Category: work
Color Me Unimpressed
So far, I’m unimpressed with the hotel for the workshop:
- The directions that are provided are poor, and the signage off of the main road is worse. For the second year in the road I had to circle around twice to find the place.
- Those who have read ellipticcurve‘s LJ already know this: they have a problem with bedbugs or some other biting insect in some of their rooms. She was covered all over in bites this morning, and was scratching all day. They’ve moved her to a different room.
- I seem to have been given a room just above the loading dock. Made fun at 5am this morning when the trash trucks came. Luckily, I was already awake.
- It is now 4:00pm. Housekeeping still hasn’t made it to my room yet. When I called, the answer I got was “Oh, they just haven’t gotten there yet.” I’m sorry, but all rooms should be serviced by check-in time. Update: They got here at 4:05pm. Still too late in my opinion. It was a crew of three.
- The tea water they served this morning was in an urn previously used for coffee, and not cleaned 100%. Pfew. Not the way to start the morning.
- Internet access here is $9.95 per day. Now, I’ve gotten used to this on business travel (“Your tax dollars at work”), but I still can’t understand why the Best Westerns and that level can provide wireless for free, yet it is $10/day at Sheratons, Hiltons, etc. One can often get around this by visiting the business center; this is useful to get a boarding pass the morning you leave. Here: pony up the cash folks. They’ve partnered with Showcase Business Centers, and it is $0.49 per minute for computers, and $0.50 per page to print, with a $3.00 minimum. Yes, I can expense this as a legitimate business expense, but they are my tax dollars too! Update: It looks like the Business Center allows you to go to the airline websites and print from there (i.e., boarding passes) for free. I’m sure there’s a way to exploit that (heh, heh), but I would never do that!
Busy at the Workshop
Today was a busy day at the workshop. I started out tired, having gotten to sleep around 1am, and getting up at 4:50am. I think I got more sleep the year I took the red-eye. Anyway, we had a full day of presentations… on top of which I’ve been reviewing a number of documents. After I finish typing this, it’s back to reviewing documents for another hour or two. I did get a chance to continue to meet strangers from the internet when countfroggy stopped by the hotel to say “hi”.
Well, back to work it is…
Rounding Errors
I’m back at work today, and received a message from payroll that I found quite amusing:
Recent software changes implemented to the payroll system have resulted in an occasional $0.01 adjustment to employees gross pay.
The adjustment is related to the fact that the payroll system stores data to the fifth decimal place and rounds to the nearest second decimal place on each weekly payroll.
These occasional fluctuations are to be expected.
Every week I have to fight Quicken’s rounding when I enter my 403(b) transactions, for it seems to think investment companies use infinite precision. I also remember many years ago learning about the money to be made due to rounding (it adds up). Here we have an interesting application of the rounding situations. I have yet to notice whether it is in my favor.
St. Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store
Today, I received a very interesting email at work (names and numbers changed to protect the innocent):
The DirectFoto Employee Store located in A3 is closed as of today, May 31. Employees who have dropped off film for developing may pick up their photos at Cashier Operations in A1-xxxx beginning June 5 between 9 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. Beginning Thursday, June 1, transit fare tokens and bus passes will be sold at Cashier Operations on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more transit fare information contact Commuter Services, ext. 6-xxxx. For general information or questions regarding the DirectFoto Employee Store, contact Dubaldie Fritz in Human Resources, x6xxxx.
To explain: ever since I have worked here we have had a company store that did photo processing, sold bus passes and tokens, greeting cards, small OTC medical supplies, small gift items, and corporate logoware. Their rates were good: I used them to develop photos, and bought the occasional greeting card.
They are permanently closing, with little notice (i.e., no “going out of business sale”). No notice that anything will be replacing them. No explanation why.
In the “old days”, such stores were viable. You would have a heavy photo processing business, and that last minute secretary’s gift would come in handy. Today? Is such a store even viable? Most folks are using digital, which doesn’t require a photo processor. You can print your own greeting card on a color printer. There are few “office support professionals” to gift. I can’t imagine the volume is high enough to be able to support cashier staff, let alone make a profit. As for the logoware: it seemed to never move. I think folks will wear shirts with corporate logo if it is a mandated uniform or given to them, but to have to buy it probably reduces the demand.
Still, I’ll be sad to see it go. It was handy when I forgot an anniversary or birthday card.
another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store
Entering the Defense Contractor Community
[I know, lots of lunchtime stuff today. That happens sometimes…]
Those of us who work in the Defense community know the value of having a clearance. It appears we’ve just become more valuable. According to the Federal Times, Defense Security Services (DSS) has decided to stop processing security clearance applications from its contractors April 25, due to a large, unexplained increase in the number of security clearance requests that ate up the entire fiscal year’s budget in seven months. With no funding, DSS now has about 3,000 applications on hold and does not know when it will begin work again.
This is a cascade problem. DoD work requires cleared employees. Without those employees, contractors can’t begin the work they were hired to do, risking missed deadlines and higher expenses. If one can’t clear new folks, the companies are forced to hire employees who are already cleared, increasing the demand for those workers, which nets them higher salaries and results in more expensive contracts for the Pentagon. Government officials are exploring the reason behind the increase. One possibility is that the Pentagon is requiring more contractors to have top secret clearances. OPM charges DSS $3,700 for each of those clearances, whereas secret clearances cost DSS between $150 and $160. Top secret clearance holders also must be reinvestigated every five years at a cost of $2,400. As a result of this backlog, Washington Technology is reporting that the House of Representatives is considering an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill that would restart processing on security clearance applications for government contractors. Another alternative, according to Washington Technology, is to have contractors help pay for processing security clearance applications for their workers. Of course, this only addresses the funding issue; it doesn’t solve the root problems: positions being overclassified.
Of course, this is good news for those of us in the community. For those entering the community, it means a longer wait before meaningful work can be done. It also may mean higher acquisition costs, at least in terms of contractor bids. These are your tax dollars at work, folks.
Musings on Old Buildings
Recently, I’ve been thinking about old buildings. I’ve always loved buildings about to be torn down; they fascinate me. Perhaps this is why I’m into 1950s Vegas: the notion of tearing down buildings that are perfectly good. I still have memories of some old houses next to my grandmother’s apartment on Veteran Ave in West Los Angeles. I loved to wander through the houses being torn down (they didn’t put up fences in the 60’s and 70’s).
Perhaps this is why I’m finding what is happening at work so fascinating.
Some folks know that I work at the Circle A Ranch. We’re collocated with the Los Angeles Air Force Base, which is in the process of moving their facilities from “Area A” to what is now called SAMS, but what used to be called “Area B”. On April 10 (a little over one week), the former “Area A” will be turned over to a developer and be torn down.
As I’m a history nut, here’s the story (extracted from the excellent summary by the 61ABG; a full PDF doc is here).