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j4My bosses are both away, one until Thursday, the other until next Thursday; basically this means I'm left holding the fort (or rather, the baby). So far today and yesterday I have had:
*headdesk*
- Two requests to do some work that boss #2 said she'd do two weeks ago.
- A request to update a colour image with the attached document (a Word file).
- A request to do, by Friday, a major revision of an area of the site which I've never seen before ...
- ... and which is on a server that we don't even own.
- Two requests to "just change a couple of words" in PDF documents.
- About 15 requests to make edits which, to paraphrase the sense of urgency conveyed, need to go live by yesterday if not sooner otherwise the University will explode and EVERYONE WILL DIE.
- One request from our Press department as to why a demo page in somebody's personal webspace on an internal server behind the university firewall can't be seen by people browsing from outside the university ...
- ... for example, by the hundreds of people to whom the URL for said page has just been emailed.
*headdesk*
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Date: 2005-09-20 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 11:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 12:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 12:34 pm (UTC)Use more sarcasm. It's not always effective against idiots but I find it helps.
When speaking to Press, marketing or sales people, remember to ask them nicely before launching into technical explanations:
"Will it help if I speak really S L O-O-O O W L Y?"
You are working by, for, and among idiots. One day someone will write a useful business and management book about this, and get sued by Scott Adams - who already has written the book, but no-one takes cartoons seriously.
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Date: 2005-09-20 01:25 pm (UTC)But if one more PhD or marketron says something like "Can't you just put in another button on the hyperlink from the drop-down bullet point?" then I'll, I'll ... well, actually, I'll probably growl, rant a bit on LJ, and go and make another cup of coffee. :-/
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Date: 2005-09-20 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 03:22 pm (UTC)That pretty much sums up the bane of my existence. What we want people to do is say "We have this information; please help us make it suitable for the web." What we get is "Please add these thirteen new bullet points as hyperlinks to this PDF", coupled with a total unwillingness to contemplate the mere possibility that people who were hired to do information management and web editing MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE MORE CLUE ABOUT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND WEB EDITING THAN THEM.
Ahem. Rant over.
(I should point out that it's entirely possible that our content providers might have better ideas than us about how to present their information; I'm always open to the possibility, and sometimes it even actually happens that way, and it's great when it does because it makes things easier for me. But more usually they're immovably fixed on something impossible.)
immovably fixed
Date: 2005-09-21 08:55 am (UTC)Re: immovably fixed
Date: 2005-09-22 02:09 pm (UTC)Anyone can get a lever, but do they sell fulcrums?
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Date: 2005-09-20 12:43 pm (UTC)not a problem. Print the documents out, change the words by hand (preferably in red marker pen), then put them in the pigeon hole of the person who asked for it. They won't ask again :-)
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Date: 2005-09-20 01:53 pm (UTC)Perhaps this time I'll tattoo the changes on their heads instead.
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Date: 2005-09-20 01:54 pm (UTC)In an academic context, where everything has to be justified for petty bureaucracy, I'd rather stab myself in the face. Or stab other people in the face, which also makes the problem go away.
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Date: 2005-09-20 01:59 pm (UTC)The content provider owns the document (in whatever format they produce it -- usually Word); we publish it in the most accessible format possible (often, sadly, PDF). The master copy, however, remains the one that the content provider owns; they determine the content, they own the information. It's partly a point of principle; but also, from a purely practical point of view, if we make changes in the version that we've published, then next time they send us a new version you can guarantee it won't have those changes incorporated in it, and we'll have to go through the whole process again.
It would really, really help if the content providers weren't all ON CRACK.
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Date: 2005-09-20 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 02:19 pm (UTC)I should stop reading my friendslist until after I caffeinate, because this left me manically muttering "Fortify the baby ! Fortify the baby !"
*hug* you have my sympathy.
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Date: 2005-09-20 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-20 03:04 pm (UTC)Actually, more seriously, it's completely mental that the various departments' and divisions' webmastererers all sit there in their own little boxes reinventing the same wheels in total isolation and then whinging about inconsistencies between the sites. But I'm losing hope that that's ever going to change, even if there are strong rumours that they're planning to merge the UAS web team with the cam.ac.uk web team, not that I told you that, no, move along, nothing to see here.
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Date: 2005-09-20 03:13 pm (UTC)I like that; may I use it elsewhere ? I have been known to mutter "when all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a screw" or indeed "... like a kitten" but I prefer yours.
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Date: 2005-09-20 03:18 pm (UTC)(Questions of text-propagation remind me, actually, that I wanted to ask your permission to show something you wrote for me to somebody else. Um, I should probably take this to email, shouldn't I...)
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Date: 2005-09-20 04:29 pm (UTC)hello
Date: 2008-02-29 10:51 am (UTC)