Hi Don,
Well, we have a problem with Peter's computer and I'm not certain how to fix it. Actually there are several problems involving this computer:
I was first told about setting this computer up while I was quite involved with getting the Ford Body Shop and Nissan service computers back up and running. After receiving several calls a days from you, I finally spent one late night getting together network cards and cable to complete the set up of a computer this is NOT even Waikem property. However, when I went to your store, I found out that someone had already installed a network card and had the cable run. You must have been too busy to call letting me know that someone else was handling this problem "immediately" for you. Even Meredith didn't think to tell me that she had cable run and that I would need to setup a new email, even though I had told her I was going to your store right after leaving her office.
And now after a week I checked out this machine and verified that it was running properly, this computer needs my attention, since someone has done something to it so that it no longer works. (Just because someone can email or surf the net doesn't neccesarily mean that they are properly trained to operate a computer competently.) That is the only explanation as to why this machine will no longer go online or recognize a printer. "If" this was a Waikem computer, I would take this machine home, reformat it, and update it. However, this is someone else's personal computer that has been allowed to be operated improperly and is now "broken". I'm not entirely certain how to proceed with this problem, much less the fact that I have other problems on my list that are of higher priority that fixing a "personal" computer for your "second" Internet salesperson.
Please don't misunderstand me though. As only a part-time $7 an hr. computer geek, I have no problems going to any of the Waikem locations and fixing the computers. I've often told Doug Waikem how much I like this job. However, I've got to have some cooperation on your end too. If your store needs computers or cables run that is a problem YOU must take up with management. If you need computer upgrading, training, or general assistance I'm happy to help; but since I have to manage all the computers at all of the Waikem locations, you will have to follow MY schedule and not yours. And, although I am strongly against it, if you are going to allow someone to bring in their personal computer for work use, you should get some sort of written agreement (spelling out potential problems like if the machine breaks from work use, who pays for the repairs? Or if the machine causes a fire and burns Waikem property, who is responsible? How much is a company representative (like me!) allowed to modify, delete or change the software on this personal computer?)
Unfortunately this whole situation might have been avoided if anyone had tried to include me in the loop. I could have backed up your request for new equipment; or I could have provided you with a Waikem computer that I have in storage. I would have known to setup the proper email accounts on time and I could have had the proper software installed on the computer. As it is now, you're unhappy, thinking that I am unresponsive (although, at all the other Waikem locations where I'm allowed to handle the computer situations, everyone highly commends my work); Peter is unhappy because he can't take up his new responsibilities and doesn't understand his own equipment enough to keep it running properly; and I'm unhappy because I've had a problem, not of my doing, land in my lap while I have higher priority problems to handle.
I didn't mean for this to be such a long email; but I thought I really needed to explain my position. I know that Peter has already spoken with Doug about this problem, because Doug went out of his way to remind me about this problem several times yesterday. Since Doug allows me quite a bit of autonomy in my job, he's never quite sure of what my current projects are. The last thing I want him to think is that I'm not following his directions. I bust my butt handling problems and keeping all these ancient computers going as well as possible for about a fifth of what I should be paid for this position (without a phone, a desk, an office, a computer or the proper equipment), and I don't need my boss questioning whether I'm doing my job or not. If only someone had notified the "computer guy" about this situation and allowed me to handle it, we wouldn't be having this problem now and I wouldn't be having to interrupt my current projects to explain why it looks like I dropped the ball on this issue.
I sincerely hope that we can find some sort of solution to your problem in the near future. At the moment, I am quite busy helping Chip Waikem with a project, and have a couple of computers, that are already online and have been in use, with problems that need to be corrected first. If I can get some answers on how to handle this non-Waikem piece of equipment, I'll be happy to work on this problem by Friday (9/12)
Michael Bivens