tiredI got there, got checked in, got about halfway set up and set out to pick up tom SMith from Union Station.
What should have been a 45 minute trip each way turned into an hour and a half epic journey. Thank Ghod for pocket phones. We never would have found eachother without them.
Got back to the con, Helped Roper finish setting up and went to bed.
Got up at six something and went to work. It was the last day of CIB Bank. ANd it was a busy one. Lots of customers with lots of questions about the changeover. I had one lady at my desk for about two hours having me print out as much of her account history as I could because she wasn't convinced that her account wouldn't disappear in the conversion. (Turns out I could print out just about all of it, 9 years worth.)
I had a hard time making her understand that when nothing happened on the account nothing would be printed in the statement for that month. I'm not sure what she wanted, but I wasn't making her happy.
At 6:00 we locked the door and began the process of removing everything that said "CIB" in the bank. Every brochure, every form every transaction ticket, even the mugs, mousepads, pens and post-it notes in our desks. The IT boys started pulling out the old computers and setting up the new ones. The plan was that when they were all done and each of us could sign on and access the database, we could go home. Then the phone system died. Now, why the phone system has to be connected to the network I will never quite understand. We got the phones back, but there was no hope of getting it all finished by a reasonable hour so they let us go.
Saturday morning I was back at the bank by 8:30 and waited around with the rest of the staff watching IT turf wars. (The network guys blaming the PC guys blaming the telecom guys ad nausium. We finally got signed on, checked out and let go by 10:30 and back to the con.
I don't remember much of Capricon, but I'm told it went pretty well. The goat suit for closing ceremonies worked Ok, but the head is in foe a MAJOR re-engineering.
Monday at the bank was 11 1/2 hours of pure chaos. We have a team of experianced Firstbank people working with us, but it isn't going smoothly. The Hardware may ne sleek and new, but the software is archaic.
There are so many layers to get through that it runs at a snail's pace. Things that I could have done on the old system in less than 5 minutes took 15 or better. i know a good chunk of that is learning curve, but I could type the Cashier's Check for the IRA transfer in less time than it took to tell the teller how to word it. Sigh! This is going to take some getting used to.
Tuesday was better, but Greg, the manager, asked me if I would be willing to come in on Friday instead of being off. I said Ok since I had a day off last week while the rest of the Customer service staff didn't.
Sometimes being a team player is exhausting.
And to top it all off. Janis handed in her notice. She will be gone as of March first. We can't run this department with just 2 1/2 people. I'm NOT giving up FilkOntario because of another stupid staffing crisis.
I hope.
GHR