So as I've mentioned, I have a job now in Michigan working as a contractor for a very large company who's name I shall decline to name.
It's a pretty good job with definite upsides and is a great addition to my resume.
Having said that, there are issues with the job that stem from the sheer size of the company and its accomanying bureaucracy.
I'm sure these issues are common in vast corporations, but since this is the first time I've worked for such a company, it's the first time I've had to deal with it.
I had vague ideas to write a political post that I was mentally wandering over during the drive this morning, but changed gears due to an incident that occurred as I arrived at work.
To give some background, as mentioned, I work as a contractor for this huge company. The majority of my department are also contractors. We're not quite treated as second-class citizens, but there's subtle differences in how things work for us (anyone who's contracted understands this; this is my first time in such a position).
As some additional background, the internal workings of this company are a bit... cumbersome. It takes a very long time to get things done. For instance, I've had the position for about a month now and I've yet to get a cubicle, phone, phone number, security badges or even a computer to work on.
Some of these issues can be partly worked around, such as I use a spare team tower in the lab to access the internet and console into devices to configure them. But I cannot access vital tools such as corporate email (so I don't know what is happening most of the time in terms of meetings and things that happen on the project) and the internal instant-messaging program for team communication (much of the team is off-site).
The security badges though may be the biggest problem, and they are the focus of this post.
Every building in the complex is locked and can only be opened by a valid security badge. This is a great system from a security standpoint, as limited access (theoretically) means increased site security.
And it's not even all that annoying to employees as every building on the campus (and there are many) is connected to every other by not only a series of enclosed, elevated walkways, but also by a series of underground tunnels. The whole setup is rather neat and unique to my northeastern eyes, and I plan to talk about it more some other day.
But the upshot is that the only way I can get in to work every morning is to wait on the kindness of strangers to let me in. Even much of my team cannot get in without help, as they also lack proper entry badges.
Now, amongst my co-workers I am becoming vaguely legendary in my ability to get into the buildings in the morning, such that they call my cell when they arrive so that I can let them in. It's likely because I look a lot like what I am. A fairly young, sincere and honest, clean-cut white guy from a good background. And just to note. I'm not claiming this is remotely fair. I actually think it's kind of sad that things work like that, but I need to get inside in the mornings, so I'll use any advantage I can.
Now occasionally, some employees will kindly refuse to let me in, which is, frankly, quite smart of them (note - this has happened twice to me). I understand their reasoning entirely and honestly might do the same in their shoes, even having been on the other side of the situation.
That doesn't keep me from being annoyed though. But I'm not annoyed at them, I'm annoyed at the system.
It happened this morning, which is why I'm writing this post.
But on to my main point.
The basic upshot of this situation is that the stringent (and slow) security measures that this huge corporation has put in place have ended-up making the place basically no more secure than if they'd just put cameras at every door and otherwise left them unlocked.
I get in every day without fail (and almost always without the help of anyone who knows me) and so could anyone else with half a brain and a decent shirt and pair of pants.
The reason that random employees are so willing to let other people in is, in part I believe because they themselves went through the 1-6 month period at the start of their employment where they also didn't have badges and thus had to basically sneak in every day. So they're just helping out people they sympathize with.
Such a mindset could be entirely avoided if they'd just issue badges quicker.
To give you an idea of how common an idea this problem is, the absolutely standard response to the complaint "Am I ever going to get a badge?" is some variant of "Probably on the last day of your assignment".
And the problem ISN'T just happening here. We go out to sites owned by huge company X and adminstered by huge company Y and I find much the same thing.
As an example, some equipment we'd been waiting on was erroneously delivered to one such site. When talking on the phone to an employee from company Y, I was told that, amusingly, even though the packages were addressed to us (and thus they couldn't open them), we weren't allowed to take them off of the premises through security.
His suggestion was to either wade through the security bureaucracy at companies X and Y and get permission to take our property off their property, or wait until 6pm when the security guard went off shift at the building entrance and we could just walk out with it.
Now we opted to go the official route (though it took all day and we walked out at about 5pm with our stuff), but I just found the situation so amusing that I couldn't help remarking on it all day.
Anyway, that's all from me today. This is Campbell MacInnes signing off from a borrowed computer in a building he snuck into to do work he is being paid to do.
Posted by Campbell at September 14, 2006 09:05 AM