Work switched over from Microsoft to G Suite. it's been a trip, let me tell you. They released several paragraphs about how they believe G Suite is poised to become the industry leader for productivity software (never mind that none of the people with those beliefs are actually tech people - we're a bank, remember) and admitted in the last sentence G Suite is also cheaper. As far as I can figure it's like 50% cheaper. So yeah I can't totally fault them on doing what they did considering other circumstances but just quit with the BS, man. I'm reading Prayer for Owen Meany. I wanted to read Ciderhouse Rules first, which I swearswearswearswear SWEAR I have a copy of, but can't find. And couldn't find at either of the two bookstores or two libraries I visited. And I didn't want to wait until whoever checked it out from the only library in my country who has it to return it to continue reading as a whole, so Owen Meany it is. So far, Owen Meany is a strange book. A bit more fantastical than most of the other Irvings I've read so far, it feels like. I have to watch Vertigo this week, it's a friend-assignment. I'm looking forward to the time when I sit down and do it. I know I've watched pieces of it, but I don't think I've ever seen the whole thing in one go. Can't remember it, at least. Halloween approaches! Tis the season. I had another friend who called me combative for apologizing to her. We're not gonna be friends any more. This is the same person who told me a headshrinker was specifically a psychiatrist, a doctor who prescribes drugs, and definitely did not mean anything else such as a a counselor or a psychologist or a therapist. And when she did even though I knew she was right I didn't take a screenshot of the definition of this SLANG WORD, btw, so right off we know it has variable meanings, and send it to her because I was being an adult and having friends and not petty. I couldn't sleep til 3 am ln after our disagreement and I just don't need to spend my time having pointless conversations that end in me trying my best to be patient and smooth over disagreements in the interest of friendship and getting called combative for it. I hope I don't sound too negative. Life is still and again mostly pretty good and I continue to try and make it and myself better. I went on a date this past Friday -- we seem to have mutually decided we're not interested, but hey, I went on a date! That's trying. That's more than I have been. (The problem may be that I'm not really interested in dating at all. If that's the truth, it's not a problem, really -- just something I need to realize about myself and accept.)
Re: cheaper business choices We're working on reducing our budgets. The company has long provided Starbucks coffee in the break rooms. Early this year they emailed us with an email that amounted to "Good news! We're replacing the premium coffee with the store brand of our vendor! It gets better; for those of you who want other choices, we're putting in Keurig machines! And we're so green we're going to collect the cups for recycling. Yay environment!" Like, wow. Not much is more environmental than a small bag that makes a huge pot of coffee. The k-cups are an environmental disaster even if you recycle them. Just say it like it is: we can save $40,000 a year with the generic coffee. We aren't stupid. That's forty grand of raises or benefits or something that won't get cut. Just be straightforward. I actually don't mind the store brand coffee.
Lol raises what is this 1970? CEO bonuses additional management and shareholder value is where it’s all going. Coffee going away is a really bad sign because the perceived benefit value is much higher than the cost. I bet you won’t le have to pay employees a couple more thousand a year to have comparable value to the employee. Something about being fucked over on coffee every morning has always made me a bit annoyed with my employer.
My business has raises as part of the standard yearly review package. If you don’t get a raise you ranked as not meeting standards. So ymmv. My company is lorg. Cutting to Gmail may have saved $100k/year or more. For appropriate context, my company is significantly lorger than at least 90% if the companies google lists as adopters of gsuite when you go to research on its website. And no, it’s not a listed company.
We actually have raises! If I remember my starting salary correctly, my pay has exceeded inflation, though my skill and value to the company have increased in that time. I'm not bothered by the fact if changing the coffee. The reason behind the budget squeeze isn't hidden and seems reasonable to me. What bothered me was the tone. They tried to spin it like a benefit. I think it was just one over stimulated person in the facilities group and not a trend, but we'll see.
The most agile, efficient, and professional company I ever worked for had committed entirely to the G Suite of tools. It's amazing how efficient and clear all communication is when you strip out all the stupid in PowerPoint, Excel, and Word, and make people's IDEAS stand in the forefront. It makes decisions so much easier! And it enforces a stripped-down look and feel to all communications. Put your idea out there in a field of white space. If it's a good idea, people will get it. If not, they won't get swayed by animated transitions and colorful backgrounds and all the bullshit of Microsoft's America. But everyone has to commit to it. I do not have high hopes for your banking peers. This is gonna suck. --- Owen Meaney. I still can't get that book out of my head. It pisses me off, and I'll be interested to hear what you have to say about it when you are done.
Once again I am the Millennial expert, lol. A lot of people have lost a lot of productivity and time. While I can understand it, when my manager asked how it went for me, I said, "My thought is that Gmail is not Outlook and my goal in switching is not to make Gmail like Outlook in any way. I'm just going to use it and see what works for me." I've been in the industry for 8 years working with the same set of software the whole time - microsoft. I'm the youngest person in my department. There are a few others around my age, but there are also many others who literally know nothing except Microsoft and that's what they have been using at every job for 15, 20, 25 years. I have gmail at home and have used Gsheets, Gdocs, drive, etc. A lot of people never have. I'm not a fan of the decision and some decisions Google makes about how to organize certain features of their products baffle me...why isn't the "Settings" icon consistent, for instance - in gmail and hangouts it's a gear in the upper righthand corner, for some reason in Chrome you can only get there by hitting the 3 vertical dots -- but I can live with it. It's familiar. It's not totally unknown to me. I totally understand why for a lot of people it's just going to be incredibly difficult to transition. I'm glad I'm not as bad as them, at least. I don't pretend to be a technology loving expert. also the way my company is transitioning just sucks as well. they're trying to make chrome our default browser but there are applications that simply do not work in chrome, only IE, and even with chrome add-ons designed to mimic IE chrome does not work. We're being forced into disorganized and confusing situations in places.
Not even knowing which bank you work for, I am almost certain a good part of your IT department's motivation is "if the applications start breaking because our users have migrated away from IE, management will have to give us the resources to replace the bullshit intranet apps that have been the bane of our existence since the consultants responsible moved on and left us with their steaming pile of ASP back in 2001."also the way my company is transitioning just sucks as well. they're trying to make chrome our default browser but there are applications that simply do not work in chrome, only IE, and even with chrome add-ons designed to mimic IE chrome does not work. We're being forced into disorganized and confusing situations in places.
They’re vendor supplied apps and in talking to the Process development team today the understanding is that they won’t work in chrome and we won’t be spending the money to buy a version that will, basically. So no I don’t think it will push that kind of change.
Um. This scares the shit out of me, and I don't even know what bank you work for. I spent 3 years working at the pointy end of network security (F5 Networks), and assessing how our products, and our competitor's products, defended against an incredibly broad range of security threats. The ONE THING that enabled the vast majority of successful security breaches, was web apps running in Internet Explorer. The same app, running in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc., would not have the same security flaws. The simple fact that your app works in Internet Explorer and NOT in Chrome, is a deafening warning klaxon and flashing lights and alarms and explosions-off-in-the-distance-but-getting-closer-and-closer kind of warning that YOUR SHIT IS BROKE. Why? Because the fact the app won't work in Chrome means that the app is using some Microsoft-proprietary framework like ActiveX or .Net, to BYPASS PROPER SANDBOXING AND SECURITY and provide DIRECT ACCESS to the host computer's operating system. There is literally ZERO other reason for an app to work in IE but not in Chrome. (This is actually a "design feature" that MS used to sell. As a feature. Ability to bypass proper security permissions and rights systems, to get direct access to a protected resource. Of course, they called it something like, "Local resource speed optimizations!", but all they were doing was opening a back door to the club, and not even putting a bouncer on the door to check IDs.) I'm seeing the wisdom of bfv here... I think this project may have been forced by your panicked IT Department, who has been unable to make any progress with getting the IE app EOL'd. "... they're trying to make chrome our default browser but there are applications that simply do not work in chrome, only IE ..."
Google is not a company, not really; it's a loose confederation of warring business groups pretending to be a company. Don't think "country" think "Hanseatic league" or "the Pirate Coast." As such Hangouts looks like Hangouts, Chrome looks like Chrome, Gmail looks like Gmail, and the only thing uniting them are the Crayola Colors of the Company. I mean, Apple has iMessage. It works on desktop, it works on iOS. Google has so far tried - gChat - Wave - Hangouts - Allo - Duo ...and I'm still left in the position of texting from my laptop with a 3rd-party Haxie that works through a Chrome backdoor. At least Microsoft is all about Skype. They have no interest in making it work, but they have it.I'm not a fan of the decision and some decisions Google makes about how to organize certain features of their products baffle me...why isn't the "Settings" icon consistent, for instance - in gmail and hangouts it's a gear in the upper righthand corner, for some reason in Chrome you can only get there by hitting the 3 vertical dots -- but I can live with it. It's familiar. It's not totally unknown to me.
Literally impossible. There is something innate to the human spirit that demands that the real reasons for things always be as obscured as possible behind layers of spun sugar and cow dung. I suspect it has to do with confidence. There is a Rogan quote from his last special that encapsulates this well. just quit with the BS, man.
if you get ten really stupid people in a room, the most confident one just starts running shit. They don’t have to have any more information, they just have to be more confident. If you get a bunch of dummies together, they’re like, “I don’t know what’s going on.” “I don’t know what’s going on.” “I fucking do. I fucking do.” The guy doesn’t have to have any extra data, he just has to be the only one that’s confident.