Complaints | Piss and Moan

I’ll go

Posted on May 2, 2023 by backuphill

Some days….lately, a lot of days…

There are a lot of days as of late that I have to admit I feel like Cameron, from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, when Ferris is trying to get him to go out for the day.

So many things these days put me in this mood – I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to go, I don’t want to see/hear/talk to people. I don’t want to work. I don’t want to do responsibility. I don’t want to adult. There are lots of reasons for feeling this way and I am in no way sick or anything like that. I just don’t want to.

But, guess what? Just like Cameron in the movie, I go.

I do it. Because not doing it means that stuff would just fall apart.

Damn responsibility…

Backing out

Posted on April 24, 2023 by backuphill

A few years ago I startedd playing disc golf as a way to get outta the house and do some walking. It was right before the global flu took hold so I played right through it. It’s now been a couple years and the buddy that I get out on the course with has now invited a couple other guys to join us and learn the game too. I like them all and generally have no complaints about them.

That aside, one of the guys that is now included in the group is getting the reputation for backing out and it’s rather annoying.

He is invited to hang out on the course with us or he even initiates and invites us to hang out with him to play. Plans are typically set to meet at a time and course and people are looking forward to it.

Then he backs out.

He usually uses the excuse that he worked all day and is too tired. OK, I get it and an ocassional instance would be one thing. We all work and obviously that can be a deciding factor but out of 10 invites he uses this as an excuse six times. If you are tired or think it will be a deciding factor for you, don’t say your are going to go. Just don’t commit.

Sometimes he uses his small child and even his wife as an excuse to back out. Again, this is understandable, but again it can also be something that can be decided before committing to meet.

Anyway, what would you do? Keep inviting or accepting invites knowing he most likely will not follow through, or do you drop him and not invite him any longer?

Into the groove

Posted on April 18, 2023 by backuphill

Post vacation observation: Getting back into the groove is difficult.

I am sure you have noticed for yourself that this is true.

You are away from the job, on vacation and enjoying yourself (for the most part) and then you have the reality that you have to go back to work when you return. This realization gets more difficult (for me) the longer the time is spent away from that responsiblity.

I have returned from a near two week vacation and the groove just isn’t happening. I find my mind wandering and thinking of other things I’d rather be doing, going, or not doing. LOL It seems making myself work and focus on tasks at work is a job in and of itself. I just don’t want to. It’s a groove I’d rather not have to get back into, quite frankly.

Raise your hand if you’re with me? Have you noticed this as a problem for yourself?

Day before

Posted on April 3, 2023 by backuphill

Alright, I am sure I am probably preaching to the chior here, but is it really necessary to go to work and actually do work the day before a vacation? Asking for a friend.

So, I am going on vacation to AZ tomorrow. I know, I know, I’ve said I wasn’t going to take vacations to see family and more and I really just wanna go play some place but it is what it is. Beside, I am taking my disc golf bag so I am hoping to get in a few rounds down there (that might make a little happier about not doing something I want to do).

Anyway, the question still stands. Is it a requirement to do work today?

I mean, everyone knows that people don’t actually work on the day before their vacation. Yes, they show up, they go through the motions but are they really doing anything of value?

I think from henceforth, the day before vacation should just be an automatic day off to prepare for vacation. Let’s be real. Our co-workers know we aren’t doing anything. The boss knows you aren’t doing anything. Heck, they don’t do anything when it’s their turn to take vacation. So, why do we all pretend we are doing something when we aren’t?

The day before vacation should also be an automatic vacation day, but not technically a vacation day (cuz we don’t want it to count against our actual vacation day allotment).

Make it so.

Another fee

Posted on March 30, 2023 by backuphill

Accessing health care in the US is problematic, at best. The overall debate on whether it should be free to all (via government funds and a huge increase in taxes) or whether it should be something each individual should be responsible for is one I am not going to talk about today.

However, we all know that the cost of health care in the US keeps many people from accessing the care they need. People have to think about how it will impact their overall finances and whether or not they can afford to see a doctor. Obviously when you don’t think you can afford to get care you don’t go.

Yesterday, at a doctor’s appointment that is an hour away from home, I noticed the large facility that the appointment have been at for almost a year had new signage up in their parking garage and in the elevator areas. The signage basically said that “Parking is on us until we get the technical difficulties figured out.”

SAY WHAT?

So what has been free for at least the last year is now going to have a fee? I imagine at some point (based on construction and existing facilities) that there was parking for a fee previously. Not sure why it has been free up to the point of the visits.

But, it raises a larger question about yet ANOTHER FEE to access health care.

Should you really have to pay a fee just to park so that you can access health care?

It seems almost unfair for people who may already be struggling to access health care to add yet another fee.

I know of at least one other health care facility in the Seattle area that charges parking at it isn’t cheap – almost $10 an hour.

Something feels really slimy when thinking about people getting charged just to access their health care. They are already being gouged when paying for the care they need, but to add insult to injury they are now going to be charged to even access the building.

Imagine if you had to pay for parking at a grocery store so you could go inside and buy food (maybe this already happens in big big cities, I don’t know)…awkward right?

Gives me a really icky feeling. I am all for making money in places that make sense, but to punish the public to access something so vital almost seems underhanded – especially since they become a pretty captive audience one they’re in the parking garage.

How do you feel about these “hidden access fees”?

Make work

Posted on March 28, 2023 by backuphill

My job as a software analyst sometimes can be a real pain. Software is designed to do certain things and do them well. But, there are times where a client will want the software to do something it wasn’t designed to do.

I have a school district that is trying to do parent-teacher conferences next month. The software has the ability to create time slots and then allow the parents to schedule their conferences with the teacher. But, the software has some limitiations and the way one of the schools has done conferences in the past doesn’t fit the way the software is designed (yet). This was a huge issue for them last fall, as they were unwilling to rethink the way they do the conferences when they were told it wouldn’t work the way they would like them to (after many hours of investigation and problem-solving).

So, now it is spring and they are still insistent on doing it the same way as always, even though it didn’t work for them in the fall and it nothing in the software has changed to allow for the way they would like to do it. There is one caviate to that statement though. There are some rather inconvenient and labor intensive work-arounds that can be done to make the software kind of work for what they want. In essence, someone at the district figured out a way to trick the software and kinda sorta make it work for their needs.

Here’s where my problem comes in…in doing their work around, it doesn’t work well and there are issues with how the software functions. It doesn’t know you are doing a work-around, it just functions as it should. So, issues arise that are a direct result of the work-around. The district then calls me (after telling them, again, that it won’t work) to try to solve their work-around problems. I wasn’t fully involved in their work-around setup. I haven’t tested their work-around since it was advised they not use it. But, they want me to solve the issues when it doesn’t work like they would like it to.

I am being asked to “make it work” for something that isn’t supposed to work that way in the first place.

I am not sure how many times I can tell them it isn’t advisable and won’t work like you really want it to. If they are patient, and adjust the way they do conferences in the interim, it might actually work like they want in the future as we have been told it is being worked on (we are Tier 1 support so we have no control).

Anyway, that is my rant today. I don’t want to even try with this people.

Customer chat

Posted on March 27, 2023 by backuphill

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

Don’t ya just love it when a major company won’t let you cancel a service without contacting them first? I fully expected to have to contact someone since I didn’t really want to cancel, but that is how you get movement. BUT, I found that when I tried to cancel online that their website magically had issues and you were forced to contact them.

The kicker here is that in the past you were able to go directly to a chat with a customer representative. This is apparently no longer a thing since there was nowhere on their website to access this help without getting the magical broken link.

When you get tot he information page for “additional help” there is a section that gives details about their chat feature and a button. Guess what? Button is greyed out (meaning not active) and unusable, even though the stated business hours are in full effect.

So, they actually force you to call them.

I was able to get what I want, but the fact that I have to go through this every year is stupid.

But, play the game I will.

Left hanging

Posted on March 23, 2023 by backuphill

The current work world is filled with many frustrations. So numerous, in fact, that they can’t all be enumerated. Just the fact that I have to report to work each day is frustrating. But that is a discussion for another day…

Anyway, remote work obviously has it’s advantages and I really like it. However, the one aspect of remote work that I highly dislike is that co-workers are not all responsible about answering their IMs. Thus, when you are trying to get some help on a support ticket and a colleague leaves you hanging by leaving your message unread for extended periods of time is infuriating.

We are required to have TEAMS open at all time and visible (as in not hidden behind other windows) so that we can respond to teammates in a timely manner. We get alerts when someone has messaged us. The icon at the bottom of the screen in the task bar is a different color and blinks. So I am not sure what this particular co-worker’s problem is. It’s not like you can’t tell someone has messaged you, even if the window ends up buried behind other windows.

I know others have complained (as well as me) that messages get left sitting for long periods of time.

So, today I sent a message at 9:28am and I have sent a follow-up message to make the alerts trigger again at 10:19am. It’s been nearly an hour of no response. I finally received a response at 10:45am.

Hard to get work done, to help clients, with that kind of wait time from a co-worker, especially when you know they can see the message there waiting for them.

Do you hate it when you have to wait for a response from a co-worker? Does it infuriate you when you know they saw it and still don’t respond, even just to say “Let me check it out” or some kind of acknowledgement that they saw your message?

Unusual recall

Posted on March 21, 2023 by backuphill

A bit of a curious solution to a vehicle recall.

A while back I got a recall notice for the Ram truck. The notice said that the tailgate could randomly open while traveling…obviously, that is an issue because you potentially could lose whatever you are transporting in the back of the truck (provided it isn’t secured properly). The repair was to have the latch replaced, free of charge, at the dealership.

OK.

Made the appointment and took it in yesterday. The guy scheduling the appointment said it took more time to do the paperwork than to do the recall. Curious statement.

I was at the dealership all of 15 minutes. They never even moved the truck from the parking spot I parked it in.

Apparently, the recall just meant they needed to check if something needed to be replaced. I was told they open and closed the tailgate several times and everything appeared to latch correctly so nothing was replaced.

Ummm, I wasted my time on that? I could have done that. They really needed to have a repair person check that?

Is it really a recall if you just open and close it and replace nothing?

CD situation

Posted on March 10, 2023 by backuphill

CD. Compact Disc.

Do you remember those things called CDs? Remember when that was the next best technology and you were buying hundreds of those things? Remember when storage of those things became an issue?

Recently I was reminded of all those things…because I was cleaning out the entertainment cabinet and I had to remove FIVE folders that are capable of holding 100 discs at a time. All but one is full and the last one is 3/4s full.

Those folders hold all the discs I ever bought, plus the CD case art (from and back). Once upon a time it was difficult to store all those cases and moving them to the folders seemed like a great idea. Plus, those CD jewel cases were brittle as heck too, as soon as you dropped one it was inevitably broken and didn’t work correctly.

Well, now what the heck am I supposed too do with all those CDs?

Disc drives on computers are getting harder and hard to come by. Shoot, even cars don’t even really come with CD players any more. Converting them to digital takes time and storage (though I had already gone through every disc I had at one point and pulled all the songs off the discs I really wanted). So, now I am stuck…do I just trash them or do I donate them? Do I try to sell them?

UGH

There is a ton of money locked up in those and throwing them away seems like a waste since I purchased all the music, even if I don’t listen to it (well, all of it). Do you know what I mean? If I were to get rid of them, it feels like something would be lost but at the same time nothing would be.

What would you do?