Group Efforts 21

Group Efforts
The Diary of a Workgroup Manager

Episode 3 (1994)

Our hero sends an ill-advised email, the management fight back and the I.T. department goes too far.

Mon 28th
A wonderful start to the week. At last I have an irrefutable argument for getting rid of June and Rose's 286s - they can't run Windows for Workgroups in enhanced mode, so can't engage in full disk and printer sharing with other PCs. That is, of course, the reason for our lack of progress in peer-to-peer resource sharing. I warmly thank Amrat for this priceless double-whammying technical gem, and excuse him all project planning duties for the rest of the day so that he can scour the Windows for Workgroups manuals for further ammunition. I then send a triumphant email message to I.T. Manager Llewellyn (boldly, if rather unnecessarily, cc'd to R. Brison, Finance Director) informing him of the need for immediate replacements if he wishes the pilot to proceed.

Wed 2nd
A curt reply from Brison awaits me this morning - 'Confident that I.T. will provide optimum solution to any hardware difficulties, assuming that this is a genuine problem and not an attempt to circumvent purchasing policy.' Chris Llewellyn, on the phone a few minutes later, rather crudely tells me to keep my head out of Brison's backside and announces the optimum solution - plug-in 386SX processor upgrade kits. I decide to put off telling June and Rose. Amrat offers to install the kits, and I tell him to shut up and get on with some project planning before it occurs to me to ask him how he knows about the kits in the first place. The atmosphere at the management meeting is distinctly frosty.

Thurs 10th
Still reeling from yesterday's management meeting bombshell, the Excel decision. An impromptu line manager's conference in Andy Miller's office decides that enough is enough, and we'll fight it all the way. After all, we've spent years learning 1-2-3 and productivity is bound to suffer, even if Excel has got 1-2-3 help built in. The general feeling however is that there's not much chance of getting it reversed, although for some reason Andy seems quite confident. Later a chap with a beard and glasses appears carrying two 386SX upgrade kits, which he informs me were originally destined for the reception desk machines only now they're getting the two new 486SX systems instead. I sneak quietly away and pray that he doesn't repeat the tale to Rose and June.

Tues 15th
A brand new Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4 printer arrives. I assume it's a mistake and ring I.T. to have it taken away, but they tell me it's definitely for us and there'll be someone along to install it later. Sheila, who has to unjam our exhausted LaserJet II about eight times a day, is over the moon. Beard-and-glasses arrives after lunch and plugs the LJ4 into Sheila's PC instead of the server. He's got strict instructions to connect it to a peer-to-peer workgroup machine and not to configure it into the NetWare system, so if we want to use it we'll just have to get a bit of Windows for Workgroups resource sharing going, won't we, and no, he's not allowed to set it up for us. I have a sudden glimpse of how a laboratory rat feels.

Fri 25th
In the midst of disaster there is triumph. An all-recipients email from the MD himself announces that the Excel decision has been reversed, and that the company's standard graphical spreadsheet will be Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows. I meet a grinning Andy Miller in the corridor and demand the full story. It seems than I.T., crazed with power after its Word for Windows triumph, had tried to push the Excel decision through behind the MD's back, even though they knew he was a dedicated 1-2-3 user. However someone tipped off Lotus's sales manager, who had popped round smartish and warned the Old Man. The result had been a severe fan/sticky stuff situation, with Llewellyn suffering a full-face impact and some of it even travelling as far as R. Brison. 58-0 to the users and I.T., as Andy put it, a spent force. I doubt it somehow, but it makes a nice thought to dwell on during the journey home.