Group Efforts 21

Group Efforts
The Diary of a Workgroup Manager

Episode 1 (1994)

Some people are born to be in charge of a small PC-based workgroup, others have it thrust upon them. Here's our first extract from the diary of a workgroup manager....

Mon 10th
A good start to the month. I return from holiday to find all my staff still here, no-one sitting at my desk and all the computers working. Round here that qualifies as a news story for the company magazine. June and Rose immediately complain about their 286s, but they were doing that when I went away so it doesn't count as a new problem. Amrat hasn't got my remote server log-in working yet, but until he does I can't use the performance reporting system so I'm not hurrying him. Danny hasn't made any progress with his costings template, but what's new? Sheila has sorted all my mail (paper and electronic) into neat folders. On the whole a very acceptable homecoming.

Wed 12th
I receive some flack at this morning's management meeting about my lack of contributions to the performance reporting system. Amrat says he can definitely get me into the remote server if I provide him with a copy of something called "Bindery Commander". Danny offers to get him one if he'll provide the two blank floppies. I tell Danny to forget it and Amrat to ring I.T. Support, who are supposed to solve all networking problems anyway. Both sulk. Sheila erases the final draft of the New Materials report by mistake, and Amrat spends 45 mintues recovering it cluster by cluster, which cheers him up. I put off mentioning the Word for Windows decision to June & Rose.

Tues 18th
Bad news. We're apparently a prime candidate for the peer-to-peer network pilot, alongside Credit Control who are resisting it with an argument based on the critical importance of cashflow in a recession. I've no idea who's told I.T. that we're a suitable testbed, but fix Amrat with a steely glare which he can't quite return. I'm reminded of I.T.'s last brilliant plan when I discover that June and Rose have a two-day backlog of site documentation for the Rochester project. Running Windows on RAM-upgraded 286s is a complete disaster, as everyone but I.T. accepts, and after buying the RAM chips there's even less budget left for replacement PCs. I decide to put off the Word for Windows announcement a bit longer.

Thurs 20th
First thing this morning June, Rose and Sheila march into my office and tell me they're lodging a formal complaint against Danny. I'm astonished as I'd never thought of him as a sexual harrasser, but it turns out that his crime is playing Starfighter whenever I'm not there. They say it's the noise that's unbearable, which I don't understand until I confront him and discover that he's got a sound card in his PC and a pair of mini-speakers in his desk drawer, which he plugs in the minute I disappear. The card is 100 percent SoundBlaster compatible and cost him £30 at a Computer Jumble - clearly we should have let him sort out the hardware upgrades for the Windows implementation. Card, plus speakers (and a joystick), are confiscated.

Fri 28th
I decide that now is the right time to tell everyone about the Word for Windows decision. They take it badly, complaining that they've spent years learning the current software and warning that productivity is bound to suffer. "Well it has got WordPerfect help built in" I reply weakly, repeating I.T.'s response to exactly the same point at the management meeting. The I.T. man seemed much more confident when he said it. Rose and June display a surprising degree of technical sophistication by pointing out that while their 286s can just about manage WordPerfect in a DOS box, a full-blown Windows app is a non-starter. I glare at Amrat again, but this time he looks me straight in the eye. As I'm about to leave for the weekend an urgent email pops up, ominously signed 'R. Brison, Finance Director', requesting a meeting first thing Monday morning about the performance reporting system.