How's work been?

I had such high hopes for today, until UPS took them all, took a big dump on them, put it all in a brown paper bag, lit it on fire, and left it at my office.

Yesterday I, on a whim, decided to upgrade the RAM in our shipping PC. We'd gotten some spares in that I could use to bump it from 8GB to 16GB DDR3, and I was hoping that would make the system a little easier to use. In talking with my logistics manager (my direct boss, who handles all the shipping) I realized it'd be in our company's best interest to really do a full system upgrade and create a backup. This system has been mostly unchanged since 2014 and is mission critical. So... we had some better hardware laying around, all I needed was a couple SSDs and a Windows 10 Pro license (needed pro for RDP).

We got everything today, and I put the system together. Installed Windows, ran all the updates, installed UPS WorldShip and FedEx desktop (we're toying with switching to FedEx), then cloned the drive to the to the other SSD as an activated cold spare.

We ran WorldShip, and realized we needed to backup our current database and migrate it over. The directions weren't hard to find or follow, and we used my boss' Google Drive to move it from the old system to the new system. When we tried to restore it, we got an error that we couldn't restore from a newer version of WorldShip. At this point we realize that the old system is using 2022 (25.0.7), and the new system is using 2021 (24.0.24). Ok, at least the problem is obvious, but the solution wasn't. There's no obvious way to update the software, even getting a download requires a lot of BS. And the download I got directly from UPS today was the version that is now installed. There's an updater tool, that doesn't seem to work.

After trying a number of things, we ended up admitting defeat and calling support. And what followed was the most frustrating waste of an hour I've had in a long time. The rep couldn't understand our problem. She told us that 2022 WorldShip didn't exist, and that we were confused and couldn't be using it. She then spent a very long time walking me through creating a backup. Then when we hit the same error, she had me create a backup from the new system, and restore it. Thinking maybe this would force an update or something, or maybe it was a step needed to get this escalated, I complied. Then she asked me to search for data in the new system (which, again, I'd just created an empty backup and restored an empty backup) for our shipping history. That broke me, and I told my boss to hang up.

Such high hopes... I'm trying a hacky fix to it, but ultimately I think I'm going to be just letting this run and hoping it automatically updates itself within the next few days. I'm glad I didn't nuke the old system, because we'd have been f*cked.

Fun times... did you poke around on the old system and look for a patch file in one of the WorldShip directories that you could copy to the new system and run?

Yeah, there's an update directory, but no way to make the software look at it or run anything. Nothing obvious anyway.

Sometimes it's hard to tell who is just incredibly dumb and who is deliberately causing problems.

The same co-worker who is constantly getting upset by things I do or things I don't do based on agreements they claim we had on the phone is now upset that I demand all requests from them be made in an email going forward before I do them.

Oh man... I just dove through all the files, and managed to find the 25.0.7 installer buried in a weird folder. It's stupid that I would be this happy to find a single file, but it's installing!

Nice PurEvil! I hate unnecessarily complex installers

@kuddles - CYA trumps co-worker feelings. If they won't keep track of their communication, you or someone else will.

kuddles wrote:

Sometimes it's hard to tell who is just incredibly dumb and who is deliberately causing problems.

The same co-worker who is constantly getting upset by things I do or things I don't do based on agreements they claim we had on the phone is now upset that I demand all requests from them be made in an email going forward before I do them.

Sounds like a them problem.

fangblackbone wrote:

I just got word that I've been extended at BU till May
And it could be extended more after that but there are changes to budgeting and planning then.

I love my work. I couldn't think of a better job more tuned to my skillset. I've done this type of work at many of my prior jobs but they have always run out of complex technical projects for me to dive in and see through. But at a university every semester brings new challenges so there doesn't seem to be an end

And oddly while I love being around people and the energy they bring, being remote is definitely a perk. I am able to focus because I'm not constantly being distracted. I don't feel like I'm being watched or hounded for looking busy. I make it look easy and look like nothing bothers me so I must be slacking...

Congrats, fang!

Yeah, that's why I'm doing it. I think they are offended because the root of the problem isn't actually malice, but the employee seems to pride herself on her excellent memory when I think it's actually terrible.

meh

Well, my WFH dream died today.

Despite the fact that the web team has shown itself to be totally capable of working from home and being just as good, corporate made a decree that we're all back in the office in March, full-time, and there appears to be no word of any flexibility/hybrid.

Infuriating, not only because the pandemic has limited my commute abilities and now I have to try and find a place closer to work to live within 4 weeks, but also because, as I said, not a word of communication with the teams ahead of time, no offer of flexibility, no discussion, no warning, nada. Just a decree on a Tuesday afternoon.

They've had another web position open for almost six months now, and I don't see how they can expect it to be filled if they're looking for a digital person who is going to come into an office 5 days a week. Idiotic.

EDIT:

Quintin_Stone wrote:

This week kicked off the new "2 days in-office" policy at work. So now I'm expected to go into the office Tuesdays and Thursdays from now on and I f*cking hate it.

I would've been over the moon for this, personally. Instead, a pile of horsesh*t.

Sounds like you need to find a new job. That policy seems extremely tone deaf. And I would also question leadership and company foresight based on that.
Also, we are still seeing 2500 daily COVID deaths in the US

The job market seems to be favoring employees for the first time in decades.

Yep. The whole web team can quit or they can fix their policy.

Prederick wrote:

Well, my WFH dream died today.

Thirding the "try to find a new gig" thing. Unless you love the job SO MUCH, it's not really worth the hassle of moving.

I'm putting out some feelers, however, problem is they've got me in a bit of a bind, as the quick turnaround plus recent personal and family changes mean I'm not in a safe enough financial place to just up and tell them to go f*ck themselves, as much as I'd really, really like to.

I am trying to put some irons in the fire though, because yeah, this is stupid. It's gonna be a frustration and a hassle either way.

If anything, you have a strong case since your commuting is still being hampered by COVID.
At some point the company is opening itself up to lawsuits. It is not out of the realm of possibility that someone goes to the office, gets COVID and dies or causes the death of a family member...

Small condolences and all that, but a few of my friends work for an organization that waffles between promoting WFH and everyone back in the office. Leadership is unwilling to take a clear stance and it is maddening to the employees. Thereby causing an slow, but steady talent exodus. At least in your case you have a clear declaration and can plan accordingly?

It's definitely old-fashioned for a company not to have any remote worker policy. That's de rigeur these days. Might want to bring that up with your boss. Or HR, in your exit interview...

The company I work for also announced reopening of their offices starting in March/April sometime. It looks to be the opposite experience from you, Prederrik. Thankfully they're making it voluntary for the time being. And specifically calling out managers not to use the reopening as an excuse to recall people in to the office or for team gatherings. So they've taken in to account how the workforce has changed.

Coworkers I've spoke to either just plan on going in one day a week or not at all.

Most of them, including myself, have moved since the offices closed - me several states away.

Will see how long this holds but upper management were pretty happy with the increased productivity we had during the first year of shutdown. Hopefully they'll continue to still see remote work as a benefit.

Yeah, it's the shortsightedness that really gets under my skin. I'm actually not against going back to the office in some capacity, but there's a chasm between "hybrid" and "full-time".

EDIT: Also, the quick turnaround means that I have a very limited window to find a new job before I gotta just pull the trigger on a new apartment. It's all really, really sh*tty.

My job is hiring lots of new remote positions. But they seem hesitant to let those of us near offices move away and go full remote. Like they're hoping maybe, someday...

I'm getting frustrated, thinking about looking around.

Not sure what your background is Prederick, but you mention development, so I'll toss out the careers page at the company I work for, LTN Global. There's only two departments that are required to be in the office full time, and that's new-hire NOC employees, and anyone involved with client-facing or data center installs (which is where I fall). Everyone else is pretty much remote.

I haven't seen anyone from the development team in about two years now, and as far as I'm aware there are no concrete plans to bring them back into the office. And the only ones they would even push that on are the ones that actually live within driving distance, as we have a fair number of employees spread throughout the country now.

Yeah, if anyone wants to join me working for a morally-dubious duopoly, Boeing is on a hiring blitz right now all across the country.

Stele wrote:

My job is hiring lots of new remote positions. But they seem hesitant to let those of us near offices move away and go full remote. Like they're hoping maybe, someday...

I'm getting frustrated, thinking about looking around.

Dude, you should TOTALLY look around.

As a teacher, I *want* to work at the school. But I have at least 2 kids out with Covid per class I teach, and the reality of "that means you all could give it to ME" cannot fit in the brains of teenagers, who I must continuously threaten to keep the masks over their noses, "where the Covid lives."

They find their best friends have Covid, then immediately go out on one of the breaks, take off their masks, and eat food nearly on top of each other. FFS.

I am finishing up week 4 of a contract to hire position for a US grocery chain. It's work from home and pays far better than any previous job so I'm pretty happy. Oh my god, I love working from home. No commute, no dress up, no pretending to be busy when nothing is actually happening. I never want to go into an office again.

I never even applied for it, I was job hunting and got contacted by a recruiter asking me about my experience with an enterprise space management system I had worked with in a previous job and was sure I would never see again.

I do miss no commute, and sweat pants. But I do not miss staring at 9 black boxes with mute symbols, and various circles representing other students at the bottom, and the semi-psychotic Roo Podcast From Hell, instead of a classroom that I try to keep more student-centered (i.e. they do lots of the teaching).

Yeah, I've got to imagine trying to teach remotely with tools really meant for a business meeting is a real challenge.

Agent 86 wrote:

Yeah, I've got to imagine trying to teach remotely with tools really meant for a business meeting is a real challenge.

My wife hated it. Hated. Even with the risks she's so happy to be back in the classroom.

I mean, she had to teach music over Zoom. Music. Just terrible.

Jonman wrote:

Yeah, if anyone wants to join me working for a morally-dubious duopoly, Boeing is on a hiring blitz right now all across the country.

I forgot you worked for Boeing! I work for a wholly owned Airbus subsidiary. Does that make us enemies? Could we still eat lunch together?