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Admin
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I found the early post.
Admin
Well done! We shall now celebrate your majesty forever!
Admin
I approve of the choice of game screenshot in this article
Admin
Can I be of any help here? 8 is my lucky number...
Admin
A government process that is inefficient and useless? How is that a WTF?
Admin
Nothing new under the sun, there is a movie (The Twelve Tasks of Asterix) with such part of bureaucracy. 8th task: "The place that sends you mad".
Admin
Admin
Jobs have to be justified! What good is it to actually do something?
Admin
Where can I get permit A38?
Admin
I remember reading somewhere that thedailywtf.com has a "no student code, only professional code" (or something like that) policy, as I would imagine they would get flooded if it was not the case. They should have the same policy for government related stories as well, for the same reason
Admin
Admin
"August 30th was two weeks away. Prevented from taking his proper place in the process, Joe proceeded to take an early lunch." -- and did not come back.
Admin
The original quote was read in Leonard Nimoy's beautiful voice in Civilization IV.
Admin
I really need to get a copy of that quote so I can use it as needed. It's definitely one of the best. Along with "Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep."
Admin
If he was approved for a CAS user id, he would manage projects; Projects cost money; The money comes from us taxpayers.
So his not being able to get a CAS user id is good, right?
Admin
Oh man I forgot about Nimoy just dead-pan reading: "Beep Beep Beep Beep." That was the best. Also had the best opening music in a game ever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJiHDmyhE1A
Too bad Civ V was a piece of crap.
Admin
Yeah, Civ IV was awesome. I spent waaaaay too
+1manyfew hours playing that. I still do too.Admin
Not as good as SMAC was. The balance of things in that game was just about perfect.
Do you know what I've been told? Deirdre's got a network node. Likes to flick the on/off switch, Dig that crazy Gaian witch!
Admin
E_UNKNOWN_ACRONYM
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:hanzo:'d in a link…
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Ah, yeah Alpha Centauri was loads of fun. A tiny bit before my time though...
Admin
Indeed.
Endless Legend is pretty good though, and seems like the proper evolution from Civ 4. The interface is one of the best I've ever seen in a 4X game, for one.
Admin
TRWTF is that the story has nothing to do with software.
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Who cares?
Admin
Why is this a WTF? Where I work, we call this 'Tuesday'
Admin
His desk was preserved exactly as he had left it, but with a note reading "Missing - Presumed Fed"
Admin
The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology, not necessarily just software. The story is about IT.
Admin
You know, I decided to flowchart his process. This is a rough draft, but I think it covers all the salient points...
[image]Admin
So... It took six weeks for a new employee to receive the access he needed to actually do his job. Okay. That's a little bit above the average, but I'm not seeing anything unusual.
At ${CURRENT_WORKPLACE}, it took me two weeks just to get a desk to sit at. And two more weeks of watching someone who I originally assumed was a tech from the help desk but who actually turned out to be the director of our department futz around with trying to introduce Windows 7 to the friendly neighbourhood domain controllers before I could even do anything so arcane as reading my email let alone putting the new cover sheets on the TPS reports.
At ${WORKPLACE[-3]} I went through the usual interview process with the managers of the two different departments I ended up working for and when that all went well headed down to the other end of the building to chat with the head of HR, sign a few papers and agreed to start on the following Monday. When I showed up, ${NEW_MANAGER} saw me and said "Hey, it's you! I didn't know that we had hired you. Come on in." He still wasn't actually sure that I worked for him until two weeks later, when the head of HR returned from her vacation and remembered to let him in on the secret.
And then, once, I started a new job with a team that was ready and expecting me, had everything set up, and all I had to do was walk to my desk, run through some orientation and I was done. That would have been fabulous except for that rumour that I had actually been hired to replace one other member of the team. Nobody was quite sure who it was, but the moment I started showing any interest in what they were doing everyone suddenly was too busy doing terribly important things to talk. But that's a whole different story.
As long I still get paid for the time I'm there, it really doesn't make much difference how badly the process is screwed up. And if I don't get paid, then there's a very big and clearly documented problem which needs to be resolved.
Admin
Going out for lunch early and come back late... Is that new to you?
On the other hand, if he disappeared for 2 weeks without anyone notice, with everyone assume he's out seeking for missing parts / documents that he should get to start working, that could be something.
Admin
That is still one of my favorite PC games. I did buy Civilization: Beyond Earth but it wasn't quite as good as the original, especially with the horrible multiplayer bugs that make at least one player crash out every 3 - 4 turns.
Admin
Wait... It said try again without a loop. Did I missing something?
Admin
Don't confuse government and bureaucracy. Not all government departments are encumbered by bureaucracy. And not all bureaucracy is bad.
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/sciences/sociology/social-groups-and-organizations/pros-and-cons-of-bureaucracy
And of course, the problem here is the alternate in the process doesn't know that they are the alternate (and/or how to do that piece). The solution here (by experience) is to make it someone's problem. Innocently ask Jane Smith's supervisor who their alternate is for CAS activations. When they say call 8888, tell them that's where you started. Then somewhere in the the mire of middle management a little more red tape will be added and the process will be fixed (or they will decide it's cheaper for you to sit on your butt for 2 week than to fix it - in which case that's an acceptable solution). Your freshly minted bureaucratic butt is covered - problem solved.
Admin
This article could very easily have described the time I spent at a major cloud services provider that I worked for until a few months ago. Without mentioning names, you surely know of this company. They bought their way into IT services several years ago, and seem to still be trying to figure out exactly what they want to do with it.
Anyway, on my hire date, I was given a domain account and email address, and a document on how to request access to the various systems, other domains, gateways and so forth that I would need to do my job. That took all of about 90 minutes, most of which was spent reading the documentation provided.
Then my wait began. I would come to work every day, sit at my desk, re-read the customer documentation, something I barely understood since I didn't have access, to well, anything. I'd ask about the credentials, and I would repeatedly get a friendly shake of the head and hear that it was "in process." After a couple of weeks of this, I gave in and started reading other stuff on the Internet.
Right about then, my manager's director wanted to shadow me and see how I went about doing my job. I laughed and told him what was going on. He laughed too...and didn't do anything about it.
Finally, after about two months, six weeks of which felt like being the Red Stapler guy in "Office Space" the creds started coming in. Oddly, though, the main client took about another two months to not give me the keys to work on their stuff...you know, the stuff I was supposed to be working on.
Come to think of it, this company is well known for providing the government with IT services. They must have learned their clearance processes from Uncle Sam.
Talk about efficiency!
Admin
Yup. I spent enough time dealing with government bureaucracy I was going to say something similar to what you did, but then I saw your post.
Sometimes, since you've got nothing better to do, you can actually track down someone who can actually do it for you.
Admin
And not all bureaucracy (good or bad) is in government.
Admin
Nope. That is the loop. Think of one of those scratch-off lottery cards...well, the lottery cards we get here in Florida (maybe you don't have them where you live). A lot of them have a last square you have to scratch off and it will say something like, "Not a winner. Try again."
(They don't say that if you win, because if you win it is expected you will try again, you gambling addict, you.)
Anyway, I was trying for that flavor in the flowchart: "Good luck" at t he top (not that you will ever have any) and "Ohhhhhhh! Too bad! Try again." at the bottom.
Admin
Beautiful piece, thanks for sharing. First grammy-winning piece of music originally composed for a video game!
Admin
All of this sounds like "The department of redundancy department". Another explanation might be look up "recursion" in some texts (K&R is but one example).
Also, please refer to the definition of "insanity": Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Life goes on, as it is a terminal disease.
Admin
Program Abort: Stack overflow.
Admin
I liked it. Though many people have told me I wouldn't have liked it if I knew the predecessor. Unfortunately, I've never played IV. Should I buy it?
Admin
Not on steam. 25€ for Civ IV is highway robbery.
You can probably get it for half that price at local electronics stores - at least where I live. Also, $15 at amazon (which even includes Colonization!).
Admin
...or that.
Admin
Huh? It's 19.99 for me. Does Steam charge different users different prices?
Admin
Admin
I know, I just wanted to check whether individualized prices are a thing now. Cause I wouldn't be surprised.
Admin
There is no permit A38 There is a A38/A and an A38/C If you need to know the difference you need form A38-R1/A
Admin
When I started working for my government department, my manager neglected to tell me about the HR system (a PeopleSoft instance), that I should have an employee number (referred to by the name of that HR system) nor what my employee number actually was. It made it very interesting to get help from anywhere (from IT, to security, to corporate cards, let alone submit HR forms).
What's worse is that I was on a graduate program, and my manager was supposed to be a professional HR practitioner.
Then again, now that I'm a manager rather than a lowly grad, it's just taken me (and my predecessor) 12 full months to get approval to advertise a position for internal transfer, actually advertise, receive and review applications and get approval for that transfer - hopefully my new team member will start next month.
Admin
Note: that applies to the physical universe as scientifically observed.
When applied to people, you'd be startled when, with some, saying the exact same thing for the third or fourth time suddenly results in a "oh, ok!" moment for them and understanding is achieved.
Conclusion: insanity sometimes works.
Since the above is not funny, but rather likely to evoke some painful memories:
Mandatory Dilbert illustration of this principle: [image]