Cubicle Cultures
3 Walls, Plenty of Stories
Journal for the week of 5/15/17
0735 — In.
From the cubicle: A short but long weekend. Short that it’s only 2 days, long because of the travel. We went to Rhode Island for Mother’s Day to celebrate it with family and have a Seder dinner. Food and company were great but it was all so busy that it felt like 2 days of work. Weather didn’t cooperate at all. Cold, rainy, overcast, windy, but everyone’s attitude towards the end goal was wonderful. The Seder was on Saturday, my first one! My wife’s family is Jewish but they’re not really into it. Some traditions such as Seder and Rosh Hashanah are in place but the rest aren’t. For the dinner, there were 13–14 people and so much food that I’m still in a food coma this morning. I flew up, my wife drove. To Rhode Island is about a 8-9 hour drive if traffic is light and I can’t sit in a car that long. My wife and I don’t travel well together so I flew in/out of Boston. I can take an hour and a half of flying even though I’m acrophobic. Jet Blue is pretty sweet, tv screens in the back of the seats in front of me so passing the time makes it an easier trip. There were a few moments of tension between folks but we all worked through it. I have a rule in place that I don’t discuss politics and rarely watch the news. My wife’s family views politics as a pseudo religion. It’s very important that they discuss and debate the issues at hand. My family is exactly the same. Both families couldn’t be further apart on their views. Her family are hard core Democrats, mine are hard core Republicans. My wife and I are moderates but lean left. I feel that the media is nothing but hate these days. When we want to hang out together I have a strict policy of no news. She’s addicted to it, working for the government I can understand why. Me…not so much. I read headlines and maybe a few short articles but that’s it. Rarely do I hear or take part in political conversations at work. The media is the real enemy of the people in my opinion. Nothing but hate, manufactured conspiracies, etc. perpetrated by all sides. It’s all fake news as I see it. Even NPR is full of shit these days. I’ve become addicted to blogs, especially on Medium. Although the majority of them are interesting (especially the poetry), the rest are wishes of utopia. The occasional inspiration blogs are fun to read along with satire pieces. I’m not one to talk, my own blog (shameless plug), https://medium.com/@johnrowles, is long-winded in it’s own right thanks to the journaling.
0906 — I have a sinus headache that’s killing me right now. Took some medicine to help it subside but it doesn’t work fast enough. Two meetings have been cancelled and rescheduled already. Makes for a decent beginning for the day. There’s an intern that sits in the cube in front of me twice a week. She’s about to graduate college and still has an idealistic view of the world like much of today’s young people. Millennials are starting to impress me these days. Yes, my view isn’t positive of them. I’ve witnessed the stereotypes too often to have my mind completely changed but she is the exception to the rule. On top of going to school full time, she has a photobooth business on the side and is making good money. She and others make me a bit more confident of the future that we’re leaving it in good, albeit, shaky hands.
1142 — Listening to Metallica most of the morning. Not sure what it is but it put me in a good mood. Must be the dark nature of the songs. The album (yes I still call them albums) I’m listening to is the live show with the SFSO and I’m enjoying it immensely. Maybe listening to them gives me perspective. The dark nature of the tunes reminds me that work isn’t total bullshit. The protagonists in their tunes is alway in some sort of grief and I like that.
From the cubicle: I hate flavored coffee. The only creamer available here is the irish cream and I hate it but love coffee too much to not have a cup. My oldest just called me for some advice. She’s been working at a popcorn store and her boss let her know that someone quit and she’ll need to pick up the slack. She wasn’t sure how to approach him about asking for more money and telling him that it will it would be detrimental to her health. The place doesn’t offer insurance and she has asthma and anxiety issues. He’s expecting 60 hours a week and she’s got no work/life balance and a dog to take care of that’s created during the day while she’s out.
She’s texting me now and apparently his first answer to her is no to more money. I hate that she’s been put in a position to deal with this but she needs to put herself first. She’s looking for other jobs but it’s tough in the real world these days. Her boss says he’ll have someone there with her so her hours won’t change and she should be able to take breaks and lunch. The drama will continue until she’s convinced that her boss comes through for her. Stay tuned.
1611 — Two more management positions are now open. Neither of which I’m interested but I pinged a couple of friends that might be. One of which is at our FL campus. Although the position is for VA, she might be able to convince the hiring manager to consider her. There’s always a push to get folks either to move to the FL campus or take on new roles down there. I think she’s fully qualified and sometimes the location doesn’t matter much. The other friend is in VA. I let him know to take a look. He’s not happy on his current team and this might be a chance to get him off of it. If I don’t get an interview out of the one I recently applied for then it’s time for me to go. You’d figure that 10 years with the company and 26+ years in the IT field would be enough to at least garner an interview. Guess not.
5/16/17
0734 — In.
0818 — Came into a big issue where a very wrong form was sent to customers and very wrong file was sent to the IRS. Customers were receiving a letter from the IRS stating that there was an error related to contribution and/or rollover information related to their tax return; that is extremely un-good. Because of this issue, and it’s a pretty big one, research discovered that the file created last May did not get transmitted to the IRS; a different file was transmitted instead. I imagine there’s A LOT of really pissed off people internally (Deputy CIO got involved) and externally. The right people are working on it and it’ll get resolved, procedures will be documented for mitigation, and there’s going to be plenty of blame to go around. Not looking forward to being on the call when this all has a final pile of shit hitting the fan.
1314 — Busy morning. A couple of calls and IMs regarding the aforementioned IRS issue. One of which was between me, my 2 guys in charge of it, and 2 managers. We were able to communicate that a fix was already being planned and we know what needs to be done. Problem is it might take a few days to implement it due to testing and several approvals. Meanwhile, folks are getting letters saying their contributions/rollovers will affect their tax returns. Our call center must be getting hundreds of calls on this. Rumor has that this can (and maybe will) lead to fines up into the millions of dollars. I’m thinking those will be waived once the fix is in. The documentation has to be detailed enough to appease our AVP on how this will be mitigated going forward. Meaning we’ll have to show we’ve put a control in place to ensure the data and transmission thereof won’t screw up again. Then a colleague came over and told me the wrong file for deadbeat parent (folks that owe back child support) information was sent to the wrong state. Each state in the country handles deadbeat parents a bit differently but there’s a push to standardize it. So, other people on the business side are involved to see what can be done. I suggested to call the POC at the state agency and tell them to not use the file if they haven’t already. Kills the process and gives us time to send the right one. The fallout from this will be messy like the other one. Meetings will be had, blame and finger pointing will be had, damage to our reputation will be had…and it will snowball from there. When it rains it fucking pours here. One thing I’m most concerned with is that 3 guys on my team are involved and that doesn’t lead to good press.
From the cubicle: My niece is flying in tomorrow afternoon. She’s graduating from George Washington University on Thursday. Quite a young lady, she worked her way all through college and to my recollection, she has no student loan debt. This ceremony is for her Masters degree. She’s the youngest child of 3 of my sister who can’t make it up so we’ll proxy for her and her husband. I’ll be off on Thursday afternoon and all day Friday. Now we’re trying to figure out a way to keep her entertained until Sunday. There’s plenty of bars in town and she wants some time in DC which can be quite fun.
1600 — Things have calmed down greatly this afternoon and I’m glad about that. My tax team has been put on hold until the business gets back with them on what they want to do to move forward with the issue at hand.
From the cubicle: Farting in your cube shouldn’t be thought of as offensive. It’s your space, your home away from home, your small bit of real estate, there should be no judgement or filter to worry about. Just sayin’.
1620 — Out.
5/17/17
0730 — In.
0919 — I heard that a friend on my team’s dad passed away last night. After speaking with him a little bit ago, I let him know to take all the time he needed. I didn’t know that his dad had been suffering for quite a while but the family is relieved that he’s finally at peace. He’s also going through what might be the last stages of having to put his great dane down. The dog has wobblers and is on meds to help with it but, from what he tells me, great danes don’t have a long life span, maybe 5–6 years. His dog is a bit over 6 years old. I can’t even imagine what my friend is going through. He’s a great man, father, colleague, and friend to me and many others. Been an employee here for over 30 years and very well respected.
From the cubicle: I have to leave around 1300 to pick up my niece at the airport. The minute she lands I have to take her to the Metro so she can get to campus and get her cap and gown and the tickets for me and my wife. The ceremony is tomorrow evening. My hope is to be at the Metro and back within an hour. I’ll get to blow out the pipes on my Corvette to get it all done :)
1102 — Things are quiet for the moment. I started listening to the “Best of Little Feat” album and they always put me in a better mood. My favorite song of all time “Time Loves a Hero” is still as relevant as it was 40+ years ago. I highly recommend them to anyone that is a true music lover. Today’s kids probably wouldn’t get it but us older folks (Gen X and the boomers) can really enjoy it.
From the cubicle: I CAN SEE THE SUN! Supposed to be 90+ today. It’s 1110 and 82 outside…time for a quick walk.
1247 — Getting ready to pick up my niece. Still more emails/chats flying around about yesterday’s form/file issue. Progress is being made and we’ll be sending milestone emails by the end of the day.
1434 — Back. I didn’t want to drop her off at the Metro; 12 minute wait between trains and she’s new to the city. I drove her to the campus in DC, dropped her off and got back in about an hour. I won’t admit that I was speeding but… ;) My wife will bring her home.
5/18/17
0742 — In.
From the cubicle: Just saw that Chris Cornell from Soundgarden died. Very said. He is legendary with his vocals and music ability and will be missed for a long time to come. My wife told me that Roger Ailes from Fox News died…I don’t give a shit about that or him or Fox News. I’m sure all the women he harassed aren’t losing any sleep either.
1030 — One last meeting to go before I leave. More questions circling about the IRS file issue from earlier this week. Our AVP has posed a few questions about how it’ll get mitigated in the future and what controls are in place. My tax lead has a response written but we’ll go over it before it’s sent. With upper management, things have to be worded very carefully to avoid more questions. Too much or little info will always breed doubt.
1128 — I just finished helping one of my contractors formulate the email mentioned above. Carefully worded with just enough detail to answer the questioned posed by our AVP. I’m not expecting any push back but we’re prepared for it. Authoring communications here can be a pain. Upper management usually isn’t interested in “geek-speak” they just want brief descriptions they can take to their management. Very understandable.
1145 — Out. Off on Thursday afternoon and all day Friday — YES!!
Thanks for reading all of this! If you enjoyed this piece please click the heart below and comment if you wish. I’d love to hear your experiences no matter what they may be. Also, I have two books available on Amazon that I advocate you to buy, Manku and Manku Too. For more about me and what I do, here’s my website.
