I was informed on a recent visit by my wonderful aunt, Alice, that it is criminal that I have not posted on my blog in so long. And indeed it is. I have deprived my poor readers for such a terrible length of time! I have left you seriously deprived. Where else can people find sarcastic statements barely masking an underlining whiny tone? Oh right, the internet. Well, they can also find them on my blog. Particularly on this post because, folks, the whining is about to begin. And it's going to begin hardcore, so be ready.
You may have heard recently that there is a silly little government shut down going on. Poor workers all across America and in the District, which begat this horrible misfortune, cannot go into work and complete their assigned tasks. These furloughed workers are forced to sit in their homes, doing nothing, and in some cases, getting back-pay to do nothing. Meanwhile, the ignorant, frustrating, despicable, tantrum-having, fat-cats in Congress also sit around doing nothing; rolling in their heaps of money, which they did absolutely nothing to earn, all the while waiting for the next election when they will inevitably be re-elected by the same constituents who currently contribute to their 10% approval rating because apparently nothing in this world is fair.
The purpose of this post is to inform you that I too am currently doing nothing, but it does not have anything to do with my rant in the previous paragraph, and it has nothing to do with the shutdown. So ha ha, made you read.
No, I am doing nothing because the Gods of bureaucracy decided I deserved to have an obstacle course heaped in-between me and the ability to do my work. I repeat, bureaucracy is making me want to be able to do work. What new and unusual hell is this?
It all started when someone decided it was a good idea to put a month between when the contract I am on ends and when it is officially renewed. As renewal is almost a certainty, we on the contract obviously need to keep providing the services our contract dictates. Consequently, a short term renewal of one month was put in place to avoid any disruption in services that would surely annoy our customers who need what they want, now now now! As they say, the best laid plans...
Through some twist of anti-Abigail fate, I was the only one of my contract, out of six, whose computer access was taken away. I discovered this last Thursday through talks with three separate help desks, two of which could not even see why I didn't have access. The third informed me that my access to the VA Network was indeed expired, and they had never received word of the extended contract. But no worries, all I needed was my Contract Representative (COR) to tell these IT people the contract was extended. My COR was informed and I awaited a speedy resolution to my problem. Thursday, Friday, and the weekend passed without that resolution. Friday I was at least allowed to do nothing in the comfort of my own apartment, as I "teleworked" that day. The quotation marks are there because I'm pretty sure playing Mass Effect 2 all day doesn't really count as working. Though, I did save the galaxy, so that's something.
Monday, yesterday, we finally heard back from the COR, telling us the person she had submitted a Help Desk ticket to said that there is nothing wrong with my access and I should be able to log in. At that moment, I discovered it is not so nice or helpful to be informed that you do not have a problem that you clearly have. I was too annoyed at the time to realize the horrible truth.
As I woke up this morning it dawned on me that I should check who my COR submitted the help desk ticket to. It was the first help desk I had called on Thursday who couldn't see the problem. I am going to go ahead and assume that this miscommunication with my COR has nothing to do with how I described my problem on Thursday because I don't want my inside tears to become outside tears. Now that I have seen why the solution to the problem was its own problem, I hope that the not-at-all passive aggressive email I just sent helps bring about the speedy resolution to this problem that has eluded us so far.
So, my dear readers, the moral of the story is that you should never ask me to blog more because you can be sure I have something to complain about. I know in the grand scheme of all things my current problem holds no match to the true horrors and misfortunes that occur all around the world. I still have a place to live, food to eat, a family that teases me with what I will assume is love, friends, and the greatest gift of all (to an introvert), myself. I realize how good I have it, and that, as my sister pointed out, I will probably only ever have first world problems. So please don't judge me when I say...
Why me?!? Why is the world so cruel!?!?! No one has suffered as I have! No one understands my pain! Woe, woe!! This suuuuuckssssss!!!
Update: Still no access. However, we did get a very interesting update. Turns out, the Government Shutdown has greatly affected this situation. All of the Internet Security Officers (I would explain who these people are to you, but how about you just trust me when I tell you that they are very important) are furloughed. That means there are about, let's see, zero people who can help me. Sooo, we'll see how this turns out...
You may have heard recently that there is a silly little government shut down going on. Poor workers all across America and in the District, which begat this horrible misfortune, cannot go into work and complete their assigned tasks. These furloughed workers are forced to sit in their homes, doing nothing, and in some cases, getting back-pay to do nothing. Meanwhile, the ignorant, frustrating, despicable, tantrum-having, fat-cats in Congress also sit around doing nothing; rolling in their heaps of money, which they did absolutely nothing to earn, all the while waiting for the next election when they will inevitably be re-elected by the same constituents who currently contribute to their 10% approval rating because apparently nothing in this world is fair.
The purpose of this post is to inform you that I too am currently doing nothing, but it does not have anything to do with my rant in the previous paragraph, and it has nothing to do with the shutdown. So ha ha, made you read.
No, I am doing nothing because the Gods of bureaucracy decided I deserved to have an obstacle course heaped in-between me and the ability to do my work. I repeat, bureaucracy is making me want to be able to do work. What new and unusual hell is this?
It all started when someone decided it was a good idea to put a month between when the contract I am on ends and when it is officially renewed. As renewal is almost a certainty, we on the contract obviously need to keep providing the services our contract dictates. Consequently, a short term renewal of one month was put in place to avoid any disruption in services that would surely annoy our customers who need what they want, now now now! As they say, the best laid plans...
Through some twist of anti-Abigail fate, I was the only one of my contract, out of six, whose computer access was taken away. I discovered this last Thursday through talks with three separate help desks, two of which could not even see why I didn't have access. The third informed me that my access to the VA Network was indeed expired, and they had never received word of the extended contract. But no worries, all I needed was my Contract Representative (COR) to tell these IT people the contract was extended. My COR was informed and I awaited a speedy resolution to my problem. Thursday, Friday, and the weekend passed without that resolution. Friday I was at least allowed to do nothing in the comfort of my own apartment, as I "teleworked" that day. The quotation marks are there because I'm pretty sure playing Mass Effect 2 all day doesn't really count as working. Though, I did save the galaxy, so that's something.
Monday, yesterday, we finally heard back from the COR, telling us the person she had submitted a Help Desk ticket to said that there is nothing wrong with my access and I should be able to log in. At that moment, I discovered it is not so nice or helpful to be informed that you do not have a problem that you clearly have. I was too annoyed at the time to realize the horrible truth.
As I woke up this morning it dawned on me that I should check who my COR submitted the help desk ticket to. It was the first help desk I had called on Thursday who couldn't see the problem. I am going to go ahead and assume that this miscommunication with my COR has nothing to do with how I described my problem on Thursday because I don't want my inside tears to become outside tears. Now that I have seen why the solution to the problem was its own problem, I hope that the not-at-all passive aggressive email I just sent helps bring about the speedy resolution to this problem that has eluded us so far.
So, my dear readers, the moral of the story is that you should never ask me to blog more because you can be sure I have something to complain about. I know in the grand scheme of all things my current problem holds no match to the true horrors and misfortunes that occur all around the world. I still have a place to live, food to eat, a family that teases me with what I will assume is love, friends, and the greatest gift of all (to an introvert), myself. I realize how good I have it, and that, as my sister pointed out, I will probably only ever have first world problems. So please don't judge me when I say...
Why me?!? Why is the world so cruel!?!?! No one has suffered as I have! No one understands my pain! Woe, woe!! This suuuuuckssssss!!!
Update: Still no access. However, we did get a very interesting update. Turns out, the Government Shutdown has greatly affected this situation. All of the Internet Security Officers (I would explain who these people are to you, but how about you just trust me when I tell you that they are very important) are furloughed. That means there are about, let's see, zero people who can help me. Sooo, we'll see how this turns out...
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