|bd| Bureaucratic Work

Posted by bendodge on Feb. 13, 2013, 5:02 p.m.

So, I have almost 20 hours of work in my university's Technology Dept. this semester. I also received a freestanding cubicle! It's not quite a corner office, but it's a bit of a perk over the sequentially attached ones.

After I've fixed all the problems I need to fix, I must get creative in finding work. I hate just sitting around, so I went a bit overkill on this e-mail report.

Key:

Echo360 is a centralized lecture recording and distribution system.

JEC = Jacquot Educational Center (a building)

Lecture 3 = a classroom, duh

Quote:
Hey Folks,

In order to answer at once all the inquiries I received regarding the JEC audio incident on Friday, Feb 8, I will present a sequence of events. (If you don’t care or already know, feel free to stop reading now.)

• The projector had no signal during Apologetics A (JEC 3; 9am). It had an analog splitter installed that I wasn’t familiar with, so I fetched Nate X. He reconnected an unplugged VGA cable to the splitter input. This fixed the projector.

• The ECHO video was blank, of course, up to the point when Nate plugged in the VGA again. However, the recording had severe, random video blackouts after that, as did the recording of section B (also in JEC 3).

• A Tech employee went up to the control room to monitor a subsequent recording in JEC 3. He accidentally pushed Mix instead of Mono on the sound console in order to monitor the audio in the control room (Mix goes to the entire building and the control room). He could find no problems with ECHO. The class ended seconds later and he left.

o Because class had just ended, the sound was not broadcasting into the lobby when he walked out.

o The ECHO video began working normally again sometime after this; I don’t know why.

• Mr. Williams began another class, Homiletics II, and his lapel audio was broadcast throughout the JEC.

• Several students came to Tech to report the issue. Matt X headed upstairs to fix the problem (I might have telephoned him; I can’t recall).

• A grad student arrived at my desk a few seconds later to report the issue. I told him that it was fixed or would be very soon.

• Matt fixed the soundboard in the control room.

• Simultaneously, the grad students was en route to JEC 3 and told Mr. Williams that everyone could hear him; he switched off his lapel for the remainder of class.

I believe this accounts for most of the A/V and ECHO problems that day. 

Thanks,

My Name

208-546-9221

Technology Helpdesk, ext. 5214
My cell number on the public Internet?! Yes. What's someone going to do - call me?

I sent this to five people who now will have to decide whether or not to read it and whether they should file or delete it. I hate people like me, but hey, I did work!

Comments

firestormx 11 years, 10 months ago

Quote:
I hate people like me, but hey, I did work!
Psh, you should see my emails. I'm constantly getting in trouble for "not doing work", and then I point out that I did in fact do the work, and I mention it "3000 words into the email I sent last night".

…They make it a point to tell me they don't read my long emails, or calling me into their office so they can delete my email in front of me. (it's a good working environment, haha)

bendodge 11 years, 10 months ago

I'm thankful that the culture here generally hates long e-mails. My boss is pretty cool, honestly.

Note: I removed my name, not because I care if you know it, but because I don't want Google sending random snoops here.