Work entertainment

[Jherrith]

Here is one for the cuckoo's nest.

Typically I pay little attention to these damn company newsletters as most of the time it is the upper management and sale folks patting each other on the back.

I work to install and maintain what you sell, unless you are speaking to where I am coming from it is all smoke and mirrors.

Granted they do acknowledge folks in my position but you hear one set of "praises" they all sound the same after a while. So seldom watch these "town hall meetings" unless there is something significant about them. Found out the one past had some "news" that rated, imagine that, something to speak to the bottom feeders.

Well apparently the growth of the company profits, even though they are buying up other companies and tech still, is looking better.

Looks like starting on Jan 1 we get the 401K match once again
The annual bonus is back as well, although it will not be the typical percentage as before, however it is also coming back.

The one thing I am not totally understanding or pleased with, at least until more details are released is the PTO goes away and instead there will be a "Flex PTO" in its place. So instead of accruing hours you just get with the manager and say I need time off, come to an agreement and poof you have time off with no worries about whether or not you have any hours in the pool or not.

My problem is that I have to fight to get time off to start with, and the use it or lose it concept helped me remember and to take and get my time off, and now it is and take it when you feel like it, however now I have already earned hours for this year and if this is going away the first of next year, what happens I lose the current accrued time ????

  :caveman:

Certainly now happy about that considering that currently I have 95 hours, plus the December hours which technically means it would take three weeks to use it all up. Call me a pessimist but I do not see that happening between now and the end of the year. So what is going to happen to the hours that I don't use, because I always rolled 40 hours in the past, and now that is no longer an option. Do I lose them ????? inquiring minds  ... guess I will have to wait for them to release fuller details .....

[Radkres]

O.o See if you can get your time off for 3 weeks as you will lose that time if management was like mine. If Not See if they will refund your time as Money Cause I think you can put it into retirement. You might call the HR Department for More info Cause if they like mine you lose it at the end of each year.

[Jherrith]

Research is on my list of things to do

[Jherrith]

Back to the desktop remote audio complaint.

One would have thought that if the audio is low just use the volume knob, yes.

Apparently they already were and it had no effect which is why we were out there. Twas interesting though that there are two controls for the volume, one the end user can adjust and the other that is hardware/software driven.

The software part being getting into the settings interface on the device as it is all hard coded ... I think that would be the right term ... anyway it was nice to be able to actually touch the buttons and make it work instead of just watching.

For we all know the touchy-feely method is the best way to learn .... yep that sounded better in my head.

[Jherrith]

Well, I see I have not said much about the new site being built and commissioned and the original site being upgraded.

Trust me you are going to love this tale of two shelters

But for now it is time to drive in

FRIDAY

[Jherrith]

And now for the new site, how entertaining this project has been, first part was moving equipment from one site to the new site. The fun part is that at the original site they were in cabinets that happened to have been fastened to the floor by drive anchors. Which means we had to use a chisel to cut them free from the floor.

What a pain.

At the new site it was not to bad, but I do wish the powers that be could get their act together at some point. Why, what else there is never enough cables accounted for and they never agree as to where they need to go, as in from point A to point B.

Yes, we are ever so used to this, so surprised I am not, just wonder if they will ever get it together and have all of the details and requests for additional cabling correct the first time.

Not holding my breath.

The fun part is at the original site they need to have an additional power strip hard wired to the rack from the panel. They finally got that sorted out on Thursday of last week. We shall see on the following week, which is when they are shooting for to bring the new site on line.

Should be fun, no testing or burning in has been done as of yet. However, their intention is to turn the new site on this Monday and then are shooting for me to turn the old site off, remove the existing rack out, after detaching the existing OP8 (power supply) from it, then move the new rack in its place and bolt it down to the floor and attach the OP8 back to it and then finish powering everything back up, and cross your fingers till they hurt

Doesn't that sound like fun sure it does in someone world.

Not mine.

[Radkres]

  Space,Time,Speed and Distance - Awareness of Nothing!  :sno7:

[Jherrith]

That would be those higher up on the food chain then I ... in a nutshell

[Jherrith]

Well, I see I forgot to mention all of the fun that was present the one day I went to the new site for optimization.

First tech showed up had what he needed and got busy sorting out what was what and where ... good start to the day.

Another showed up and my God in heaven you would think this guy has never went to a site before.

First words out of his mouth "do you have a folding table?" Uh, no.

Really .... I am an installer not a department store.

then he asks for an extension cord, seriously. Yes, I have one but that is not the point.

Later on, do you have a display port to HDMI video adapter .... now I know you are on drugs, but wait it gets better. Do you have a HDMI cable as well?

No and no, as mentioned I install and build the system for you to fart around on it not be your rolling parts store. If you have set up systems before then why in the hell do you not carry this stuff with you? You knew what you had come out here to do, so why are you not prepared to do the work? Inquiring minds ...

What is the problem here have you never gone out in the field and stood a system up from scratch?

Later on and this is the fun part, he asks if I have a monitor on my truck and a keyboard ..... seriously ..... please go back to your office and pick up what you need to stand a site up and then come back out.

Because the final straw was ... do you have a service monitor with you.

Well, I do have a service monitor, however I do not carry it with me.

(mainly because the bed of the truck is not climate controlled. I mean it is every bit of $60K for that thing you think I am going to leave it overnight in my truck you are out of your mind. Nor will, I keep it in the front of my truck for you to see and decide wow I might be able to steal and hock that thing.)

Besides as mentioned he is coming out to optimize the system and should have these tools in his possession.

I guess that is what system techs do, they no longer have any tools and you are supposed to wait on them hand and foot and anticipate what they need to do their job.

I have no training, formal or otherwise for these task so therefore until I do and get to the point of being the one being taught there is no reason for me to have any of the afore mentioned items in my possession.

Besides where in the hell would I store them as my truck is jammed packed as it is, got to love the logic.

Beside I do not get paid that rate to begin with, so until proper training and pay rate for a level 1 system tech ... can you say long walk short pier ... knew you could .... I am not at their beck and call.

[Jherrith]

The fun was just beginning, as now I am over at the original site and we are now at last doing the cut over and optimization.

First up I get called over after I did the site walk at UCF. Get there and what do I find, not ready .. not surprised ah well, just once I wish these people would actually have their act together and be ready when they say .... yea as if that is ever going to happen

Moving forward at last they finally say go for it and I start to rip and tear the final bits that are in the way of moving the old rack out and the new rack in its place. Well, the first bit of excitement occurred as I am unplugging all of the plugs currently in the OP-8 at the top of the old rack so I can install it on the new rack.

Well, the fun was that there were four cords plugged into it that actually were the comparators for the system and once unplugged they all lost synch with the GPS so the entire site went into "fail-soft".

Yep radios were not working in the city of ... until they got that sorted out. I was still moving forward getting the racks ready to move. I mean there were six system techs there .. think they can handle it while I kept going forward. Which just means that some one did not do all of the homework and final check before they told me to get started.

 

Well, was ready at last and the others got the synch problem sorted so time for the next step in the process.

Worked on trying to get the original rack out turns out there was a lip still present from the lag shields holding it to the floor. The fact that some idiot from the city of .. decided to put up a piece of kindorf on one of the racks next to the one we were moving and then decided to overlap the two racks. Makes it hard to go both directions, so only got one way to get it out. Managed it and even managed to get the new one in, and then got it bolted to the floor and to each other and at last got the original OP-8 installed back on the rack.

Got everything plugged back in and the new rack was fired up and rolling .... thought that meant I could start ripping out the excess cable ... oh hell no ... ye ole I need five (I mean 50 cables) still made up do Lord knows what, fortunately for me at any rate it was tile to leave to go teach class, (Monday night)