The mega-update
10:07 AM. I currently sit in the media center at Soehl Middle School, a block away from my house, trapped in a task I don’t want to be doing. My job, until I leave for Yale on July 9th, is to provide a complete inventory of every computer in the school district. This means visiting every single classroom of every single school, 11 in total (8 elementary, 2 middle, and the two buildings of the high school), as well as every cubicle in every office in the administrative and special services buildings.
Don’t think of me as a slacker for being here and typing, I just simply cannot progress any further at Soehl today - final exams are going on as I type, and I can’t enter the classrooms while testing is going on. The bell will be ringing soon (it’s now 10:12 - give it 15 minutes, tops), so I’ll be able to try to tackle about four more classrooms before moving on to the library and remaining offices before lunch time. After lunch, the race is on to finish the remaining classrooms while they’re still unlocked. There are 57 rooms in the building for me to visit - I’ve already hit 36.
Wow, I underestimated that bell. 10:15 AM. Time to rock.
11:27 AM. Back to media. The entire building is now done except for 13 classrooms, one of which is always locked [orchestra] and one of which is cooking. Nothing left to do but ride it out until lunch now.
This particular task is getting to be the most tediously annoying job I’ve ever had to do. It’s certainly not the first time we’ve done an inventory in the district - Elijah and I took down computer types and serial numbers two years ago - but not nearly as time-consuming as this. On the Macs, all I have to do is check the OS and the amount of memory. (More than 30 machines in this building are operating Mac OS 8.6, released May 10, 1999, with 32 MB of memory. It’s sad how far behind we are in the middle schools.)
On the PCs, I have to check for the Service Pack, processor speed, memory, and computer name. I also have to install a program (Altiris Server Client) if it isn’t already installed, and change settings in the BIOS to specific modifications. This requires that I restart every PC in the district, in some cases having to wait for it to reboot (takes 1-2 minutes with the new settings in place) and then logging in as an administrator. In the rooms with only one PC, this isn’t really a problem. In the rooms with 5 PCs, this becomes a bit of a hassle. In the rooms with 30 PCs, it makes you want to shoot yourself. (There have been three of these rooms so far.)
The appeal of working at the IT Department has changed dramatically from two summers ago. Back then, it was fun getting to learn new things, experiment with computer hardware, learn how to manage yourself performing five clean installs at the same time. The interaction with my co-workers was much better, laid-back, care-free. Last summer, the drama began, with people from other departments and then other sections of the office sniping at one another and attacking at each others’ throats for no reason. Twice we were called into my boss’s office to be given a stern talking-to for “slacking off” on the job, despite doing nothing but manual labor all summer long.
Everything came to a head at the end of the summer, when my friend Jon and I were assigned the task of going to every room in the elementary schools to make sure they reached the internet and printed properly. We devised a system of going to the homepage of Google, typing in the computer’s room and location, and printing it out, proving that the entire room was done. We tackled five of the elementaries this way, but I had to leave town for the summer on August 12, and had to leave the remainder of the job to Jon. My boss, who I made sure to tell on several occasions leading up to the date, claims to have not known, and says that I didn’t do any of my job, despite providing him with physical proof. To this day, the blame still falls squarely on me from everyone in the office except Jon, who defended me vehemently. Considering he was left most of the work, I would think that if it were my fault, he would have the most to say.
This year, I’ve been treated with kid gloves. No longer apparently trusting me to any sort of repair or maintenance task, I’ve been delegated to bitch work. When I’m not out at schools writing down room numbers and computer descriptions, people at the office wonder why I’m not cleaning the storeroom. Effectively, I’m given the Cinderella treatment, all of the grunge work and none of the credit. As my superior Dave tells me, I shouldn’t complain since I’m being handsomely paid for my time. As much as this does hold true, your pride, dignity and happiness can’t be bought. There’s a line of people forming to try to get an entry-level job - in other words, my job - at the IT Department, and the only thing preventing me from quitting now and letting one of them have it is the knowledge that I’ll likely not find another job which pays nearly as good as this does which will have me for the remaining 5 weeks I’ll be at home this summer. And I need the money very badly.
The reason I put so much emphasis on my job as a cause of my troubles, and the reason why I was just able to ramble so much about it (sorry about that), is because it is a direct cause of many of my other problems. Working from 8-4 tires me greatly, and every day when I get home, there are so many things that I want to do, but by the time I’m able to do them, I’m just too physically exhausted to get them done. Often, I’ll fall asleep when I get home and sleep through dinner, then wake feeling lethargic and waste time for the rest of the evening. Some days I’ll even skip a shower because I’m feeling too tired to stay standing for more than 10 minutes.
It’s 11:52 AM right now, and I think I’m going to head back home for lunch. The guys at the office are going out to some hot dog joint for lunch, but I’m not feeling all that hungry. Unfortunately, since the last time I was home, they’ve adopted a Communistic “everyone pays the same” approach to lunch in order to make the bill easier to calculate. The guy who only gets an entrée and a beverage (usually me) ends up paying the same as the guy who orders two appetizers, an entrée, a beverage, and dessert. (Keep in mind that I work with four large men, the lightest of whom is likely 60 pounds heavier than I.) I miss the time spent with the guys during lunch, since it’s always funny, but in a summer where I’m paying $3,500 for classes, I can’t really afford to be spending beyond my means.
I’ll continue my mega-update later, I guess.