Thanks to the joys of the M6 motorway it was after 9am when Sidney finally arrived in the office. He was usually first there but for once Colin and Peter Pottersgate had beaten him to it. The two were arguing about who should respond to Gwen Gardner’s email (typed entirely in capitals), saying “LASER PRINTER NEEDS TONER NOW!!!” Even though he was scared of the MD’s secretary or, ‘MD’s PA’ as she had started calling herself since last November, he wasn’t in the mood for Colin and Peter’s squabbles so decided to deal with Ms Gardner himself.
Sidney knew that Gwen Gardner’s printer was a newish HP Laser but could not remember which one. If only Colin had finished the very complex IT Asset Register he had started eighteen months ago. Perhaps if they ever did go for this SharePoint thingy it could help them to record their IT Inventory better. Maybe he could ask Hannah Harper if she knew if SharePoint could do inventories? There was only one thing for it; Sidney would have to go and make a note of the model number of the printer again.
Sidney was in luck because as he got to Gwen Gardner’s door he could see she was just going out for a cigar break. So Sidney hid outside the door until she had gone before creeping in to check which toner type the printer took. Sid never really understood why the company had so many different types of printers, but knew that Gwen Gardner always insisted on a new one if somebody else in the company had a better one than she did.
“Ah Sidney, how’s that nephew of mine doing?” Percy Pottersgate shouted from behind Sidney causing Sidney to bang his head on the open printer. “Hope you are looking after him and especially that left foot. Oh by the way I am calling an emergency Management Team Meeting at half ten so don’t be late”.
Sidney was already behind with his jobs for the day especially after Peter Pottersgate had declared that he didn’t think his uncle would like him changing backup tapes or updating virus checkers on servers. Last thing Sidney needed was another meeting but at least it showed he was now part of the Management Team.
In the IT Store Cupboard Sidney searched desperately for a toner box with the number Q2612A on. He found everyone but this number including fourteen C3906A’s. Which apparently was for the 6L series although Sidney didn’t think they had any of these printers left? Some kind of electronic Stock Control system was obviously needed so again Sidney made a mental note to ask Hannah Harper. Just as Sidney was about to give in on his search for a Q2612A he was relieved to see one right on the top shelf. It took some getting with a fine balancing act, but eventually Sidney retrieved the toner box. Unfortunately to Sidney’s dismay the box contained an already used cartridge. Oh no, he was going to have to tell scary Gwen that they had run out and he would have to order one. Last time it had taken nearly four weeks for a new one to arrive. This was partly due to the way that the Pottersgate Paints Purchasing Order system worked requiring two director’s signatures (made worse as it was during the Ryder Cup) and partly because the parcel had been delivered to ‘The Stores’ and nobody had told IT that it was there. Maybe if Sidney just gave the empty cartridge in the box a jolly good shake he could then pretend to Gwen Gardner that it was a new one?
Sidney arrived late for the emergency Management Team Meeting and all the seats had gone so he had to stand at the back. Gwen Gardner was moaning about the poor quality of the minutes from the last meeting and telling Percy Pottersgate that he shouldn’t have meetings when she was not there. It soon became apparent that the meeting had been called because sales at Pottersgate Paints were down and things were not going well. Cuts were going to have to be made. There was talk of restructuring and the need for voluntary redundancies. Gwen Gardner told the meeting that she would be circulating a list later today of people who in her opinion should consider ‘voluntary’ redundancy. It was decided to amalgamate Finance and Purchasing. Sidney didn’t think he should point out that it had been less than two years since they were split after originally being one department. It was clear savings needed to be made and Percy Pottersgate informed the meeting that as from the end of September they were cancelling the licences for the ERP system that they spent over two hundred grand implementing in 2007. So they would need to find a new system to deal with ordering, shipping and invoicing as well as staff records. Sidney’s heart sank and he knew that this was going to mean a lot more work for him. Maybe he would be lucky and his name might be on the Gwen Gardner ‘Voluntary’ List?
No comments:
Post a Comment