h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So. Now I heard (through the grapevine, of course, not via any official channels) that the company has engaged 2 ladies (young, is my guess, with zero experience, sigh) in our branch office in Turkey.

Even though we (sidekick and I) told the bosses - in JANUARY, and again in March, May and June, just to be sure, in writing with the company excel sheet completed and attached - that our holiday plans are that she has the last 2 weeks in July (for her wedding) and I have the first two weeks in August (school holidays - it's the only possible time I can go due to sidekick's wedding and our policy of us not being allowed away at month end, month beginning or at the same time as each other).

er where was i? Oh yes. So the secretary in Turkey said: they will be coming over for 2 weeks on 16th July. I forwarded her all the holilday emails, and pointed out that I can't train 2 people on my own and do 2 people's work. AND that sidekick certainly can't even do her own work, let alone mine and train 2 people to be as incompetent as her...

I asked the HR manager what's going on. he told me he'd heard 'indirectly' that 2 people will start on Monday. And then started whining that he doesn't know what's going on and the HQ don't tell him anything... I can't care about his problems.

Spoke to the Turkish secretary again. The company aren't allowed to by the 2 newbies computers because our system doesn't work on Windows 7 and they can only get Windows 7 computers.

Spoke to the IT guy. Now I know all about the Windows 7 problem because I finally screwed a notebook out of the company (so I can work at home, to avoid having to drive 150km if I have to work at a weekend etc) and I have to use a remote access to my desktop at work because otherwise I can only check our webmail. He told me he's got authority to buy them 2 computers, but as they will only have Windows 7 they can't access the company system.

So this is the status. 2 women have been hired to take over our jobs. Nobody knows if they have passports so they can come to Germany to be trained. They won't have computers, and their scheduled training period falls at the height of European holiday season.

Which surprised all the Korean managers, somehow

In other news: I spent a lot of last week trying to get the idiot managers to get some authorities back in the company system which they lost during an auto-purge. These authorities, according to our company interpretation of SOX regulations, can't be given to me because of other things I do. But we need them (it's about releasing free samples and other payment related things) so my boss gave me his log-in details so I just release everything for everyone all the time.

But do you think any of the managers even reacted? which means we had customers screaming at us (the lowly worms) for the last 3 days because certain shipments hadn't gone out...

And then yesterday at 3pm (which is official Friday leaving time and I was planning to take someone to the airport) they came round to me with a list of all the free samples all departments have sent out in the last 2 years. And asked me what was the purpose of the samples that went to all the turkish customers. To be answered immediately.

It beggars belief. I'm in charge of operations. I don't have a clue, and don't give a flying monkey's, why samples go anywhere - I am bothered about if they end up at the right place with the right paperwork. And they all know that because they are all freaking mangers. But they are too bloody stupid. It makes me wonder how we can even sell anything to anyone, let alone produce LCDs that are 3mm thick.

*breathes*

Meeting with the accounting manager on Monday. Because during all this, they still haven't told me what this apparently available job in the accounting team actually, really is. Although I do know that it has to be filled pretty much immediately since the person who left has been gone 3 months already and I can see how it's all going to ratshit.

Oh yeah. The schedule to have our system up and running on Windows 7 is that it will be ok by the end of the 3rd quarter. So I don't know if the accounting team can wait thatlong for me, and I can't see how the sales team can let me go before then.

I really hate working there, but the job market is dire, especially for fairly elderly foreigners...

The computer problem (seems to be more like a problem complex or even a syndrome) sounds vaguely familiar to me:

Our it-geeks in their infinite wisdom decided that we must all w*rk on a windows-platform. - This way we won't have to support two platforms, they said

Fine with me, since it probably means I can buy the giant iMac I am w*rking on now for a farthing or less since it must be totally written off by now

But: It's now more than 18 months since they decided to move us iMac-users to pc's - apparently this is not as easy as it first sounded to be

they like to think it's simple...

with ours it's really more than annoying. I've been asking for the notebook for ages and ages, and finally they said I could have one, then it was too expensive, then it was incompatibility.

And in February or March our IT team sent a company wide email, to every single employee, trumpeting the fact that our system now works with Windows 7. And I pushed, and I got a notebook.

Only to be told I can only check mail, and that although the system sort of works, the security part of it doesn't. Which makes me wonder if the idiot who sent the mail has been fired yet