"[Office Story] The Mystery Monitor...." Topic

Disclaimer: the usual….

Ever have the "mystery equipment" at your location? You know…that stuff that is there that no one seems to know about or why it's even there or what it's there for???

Yeah…I had that this week…

Soooooooooooooo….

I'm at the Ohio facility, (ref: the story about "The Man Who Won't Listen")….and the HR lady (We'll call her AM)comes up to me with a box…
She places box on my desk.
Conversation goes like this…
M: Me
AM: HR Lady

AM: *THUD* sound of box on desk. "Here you go."
M: "Uhhh..what's this?"
AM: "A monitor that was sent to us."
M: "Ooooooooooookay.." Me now getting quiet because I "just know" there has to be a story to this….

So it seems that
A: AM get's a 19" Acer LCD Monitor sent to their location.
B: They didn't order a 19" LCD Monitor.
C: The Box has the ohio address on the label.
D: However the labelled is addressed to the HR Manager…
E: That would be the HR Manager…in DENVER COLORADO.
F: An examination of the LCD shows it to have no corporate asset tag, (thus it's not in the inventory). Plus the fact that we really don't use Acer brand LCD's. We have a couple but we don't use them. 19" monitors are for the production floor.
G: A double check with HR in Denver…(the guy that this is labelled to), and he says "I didn't order a monitor"….
H: A double check of the label shows that this was sent by request of one of the Corp IT techs.
I: AM has sent two emails to said IT tech asking about this monitor.
J: AM has not gotten a response from IT tech about said monitor…
K: AM doesn't need monitor so she gives it to me.
L: I DO need a 19" LCD monitor for my plant director.
M: I've sent in an equipment issue request for one.
N: That was done 3 mos. ago.
O: Corp IT said "We don't have any 19" monitors in stock".

Sigh…

Soooo…I contact my supervisor…and he says "Oh..that sounds like a mistake.." (duh..do you think so?). He then says that "I can go ahead and take the LCD and asset tag it and use it at my site.

Now had I been a dishonest SOB I could've helped myself to a 19" LCD…but I didn't.

And to think, that this has happened (once again), only after two weeks after having a long meeting about "managing assets and inventory control"….

I love my job…but it's like when I am dealing with Corporate, I am dealing in Dilbert World….

Submitted respectfully;

Murphy

The left and right hands never talk to each other. Sometimes I do not think they are even part of the same body.

A little while back the one of the IT Deputy Directors asks my coworker "what size of monitors we are currently ordering for the standard replacement systems". She gives him the model number. He then goes and orders 6 19 inch monitors for another department. The wrong model. So they do not match. He could have just asked what we have on hand. We have extra of them currently as some installs did not get a replacement monitor. He could have just bought them from our stock…..

Well, it could be worse. My 10 year old government pc died 4 weeks ago and I still do not have a replacement. Supposedly, the state bought one a few weeks ago, but I'll believe that when I see it.

Murph, I spent a lot of my Big Blue career in
'asset management and inventory control' (actually,
the folks who worked for me did the actual work).

The stories I could tell…

10yr old fire truck just happened to show up on the ANNUAL physical inventory this year.

My area has lost 5 pieces of kit worth $50 USDk. They were last seen in 2009 according to the records, and I raised the fact they were missing earlier this year even though I know they were there last year. But, apparently because the audit in 210, 2011 and 2012 didn't show them as existing (no one listed them), they don't.

Perhaps they'll turn up on Murph's desk soon…

Are you sure you're not working in a Government job?

Don't even pretend that it is only government jobs that experience this sort of stuff.

Like 24 monitor/PCs bought for a training room that were never used (the training was converted to meeting room), so were stored in a closet for six (6) years and then thrown out as obsolete ($48,000 down the toilet).

Brand new servers still laying in their boxes four (4) years after delivery to the IDF.

I could spend hours discussing the waste I've seen in private industry.

Real issue is that those at bottom of the food chain are never heard by those at the top of the food chain.

Dan

I thought this was about Civil War naval battles.