Category: Work
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978-1-849680-16-5
For U.S. bands, the traditional way they would know they had ‘made it’ was when they were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone (witness Cover of the Rolling Stone, by Dr. Hook – yes, I’m embarrassed I know it, too…). For UK bands, it was when they performed on the now defunct Top Of The Pops. For me, I always thought that the pinnacle of achievement was getting a book published. Or, more specifically, getting a real book with an actual ISBN published. Many years ago, I worked on the Torchum Never Stops books, but these were self-published [by… Read more
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Farewell Tour
I’ve just finished my latest work assignment – three years doing the documentation, training, change management and knowledge management for an implementation of SAP Retail. It was a really interesting project, and I’ve learnt more about retail operations than any sensible person would want to know. Being a contractor, it’s inevitable that at the end of the project I would be ‘dispensed with’. This is my fourth large SAP implementation, so the fourth time I’ve been let go. It’s always difficult (I suffer separation anxiety), but you get used to it. One of the activities I always go through is a… Read more
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Turning Japanese #1: Food
My current project is implementing a new SAP system at some of our warehouses in the U.S, Japan, and Europe. When I joined the project I relished the possibility of going to Japan – I’d only been here once before, for a mere 24 hours, in transit from Singapore to Houston, so the possibility of a longer stay was enticing. Six months into the project I managed to wrangle my first trip. I’d originally conceived of this as a Change Management dog and pony show for myself and my immediate supervisor, but by the time I’d floated it past management, several other members… Read more
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Safety is in the eye of the beholder
Today, I attended the mandatory hour-and-a-half ‘newcomer’ safety training for my current work location. I’ve actually been here at this location for three months already, but I wasn’t able to attend the last quarterly conduct because I was too busy actually doing my damn job (I was on a site visit at another location). I also learned this week that my project team is being moved back to my old location next month. So learning how to ‘be safe’ at this location at this stage in the game seems like a bit of a waste of time – hell, I’ve… Read more
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Technology: The Great Disabler
We’re pretty tight on security in this company. Not quite Pentagon tight, but tight to the point where some buildings have X-ray machines and walk-thru metal detectors (although thankfully they don’t make you take your shoes off…). Even so, every so often some bright spark in upper management decides to tighten things up a notch, seemingly just for their own perverse pleasure. For quite some years now we have had electronic badge-access to most of our buildings (at least in the United States). So now you can’t get into the car-park, let alone the actual building, without your badge. Hell,… Read more