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2008-05-07
squeaky wheel

15:35

I am getting a work laptop, and I get to KEEP IT this time!!!!!!!

It's hard to know when to speak up and when to keep quiet at work. One doesn't want to complain or sound ungrateful as that has a tendency to leave negative impressions on management, yet one also doesn't want to be a doormat. I think that I've managed, in this case, to walk the fine line.

Last fall, I was up for a computer refresh. The "laptop-for-desktop" refresh had just been put in place, and I was the first beneficiary. However, my division had implemented a priority list for laptops, different than the refresh list. They came up with a "waterfall" approach, in that the laptop meant for Person X, up for a refresh, goes instead to Person Y, higher on the priority list, but whose refresh date is further out. Person X then gets Person Y's computer, still newer than X's old computer. One data transfer for each person.

The problem with this, however, is that Person X also inherits Person Y's refresh date along with the computer. When that refresh date comes up, if there's a Person Z who is higher priority, Person X is in the middle of another waterfall - Z gets the laptop, and X gets the 'newer' computer, complete with Z's refresh date.

As you can see, this can continue several times until finally, X is high enough on the priority list to keep their laptop, or there is some lower peon who has to give up their laptop to X. It kinda sucks for X. Especially if the paperwork for the laptop to go directly to Y doesn't go through, so X gets a laptop for a few months and then has to give it up (two data transfers for X) when the paperwork is finalized.

And that's what happened to me. Management apologized profusely that all of the paperwork wasn't complete, and told me not to get attached to the laptop as it could be yanked at any time. Not get attached? Um, excuse me? Being able to look things up in meetings, yeah, not useful AT ALL. Anyway, I expressed my concern that when I, Person X, finally ended up with Person Y's desktop and their refresh date, that I would be caught in a continuing series of waterfall refreshes until I finally caught up in priority. I was promised that this wouldn't happen again, or if it did, that I would get to keep my laptop.

The other day, our (new) admin officer came and talked to me about my refresh date, and sure enough, another waterfall - I get Z's computer, Z gets my laptop. I explained, voice tinged with frustration, that this was exactly what I had been afraid would happen, and that I had been promised - promised! - by management that it would not happen repeatedly. As a matter of fact, nobody else had been refreshed since me last fall, so not only would I have to do a second waterfall, but it would be the second for the branch, period.

Lucky me.

Yay for the new admin officer, though, because she found a desktop in a remote area, but still under our branch's jurisdiction, (she's trying to scrounge computers for new hires and students coming this summer) that was up for a refresh and it's going to me! Totally circumventing the priority list, but since I've been "messed with a lot", as my officemate said, they probably feel like I deserve it. I don't think I went overboard with how I voiced my concerns, but I also didn't want to just sit quietly and keep having to go through the waterfall every few months. As a result, I am still in the good graces of management and I will have a laptop at least six months earlier than expected!

So, yeah, lucky me. :)

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