set up for failure
As previously mentioned, I am fighting a pretty bad case of post-Dragoncon con crud; sinus pressure, aches, pains, exhaustion, probably a fever, all that good stuff. But, there’s entirely too much crap going down at the office for me to take time off to rest, so I’m muddling through, as it is, of course, approaching the end of the fiscal year and I have to shepherd contracts through the process (even though I’m no longer a contracting guy) to make sure that my requirements, as well as everyone else’s (because I used to be a contracting guy) get put on contract before 30 September.
I can’t blame the contracting shop for this; they’re good, if green, folks who are trying their best. It’s systemic disfunction within the organization itself, which should be much better at this. It’s simply a lack of using the established processes as definied by law and regulation, and people holding back information when it makes more sense to share it, because somebody gets off on the power trip, or something.
Case in point: my program’s requirement for this year; the one that’s changed not at all since last year, and got approved by the review board back in may in approximately three minutes. The contracting shop is working it this week (which is an improvement over me being on the phone all day on Sunday, September 30 last year approving technical proposals and hand-holding the contract award process through at the literal eleventh hour), with an eye on getting this thing on contract Tuesday or Wednesday; a full three weeks before the end of the fiscal year. We’ve got a valid and justifiable quote from the vendor, confirmed that the money is available in the budget, and we’ve satisfied legal that this is the way to go, because frankly, it totally is, to any reasonable observer.
The only wrinkle is that we make use of another organization’s contract (since they own the IT environment my pieces of code live and operate in) to make the award, which requires paying a small fee to the other organization for access. This should be simple; somebody in the budget office writes up an interdepartmental funds transfer for the fee, and all is well. It’s gone without a hitch the last three years.
But not this year, because they’ve apparently changed the process…again. My contracting guy always took care of it, though this year it’s apparently on me to put the request package together. Having discovered this Tuesday afternoon about a half hour before I was supposed to leave for the day, I begged and pleaded for instructions and guidance, which I got from people I should be able to trust, stayed an extra hour or so (ugh…remember con crud?) packaged up the package in a technically correct* manner and sent it off.
Arriving in the office Wednesday, still feeling the crud, I find a stack of emails telling me I didn’t do things right; from, no less, the person who is supposed to be the authority and gave me the instructions the previous evening. So, first thing in the morning, I put the damned thing together again and send it off, fuming because it shouldn’t be this difficult, and knowing…just knowing, that it’s gonna get bounced again because they changed the bureaucratic process again in the 20 minutes it took me to fill out the last form, because fuck this place.
At least righteous anger is currently, however temporarily, overcoming my con crud
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