Day 3 of the IT hostage drama.
At least we have power today. Sometimes you get hints that the locals are well aware of how ass backwards Bako is and are none to eager to let the world in on their dirty little Third World secret. Case in point: the power failure. Power was out to about half of the city for over eight hours. Television and radio stations went off the air. But other than a brief "we're getting some reports of possible power outages downtown..." on the afternoon news Friday, the entire event appears to have disappeared down the memory hole. It was never mentioned again, we never heard about the cause and the story doesn't show up on any of the local media websites. I guess it never happened.
But back to the IT nightmare. I have internet access, obviously, but that's it. Other than that, this computer is nothing more than a really big digital clock. No one here seems to have a clue how to connect me to the company servers, and without that I have no access to jobs, to assets, to email. The response I get is "well it was working a couple of weeks ago...".
Thanks, that's helpful.
They keep looking at me like I can wave a wand and connect everything with nothing more than magical thinking.
They say there's outside help coming in to fix it all, but with the alleged power outage they say it could be days.
And then there's "Dottie". I have no idea what her real name is - no one here has bothered to introduce themselves since I started. I made an effort to take the first step, but every "Hi, I'm Eric.." is met with a blank stare or a "OK, great."
"Dottie" - she looks like a "Dottie" - is evidently their traffic manager. Or a crazy woman who wandered in off the street. That jury is still out.
"Hi Hon, I just put a new job on the server for you".
Thanks, but I'm not connected to the server and can't access it.
"OK, great!"
"I just emailed you a new job..."
Until I get connected to the server I have no email.
"OK, great!"
"You never responded to my email."
I don't have email and wont until they connect me to the company servers.
"OK, great!"
"Have you made those changes yet? The client is waiting."
I can't access any jobs and probably won't be able to for a day or more.
"OK, great!"
You get the idea. Rinse and repeat.
I will say there is something kind of liberating about this job. For the first time in my career I just don't give a damn. Usually when I start a new job I try to be pretty circumspect. I don't share anything about my personal life. I don't go out for a smoke break, at least until I discover the other smokers. I don't email or surf the web until I know just how nosy and paranoid the company is.
But here? Fuck it.
I've been chain smoking in front of the building since I have little else to do. I surf the web, and now I'm blogging.
What are they going to do, fire me?
A girl can dream...
