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Re: Poor saps



One instance of this (yet another!) from me: The boss points at a heap of
boxes and tells me to move them all to the other building. No idea of what's
in them, he just wants them moved. Much discussion before he's finally
convinced that some of them need to stay out because of processing underway.
The rest are to go on pallets and moved by forklift to the other building.

Today, with perfect weather for moving boxes outdoors, I go out to the other
building to work out a way of making this move. Three problems:

1.    The forklift is inaccessible; it's being used to hold up a steel beam
while the paint was applied last night dries, and it's parked in such a way
that I'd never be able to get it out without running over or into something.
We have another forklift, but I don't know how to run it and, even if I did,
the key is missing.

2.    The ground in the unpaved back lot where the empty pallets are stored
is too soft for a car (judging by the tire tracks in the mud), let alone a
forklift. Some places were so soft that I began to sink into the mud as I
stood there.

3.     There's no place to put two pallets of records boxes in the other
building anyway, as the storage area is full of junk from the shop and more
records that were put there last fall.

Good thing I have this magic wand (standard archivist's equipment) that
catalogs collections, writes finding aids, answers phones, mows grass,
eliminates all backlog and allows one person to do the work of three while
obeying impossible orders.

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax 419-352-6086
tberry@wcnet.org
http://www.hcea.net




----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Sokolow" <DSokolow@NSHS.EDU>
To: <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 11:26 AM
Subject: Re: Poor saps


> True enough, but not everything is an opportunity; some things are simply
> wasted time.  As an example, I will share with you all my experience at my
> last job.  (I may have told you all about this before, but it's still a
good
> illustration).
>
> I get called on by the Exec VP, the VP, and my boss to go up to the
> Executive floor and change the arrangement of materials on the shelves of
> the exec library.  As Barbara suggests, I took it as an opportunity rather
> than the waste of time I felt it would be (maybe the CEO will notice me,
the
> bosses will appreciate it, etc.) I figure we're a publishing company,
let's
> take the books from 1952 off the shelves and replace them with stuff we
> actually put out now - CD Roms, updated textbooks, whatever.
>
> So I spend a month arranging with our divisions to get copies of our
> products and setting everything up on the bookshelves, and I get a limited
> thank you from various powers that be (OK, maybe expecting a few stock
> options was a little much).  Two weeks later I get a call from the CEOs
> office saying "it's not what he had in mind.  Could you get some fancy
> looking books with leather bindings that will look pretty on the shelves?"
>
> Not only did I waste my time setting the whole thing up, but then I'm left
> doing the whole damned thing over again, with a trip to the Strand (one of
> the world's biggest bookstores, for those outside NYC) to buy "stuff"
thrown
> in.  Who cares what it is, nobody's going to read it anyway.  I wouldn't
> have cared as much if Mr. CEO/Interior Decorator had decided before I
> started what it was he really wanted.
>
> My point?  Some things really do get dumped on us.  Some things aren't
worth
> making lemonade out of.  This became simply one more thing (among many)
that
> made me feel they didn't understand what I was actually there for, nor did
> they appreciate what I had to offer.  My solution, of course, was to turn
it
> into an ex-job.  I learned that it wasn't a place I felt like putting out
> 110% for, something the powers always implied they wanted - so I guess I
did
> get something out of it.
>
> I'm not exclusively trying to gripe about it, but pessimist that I am, I
> still feel there's more thought that should go into what our bosses expect
> of us, especially (as in my last two jobs) when we're working for people
who
> don't really know what we do.
>
> Sorry for the soapboxing,
>
> DS
>
> ______________________________________
> Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
> David Taylor Archives
> North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
> 155 Community Drive
> Great Neck, NY 11021
> mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Pope, Barbara [SMTP:bpope@MAIL.STLCOP.EDU]
> > Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 10:40 AM
> > To:   ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
> > Subject:      Re: Poor saps
> >
> > I do not consider that anything got "dumped" into my lap. I took on the
> > responsibility realizing that there would be a great deal that I did not
> > know in the beginning. Rather than seeing it as dumped into my lap, I
saw
> > it
> > as a learning opportunity, a time to learn something new.  I have had a
> > few
> > jobs where things did get dumped into my lap and because I was young and
> > did
> > not have much experience, I again saw it as an opportunity and ran with
> > it.
> > Instead of complaining, I consulted with people who had done that kind
of
> > work and learned from them. I took lemons and made lemonade.
> >
> >
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
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> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>