about the process of data recovery.

The first tool I used scanned for a hair over four hours.

In the midst of the recovery process (post four hour scan, into active analysis of the recovered files) the wireless network of that particular building completely died. Totally and completely died. I was posting a tweet and that process stalled. I was loading the the Google search pane and the Google logo of the day actually halted mid-load because of the network dying. I had to stop what I was doing and determine where the problem was and try to rectify it (I did with a simultaneous reboot of the entire wireless infrastructure).

I was then able to return to the task of file recovery. I recovered some files, but I doubt any were the files the user needed. I went to put them on the USB disk, as I promised the user I would and the USB disk I had handy for this purpose wouldn't mount. It wouldn't respond. It is dead. I ended up emailing the files instead.


The second tool I tried to use failed to work at all.

Today I am running the second tool from a different machine in an attempt to reclaim the lost partition. If I can reclaim the lost partition I can not only recover all (most?) of the files lost but also things like saved bookmarks, etc.


It is running now. It has found multiple old partitions. I will have to guess at which one I need to restore. Hopefully I choose wisely.


RESOLUTION - due to oversight this was added nearly four years later - I was able to restore the data.

Affirmation

It's good to know you're appreciated.

Today I found out that someone I respect at my job really does appreciate me and respect the level and quantity of work that I do.

While I'm not going to discuss the details at this time I did find it a pleasant change from the normal operating procedure of feeling fairly anonymous at the workplace.

The message to take away from this is to tell people you appreciate them more often. Everyone likes a compliment.

Happy Workers are Productive Workers

I find it interesting that there are so many managers / bosses who fail to realize that happy workers are productive workers. If one is happy in their job they do their job. If one is unhappy in their job their mental efforts go elsewhere.

There are LOTS of things that managers / bosses can do to provide low (or no) cost improvements to morale.

One of these things is enabled by the level of technology that we possess today: telecommuting. If you have an employee that works hard and above expectations whose work is not dependent on a physical presence why would you EVER prevent them from telecommuting? If there work is unsatisfactory in quality or timeliness that is one thing, but if their work is always excellent and on time why would you risk making them unhappy? Furthermore, why would you risk their health and safety by preventing them from telecommuting during a terrible storm?

Yes, this is a complaint post but it has a VERY important positive take-away message: treat your employees the way you want your boss to treat you. If you want to be allowed to "just get your work done" then make an environment that allows your employees to "get their work done." If you want an environment that allows you to work from home during terrible weather then let your employees do that. If you want an environment that prioritizes the quality, quantity and timeliness of your work over simply filling your seat for 8 hours a day: make that environment. Your employees will be happier with it and, because they are happier, will be loyal to you. Their loyalty to you will provide far more incentive to work than any other force can (except, perhaps, commission-able sales).

When someone is choosing to NOT risk their life driving in to work in terrible weather because they would rather provide 9.5 - 10 hours of work in their living room - LET THEM. You, as their boss win. You are trading 8 hours of their physical presence for 9.5 - 10 hours of work. Sure, you can't monitor their work and check their attendance, but can you always realistically do that when they are in the office?

Welcome to the 21st Century where physical presence does not equal ability to work.


Anyway, enough of a rant. The positive message of today boils down to the "Golden Rule" - treat others the way you want to be treated. That's how I manage my staff; it's how I want to be managed. Sadly, many managers still fail to see simple things as worthwhile INVESTMENTS in their staff.

Building

I like building.

I like making things that either help people (including me) or that other people enjoy.

Today I made a quick tool that makes the backup / restore / data migration process for the laptops I manage VERY easy.

I had already written the scripts that made the process automated, but now I have made a graphical app that does it for a user.

Before the user needed to know how to execute a command from the command line; now they need only double-click an icon and click a couple of self-descriptive buttons.

The only piece of knowledge they need is how to log in as the admin.

My next project will be trying to figure out how to make this script work when logged in as any user so long as the user knows the admin password.

It's just after 9AM and I have already had a productive day today (even if I accomplish nothing else).

I'm a Fixer

I awoke this morning with two things in my head. One is a fiction story that I will post later and the other is the complete realization that I am a fixer.

Every job I've had as part of my career (e.g. on my own) has been a job where I got the job and I had to fix all of the problem left behind.

My first job on my own I accepted and I had to deploy an additional 100 laptops (above what already was out there) and work on fixing all of the bad planning that went along with what was in place and all of the aging (and dying) equipment.

The second job I took dropped me into a situation that was MUCH worse. The replacement support was less, and the general animosity toward the tech support department was high. It was my job to fix the budget, the broken equipment, the lack of planning AND the general perception of the program.

The third job I took was one where I was to fix the lack of growth problem on a product line. Despite all of my efforts I failed in that. But I did fix the dependency on a single line of products to support the company and generated sales on a new product line that more than offset my salary (over a couple years).

The fourth job I took was one where I was specifically brought on to fix projects and move them forward when they stalled.

The fifth career job is the one I am in now. I was hired specifically to roll-out 500-ish student laptops. I was hired to fix the lack of long-range, multi-building planning. I was hired to convert the town's schools from multiple islands of technology usage and planning into a solid and singular technology department.

I am a fixer. People recognize that and they hire me when they have a dire need of technology programs being fixed. I don't get hired when people have a program that is working. I don't get hired in positions where things are running smoothly.

I don't get hired when people need to seamlessly replace someone who did a fantastic job building a fantastic program that is working.

I get hired to fix broken systems.


Now that I know this I need to figure out how to use it to my benefit in the future.

A Glimpse into My Work World

This is a summary of ONE help ticket I had to work on this week.

Teacher: "I have a bunch of students who can't use their email"
Me: "Which students"
Teacher: < sends list, 5 of which include nicknames instead of real names >
Me: "for < list of kids with nicknames > what are their real names?"
Teacher: < sends list >
Me: "What does "can't use their email" mean?"
Teacher: "They can't login"
Me: "I've reset their passwords. Here's the list of proper usernames and corresponding passwords. < includes list >"
Teacher: "It still doesn't work"
Me: "I just tested it, it works on all of them."
Teacher: "It still doesn't work."
Me: "Are They using the passwords I just sent you?"
Teacher: "They have to use THAT password?"
Me: "Yes. Capitalization matters. Then they can pick their own. "
Teacher: "OH."
Teacher: "Works now. Thanks"

This is a summary of another:

Teacher: "< Student Name > can't use email."
Me: "OK. Can you explain what that means?"
Teacher: "No."
Me: "I need more to go on to know what I need to fix for the student."
Teacher: "OK. < Student Name > can't use email."
Me: "Can you just have the student come to the tech office?"
Teacher: "Why?"
Me: "So I can see what is not working with the email so I know what to fix."
Teacher: "Can't you just fix it?"
Me: "Not until I know what's wrong."
Teacher: "I'll send < the student > down at the end of the period."
Editorial Note: "end of the period" means the that the student will lose time from the NEXT class instead of that class.
< Student arrives in Tech office >
Me: "Hello. How can I help you?"
Student: "< Teacher Name > Sent me down."
Me: "OK. For your email problem?"
Student: "Yes."
Me: "How is it not working?"
Student: < Shrug >
Me: "May I look at it, please?"
Student: < Hands over laptop >
Me: "Can you show me what you are trying to do?"
Student: < Demonstrates >
Me: < Resets password; sets mail client up CORRECTLY; mail works > "There you go. Have a nice afternoon.
Student: < Leaves without even a "thank you" >

System Administrators

On my way home from work the System Administrator Song came up on my iPod.

It's a great song for anyone who does tech support.



It caps off a day where I had to go to a room with 5 desktop computers. #1 was being re-placed in the room after being repaired. The user in that room stated that #4 just did not work and that #5 logged anyone off as soon as they logged on.

I restarted #5 and logged in without an issue.
I tried #4 and, sure enough it wouldn't boot. I took one look and found that it was unplugged.
I went to hook up #1 and found that someone had pushed a crumpled up piece of paper into the USB plug for the keyboard. I have to fish it out with a unbent paperclip.

In 10 minutes I had the two new "problems" resolved simply by trying the MOST BASIC of trouble shooting ideas.

It never ceases to amaze me that people won't try looking at the power cord to see if it is plugged in.

Balance (or, There is No Free Lunch)

There must ALWAYS be balance.
There is ALWAYS a trade.
There is no free lunch.

Sometimes the trade is a good one, other times it is a bad one, sometimes it's even hard to identify the trade; but a trade ALWAYS exists.

There are multiple buildings where I work.
Each building has certain I.T. equipment distributed to the users within that building.
Each building has a different set of needs and a different set of rules about use.

One thing that is common among ALL the buildings is that the equipment issued to you for the purposes of your WORK is not a toy; it's a tool for accomplishing your assigned work.

TANGENT WARNING: Assigned work has three vectors of evaluation.
    1. Quality of the work.
    2. Timeliness of the work.
    3. Appropriateness of the work.

I, personally, don't care what people do with the equipment once their work is completed. The caveat to that is that  the rating of the work on each vector is at or above acceptable.

The problem with where I work is that the VAST majority of users prefer to goof off instead of doing their assigned work. They would rather harass each other on Facebook or play Mafia Wars or search for porn than do the work they SHOULD be doing.
So we have filters.
The filters have not been overly successful in reducing many of the behaviors that distract from the completion of work.
So, in one of the buildings, we're implementing filters at home, too. Those filters ONLY apply to the equipment handed out BY US. Those filters apply at the same level as they do within the building.
Part of me SCREAMS out against this concept. I HATE the idea of locking down the equipment and making it less useful. I HATE the idea of inhibiting the use of the equipment is such a way as to penalize those who have no reason to be penalized.  I HATE the extra work that this will generate for ME. I abhor the fact that my EXTRA work will serve to make the jobs of other people easier. My additional work will allow others to be more lazy and less vigilant. My extra work will vilify ME to the users whom resent being overly managed even though I am not the one who made the decision to implement this at-home filtering.

On the other side of the coin I see encourage this type of lock-down. The VAST majority of our users need to learn how to function in a responsible way and keeping them on task is part of that. Taking away distractions is another part. Learning that their actions (collectively) up to this point are the reason that they are ALL encountering the new restrictions is a good lesson in how the world works and how they will have to manage in the future when they do their assigned work for other organizations.
I also fail to have a lot of sympathy for people who will whine about the newly imposed limitation. If they want an unlocked internet they need to BUY THEIR OWN EQUIPMENT. It's quite simple: free equipment is NOT free; it has a catch. In this case the catch is that the users are subjected to the rules and regulations of the entity providing the equipment.

Work vs Lunch

I often take a late lunch.
It's usually because I am working and I work straight through lunch time without realizing that lunchtime has come and gone already.
Usually, when that happens, I can manage to take a lunch when I am hungry.
Sometimes, though, that becomes an impossibility.
I had one of those days last week and I made a twitter/facebook comment about my 4:25 pm lunch.

One of my friends made an interesting reply. She said, quite plainly, what would happen if I took a lunch anyway.

I replied, quite honestly, that the work that I left behind would seek out reinforcements and, together, all of the work would ambush me upon my return from lunch.


While this is somewhat melodramatic and hyperbolic for most days there are days where it is true.

Today, a day where I NEED to leave work at 2:15, is one of those days.

The five minutes it took me to write this is the summation of all the time I have been able to do ANYTHING not work related today.
I tried to go to lunch at noon and I was inundated with 5 users all needing attention for immediate issues.
I tried to go to lunch at 12:30 and I was inundated by 3 different users with 3 different problems.
I tried to go to lunch at 1 and I realized that if I am leaving at 2:15 leaving for lunch at 1 is a bad idea and would make returning from lunch foolish... which would mean I left for the day at 1.

So, here it is, 1:50 and I am getting a few minutes to reflect on today before I leave.

Even though I am leaving early to go to a funeral, I am SOOOO glad the week is FINALLY over.

You know what they say about assuming......

My "heavy lifting" season at work is the summer.
My hardest time of year to survive is the end of summer through mid-October.

This year proved more difficult in both of those areas than in the past.
There are a variety of reasons for this, some of them were things that I could have controlled had I anticipated them and others were things completely beyond my control.
The important part of the pieces that I can control is that I have learned from my inefficiencies of this past summer and have drawn up plans to improve MANY aspects of my annual summer process. If any ONE of the changes makes a positive change to the overall result (and none make negative change) the entire summer season will be MUCH better than it was this year. If they ALL prove to be positive change then the result will be noticeable to nearly everyone in my organization.

But all of that is in the future and NOT the reason for this post.
The reason for the post is that sometimes people ASSUME that they know your job better than you do.
Often they don't even realize they are making an assumption.

This recently (and currently) happened to me.
As I have said before I work in I.T.
I manage and service computers.
I have a few options for many of my repair needs: a large-scale deployment-based repair center and a local repair center.
For warranty purposes there is nothing better than the large-scale repair center. They're fast and the warranty repairs are free. They are, however, VERY expensive for non-warranty repairs. Their non-warranty repairs are based on a tiered pricing structure at which the least expensive non-warranty repair requiring parts is tier 1 and tier 1 is $250.
The local shop, on the other hand, charges me only the price of the parts and shipping plus a fair and appropriate flat fee for each laptop that is serviced. Sometimes that fee is a great deal for them: other times it is a great deal for me. It averages out. If they get something that is a warranty repair then they do not even bill me. The least expensive non-warranty repair there is $40.95. Other repairs are more expensive, but rarely do I get a bill that approaches the tier 1 price of $250; when I do it wouldn't be covered as a tier 1 repair at the depot (usually it is a tier 3).
The last time I checked my math $40.95 is significantly cheaper than $250.
The drawback is that they are MUCH smaller and cannot handle a large volume in a timely manner.
So my process has been quite simple: anything OBVIOUSLY out of warranty goes to the less expensive repair center; anything that MIGHT be under warranty goes to the depot. If the depot wants to bill me I have them send it back and then take it to the less expensive repair center.

This one person made an assumption. Because there was a backlog of equipment that had not been repaired at the less expensive repair shop the assumption was that I had automatically sent ALL of my equipment there. The assumption was being made that since I had many repairs with bills attached that I must be making bad choices on which devices were warranty eligible and which ones were not. The assumption was being made that ALL devices that went to the local shop generated a bill even if they could have been covered under warranty at the depot.
The person assumed that I am an idiot and completely incompetent.


There was a meeting this morning. There were people there from the management of the large-program deployment. During the meeting they tried to NOT answer questions specifically, but I was having none of that.

In the end, I managed to get the people from the large-scale deployment office to answer questions specifically and according to their manual. The answers reinforced my methods and statements for the last several months. Only one answer was not in my favor and that one was accompanied by statements that they had changed their practices to the new method and did not publish their changes - meaning that I was doing what I was able to do based on their previous methodology.

Progress

It's AMAZING how much getting things done actually alleviates stress.

Today ended with a visual inventory being taken of ALL deployed laptops in one of my buildings.
This, combined with the list of people who needed laptops in the first place, gives me an accurate way to fill in the gaps with the devices I have left to hand out.
Tuesday will solve the problem of the laptops in that building. By Wednesday morning all of the required laptops will be waiting for the users when they arrive.
In a couple of weeks it will have been one full cycle that I have been responsible for this building. I am trying to make positive change to this building while working within some of the framework of the person's method who came before me. This is VERY difficult to do when they declined to leave you ANY documentation as to their methods, etc. It's been a rough year learning how the building does things and what their expectations are. The culture in the building is starting to change; but not fast enough. Many of them claim to want input on the way I do things but then are unwilling to spend the time and energy needed to make that input happen. Despite this, another year will bring a significant level of positive change to this building from my department.

In my other problematic building I make progress EVERY day I set foot in the building. The other staff in THAT building appreciate the work I do and notice my efforts. It is nice to see notes made in the minutes of meetings I was not at where my efforts were publicly commended. Working with the staff in this building is (usually) great because they show genuine desire to work WITH me so that I can work WITH them to meet THEIR needs. I appreciate it when people recognize that I am here to help them and they use me as the resource I am meant to be in a respectful manner. I am looking forward to being able to implement the changes I am outlining for the next retraction/deployment cycle because I believe that any ONE of those changes will dramatically reduce problems in the cycle - let alone if ALL of them do.

Sadly, I can't fix the labor or equipment limitations on the process.... but I CAN (and will) leverage the labor and equipment resources available to me.

All of this goes back to something I said in an earlier post: treating the person you are working with / who is serving you with respect goes a LONG way to making their life (and, eventually, yours) better.

In short: today was a good day.

Rambling Post

I have too many things to specifically write about one today. Instead of a single topic I am going to write out a few short blurbs.

I am glad to have allies at work. My de-facto supervisor is a good guy who is supportive of my problems.
I have a few people that appreciate the work I do.
It is worthwhile to remember these people ALWAYS, ESPECIALLY when one of the others (who is not following the rules anyway) if publicly decrying one's efforts.

I am glad to have supportive friends. People who can sympathize with my situation.

I am glad to have a supportive girlfriend who tries to help (even when I already know the path and just need to vent to avoid an explosion of fury).

I am glad to have a means to entertain myself in the car for my 2.5 hours of daily commute. Podcasts are my friend.

I am glad that I am able to detect when my breaking point is being reached and walk away BEFORE it happens. Nothing is quite so harmful as losing one's temper.

I am glad that the hell of the beginning of school is nearly over. I need a break from this overly-rigorous pace.

I am glad that I am able to (sometimes) take a bad day and force myself to look at the good things instead. I think it helps (but I am not sure if it actually does or if I just think it does - I'll find out when the next annoyance appears).

If you're having a hard time with a day I recommend trying to look at the positives and focus on them for 10 minutes. It might help and, at the very least, it gives you a 10 minutes break from the stress.

Filled with Rage

Recently work has been VERY tough.

Here's a quick outline of HOW tough:
I was hired to manage ~500 laptops in one building, ~175 laptops in another and bring an over-arching technology management philosophy to all of the buildings in my organization unit (staff management, develop a centralized budget, etc).

Less than two months after I started working I was dumped a third building with ~350 laptops on me AND a hostile environment to work in because the person who left had wanted my job and did not get it... resulting in MANY people in that building having negative feelings toward me without ever having met me.

Rough math based ONLY on what I have listed above shows that, 2 months after I was hired, my job increased in workload by 52%. I got no pay raise.

Combine that additional workload with the fact that ALL of the equipment is an additional year older AND a last-minute decision dumped an unexpected 7.5 person-weeks of work onto my department and you can see why I am filled with rage. Everyone wants 100% service with only 25% manpower.

How am I handling this? Badly. I am filling with more and more stress each day and I will continue to do so until the last of the laptops have finished with their annual servicing and are no longer needing to be queued for the work.

I will continue to be over-stressed until I can move into the phase of the year where I can work on trying to streamline and improve the work flow for NEXT year's annual service.

There are three things I am trying to do to manage the stress right at this moment:
1. I am writing about my problem in an effort to vent out some of the stress.
2. I am planning to watch some cached sitcoms (How I Met Your Mother is fantastic - if you have not watched it you MUST).
3. After I watch an episode I will take the dog for a walk to the nearby Stone Cold Creamery store and get an ice cream.

I am also planning to have a talk with some of the people further up the chain to explain to them that a 52% increase in normal day-to-day workload PLUS the added project that they thrust upon us at the last minute is the reason that we are having such significant problems keeping up with the demand of the other employees. I will also point out that we're ahead of the schedule laid out last year in the buildings that I was SUPPOSED to be working on from the point that I was hired.

And, of course, I have developed some plans for how to fix things... and am working on other improvements, too.


The morale of today's post: rage happens; how we deal with it is what makes or breaks us. I am trying to deal with mine in a constructive manner (mostly - ice cream doesn't really count) because it is what is best for me and for my users in the long run.

Let's hope that the people further up the chain see and acknowledge my efforts (AND that I was unfairly given a 52% increase in workload less than 2 months after my hire date).

Perception is a Powerful Force

As I have mentioned before, I work in I.T.

One problem that nearly EVERY I.T. department has in nearly EVERY organization is the public opinion of the other employees being weighted against the I.T. department.

While being something I do not understand it is something I MUST deal with.

Today there was a meeting in which the person who (for all intents and purposes) is my boss, his boss and another department head. I was NOT invited to this meeting. This meeting was to discuss problems with technology support in the other department head's facility. The problems discussed, so I was later informed, were not new but just a re-hashing of problems already discussed (to me this means that the department head is still not happy that he did not get his way after earlier discussions).

One of the things that came up was that no one knows what I.T. workers actually DO. All that they see is when things do NOT work. All that they see are the things that haven't been done yet. All that they see is that something on their computer broke and no one has helped them fix it yet. This is a problem with ANY organization that has an internal I.T. department. Unless the department is OVERstaffed there will be people who have to wait for service to be completed (in my experience if there is an abundance of help then users become lazier and lazier about trying ANYTHING for themselves so the problem actually does not go away with more staffing).
One comment that was made by an anonymous someone (e.g. neither I, nor my defacto boss know whom) was that I, apparently, did nothing over the summer except shoot my bow (I am an archer) all day long. This infuriates me. Yes, I shot my bow (the fitness and recreation department here has archery equipment). Yes I shot it nearly daily. I shot between 44 and 55 rounds with it (I only have 11 arrows). The total time I spent doing archery on days with good weather: 45 minutes. The total time I spent on a lunch break: 45 minutes.  If I take a break from work and do something CONSTRUCTIVE with my time (e.g. archery is good strength exercise AND a skill to boost hand - eye coordination) then that is my decision.

What people NEVER manage to see are the other aspects of their I.T. departments.
For example: today I arrived at work at 7:45 AM. I am writing this as an automated task is finishing up (can't leave until it is done, but too late to start anything new) at 6:30 pm. I took a half-hour lunch break where I discussed the aforementioned meeting with my defacto boss. That's a 10 hour and 45 minute work day. No one notices when I, or any of my staff put in 10 hours of (unpaid) overtime a week for three consecutive weeks to get a project done. No one understands or accepts that, perhaps, it is not the I.T. guys who had the problem when a project is not finished on time... but that it MIGHT be further up the chain (e.g. I recently had 7.5 person-weeks of work dumped on me with no warning that, had a decision been made in June, would have been 1 person-week of work).

Everyone is so quick to blame the I.T. staff when decisions regarding usage don;t go their way or when decisions regarding policy are too constrictive. I understand this; what I fail to understand is why they are so forgiving with every other department. Why is the I.T. department the one that is heavily persecuted while all of the others are forgiven so easily? Why is the most over-worked department the one that gets the least leniency?

One of the most lenient and forgiving people at my employer was frustrated with the I.T. staff until he moonlighted with us for a few weeks. He was startled and amazed at the logistics we have to run and the sheer volume of work that we have to complete to make ANYONE happy.  Seeing that experience makes me wish I could require ALL complaintive users to work as one of my employees for one week in our busiest month.

If you are reading this and have a computer issue at work please consider how busy your I.T. staff are. They probably work A LOT harder than you could imagine.

It makes me sad to post this post. I REALLY did not want to turn this blog into a complaint forum.
Sadly, for the month of September I can expect total chaos and excessive stress about work. It's just the way my job goes.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

Insert witty, thought-provoking post here.




It's that time of year where there is TOO MUCH work being piled on and not enough time to do it.

So, sadly, no post today. Perhaps I will make up for it with a nice post this weekend.

Topics vs Motivation

Yesterday I failed to write a post.
It was due to to neither a lack of motivation nor a lack of topics to write about.
Yesterday's failure was, quite simply, an instance of adult life getting in the way of a hobby.
When I left work last night I had put in more than 45 hours AT work this week (For those reading this in the future: today is Friday). Note this does not include time spent checking email, etc after hours or on my lunch breaks.
Today was supposed to be a "flex" day to compensate for the hours I put in earlier in the week.
Sadly, I have too much work to do to accomplish that.
I have an application that requires a launcher script to use it. That application is needed for 3 weeks a year. One of those weeks is next week. The application installer works and it even correctly places the launcher script. The launcher script works on the machine where I wrote it and a small percentage of the sample machines I tried it on. But it does NOT work on the majority.  This frustrates me because it means my "flex" day has turned into a working day (from home, interrupted by errands that needed to get done, but still work).
Needless to say this is a serious demotivator. I work hard when I am working and I work a lot yet I am never getting ahead. It's even worse than that, actually, each time I attempt to get ahead I discover something else that is forcing me back further than I was before.

The post today started with its title because I knew, if I wished to continue my habit of writing, that I MUST write but I REALLY did not want to. My motivation failure is bleeding out of my office and into my personal life. This is a problem for I have no shortage of topics to write about; quite the opposite, actually.

But is let the demotivation win the motivation war I will fail to develop the habit of always writing thoughts down.

Here's my encouraging thought for the day: writing this post, however disjointed it might be, has helped me cope with the current futility of my job. I won the battle against my own apathy. If I can, so can you. It just takes a little bit of "mind over matter" or the Nike slogan "just do it" to overcome many internal obstacles.

Now I will go back to trying to figure out why my launching script is being an obnoxiously difficult <insert "colorful metaphor" here>.

Disaster Recovery

Today's post is work-related.
The topic is disaster recovery.
I'd like to remind everyone that hardware can be replaced and software can be reinstalled but YOUR WORK cannot be recovered as easily.

I know many people and many of them have learned the lesson about backing up their data the hard way. In fact, I don't KNOW of anyone who has learned this lesson without learning it the hard way at least once.

It is VERY important to have a backup strategy for your data.
The easiest rule for this is to have 3 copies at all times: your working copy, your local backup and a remote backup.

Why three copies?

That's a simple question to answer.

The first copy is obvious: it's your working copy. This is the copy you work with on a regular basis. It's the one that is on the internal hard disk of your workstation. It's the copy you think of when you think of a file.

The second copy is also obvious: it's your backup. If you suffer a hard disk crash on your workstation you get the backup copy from the backup drive. Simple.

So why do you need a third copy? Because that's the true way to prevent data loss from an actual disaster.

Here's an example:
If you only have TWO copies (working and local backup) of a file what happens to your data in the event of a flood or a fire? What happens if a thief steals both the workstation AND external drive? What happens if you have a lightning strike that completely fries the electronics in both the workstation and the external backup?

That's why you need a THIRD backup copy.

When I relate this process to my users I am often asked "how can I do this? I don't know anything about computers!"

There are a variety of answers, but they vary based on what type of equipment and operating system you have.

NOTE: AT THE TIME THAT THIS ENTRY WAS WRITTEN NONE OF THE VENDORS BELOW HAVE SPONSORED THIS BLOG IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM.

One easy solution for remote backup, regardless of your operating system or hardware is an online service known as Carbonite. This is a paid service ($55 / year) that backs up your entire computer. I have not yet had the need to try this service, but I have heard nothing but good things about it from anyone I have asked.

Another easy, online solution is DropBox. DropBox is another paid service, but it allows for free use for up to 2GBs of data. I do use this service. I backup the 2 most important GBs of my data through DropBox. The extra bonus of this: I can read anything in my DropBox folder on my mobile phone using the appropriate DropBox client.

Either of the above options will allow you to quickly, easily, inexpensively and, best of all, automatically backup your data to an offsite location without any worries. If you experience a fire, lightning strike, flood, theft, meteor strike, etc you can feel relieved that you haven't lost your data.


Onto the local backup. The most universal way to do this is to buy an external drive and manually copy of all the important files once a day. This method works on every version of MS Windows, Linux and Macintosh OS (all the way back, in all three cases). This, however, is slow, cumbersome and it has one HUGE potential fail point: you. This method relies on your personal vigilance and dedication to protecting your data. This method usually leads to failure or out-dated backups when you need them most.

There are plenty of tools that will allow you to have automatic backup systems. If I were prepared to discuss any one Windows or Linux I would, but my knowledge of them is a couple of years old so I am certain there are better (and more) tools available than anything I could talk about.
I can, however, discuss the best way to do this if you have OSX (10.5+): Time Machine. Time Machine is a program that is part of OSX. It is included with the OS for free. It allows you to attach an external drive that will just backup your entire disk (by default: you can tweak it if you like) to the external. Time Machine does what is called an iterative backup. This process is VERY efficient with storage space and data transfer bandwidth. It works by taking a FULL backup the very first time you run it then it only backs up the changes from that point forward. You are able to slide backward through the backups that have been made and access each and every change along the way. It's a fantastic tool that will save you from accidental deletions, terrible edits, and full disaster. You can even rebuild a system from it in the event of a hard disk failure.
A side note on Time Machine for the technically inclined: it seems to work very much like using RSync in Linux. The browsing mechanism for the files is very much like dirvsh.

So, this entire post bring me to ask: does anyone know of a good, easy, automatic way to backup this blog?