"This is Mothra, and we are Tokyo"

eris esoteric · #1 09-23-2003, 01:52 PM

(Editorial note: hotels use a database to keep track of reservations, inhouse guests, and departed guests. This database is called a Property Management System. Yes, we abbreviate this as PMS. I have no idea what idiot way back when decided this would be a good idea. So if, in the course of this thread, I say I'm having problems with my PMS, this is what I mean. The computer system. Not the other.)

So, we're updating our computer system at my hotel. This is a good thing. Really, it is. I absolutely despise our current PMS. The PMS we're changing to is much spiffier and will work out better.

But.

Well, there's problems.

First off, we have an issue with billing. We're owned by MSU, and MSU uses us a lot. MSU has offices all over the damned place. And they're all picky about how they want their billing done. So right now, basically, our Comptroller is dictating that we manipulate the new system so that it works sort of like the old one. Which is stupid, because the new one could work much better than the old one, if we just used it the way it's supposed to be used. Unfortunately, I have neither the power, nor the level of deathwish required to tell our comptroller she's doing something stupid. One of our head reservationists has been moaning in fear the past couple of days because she's absolutely sure that this is a disaster. (She's the source of the Mothra quote.)

Second, I'm a multicultural type of gal. I like experiencing other cultures. I like meeting people from other countries. However, when I'm trying to learn something, I need the person teaching me to be clear. One of our trainers has an extremely thick Spanish accent. And he's driving the whole class nuts, cause half of us can't understand anything he's saying. So, of course, he's the one up in front of the class, talking. The other one just sits at a computer and fiddles with stuff. I've taken to sitting close to him, and bugging him periodically when I have complex questions.

Third, it would be nice if these two would agree on what to teach us. I'm getting tired of Rafael starting to tell us something, and Gary telling him not to show us that yet.

Fourth: I work nights. And I sleep during the day. I was assigned to training in the afternoon class. I didn't realize there were morning classes I could attend instead. My boss apparently doesn't undertand that I would rather have 6-8 hours of uninterupted sleep. She honestly thought it would be easier on me to not work 8 hours, and then train for 4 hours, and then sleep. She really did think it would be easier to work 8, sleep 4, train 4 sleep 4, and then work 8. ARGHHHH....

But like I said, it's a better system. And I've used the PMS that this system was based on... it's basically mostly the same, but with some really nice bells and whistles. So, when I'm in class, I'm all about being "the change agent" there. Telling people it'll be good. Showing people nice stuff they can do to make it easier.

Which gets frustrating when I get to the point where I want to bang Rafael's head into one of the computers. So, I don't say anything in class. I'm saying it here.

I want my mommy....

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #2 09-23-2003, 03:39 PM

I used to be the agency computer trainer. I've been to trainings like what you describe.

:

ms_n · #3 09-24-2003, 01:31 AM

Take two aspirins and post again in the...afternoon...

this too shall pass

hugs cuz i likes you lots

murasaki · #4 09-24-2003, 08:59 PM

ROTC Professors of Military Science, in grand Army-acronym tradition also get shortened to "PMS." Since most of the PMSs are men, they really hate that acronym.

Back to your regularly scheduled thread... {{{eris}}}

--naomi

magenta321 · #5 09-24-2003, 09:17 PM

The hospital I used to work at had a computer system called "Patient Management Services" -- PMS for short.

Hope everything is going better, Eris.

eris esoteric · #6 09-26-2003, 12:39 PM

Am taking my first moring class after working last night. Am groggy, but most of the class is making sense. At least we are done making reservations, that was boring. Now we're into billing stuff.

Am happy.

Am also happy that I will be going home in an hour...

ms_n · #7 09-27-2003, 01:48 AM

eris esoteric · #8 09-28-2003, 10:09 AM

Doom. Doooooom...

OK, so last night, I walked in to work. First mistake. One of the student supervisors* told me that his drawer was over. He'd had the same drawer last night, and no one had used it since, so he wanted to know if maybe he had forgotten to drop money the night before. I told him I'd go down to accounting to check his report. I returned with the report, told him that he had dropped no money, and that the computer had said he had taken in no money. I asked him how much he was over. He didn't know. So, I counted down his bank for him (watching him try to do it was just painful.) We determined that he was over almost exactly the amount for the weekend rate plus tax for two nights. We concurred that it was probable he had made the error Friday night. He never did figure out where the money was supposed to go. At this point, we're just waiting for someone to tell us that they already paid us for a room that we're trying to hit them up for money for.

Then he tells me that they had forgotten to check someone in the night before. Not a problem, the room and tax get billed to the university. Did he charge the room and tax? No. Did he know how to charge room and tax? Yes. Why didn't he charge the room and tax? Because he didn't know how to charge the room and tax. (I might mention that talking to this particular person is like talking to a brick wall. And less satisfying.)

About this time, my coauditor asks me if I have the audit keys. Since I had grabbed them to get into the accounting office, I knew I had them. Except I didn't have them. Yep. That's right. I'd locked them in the accounting office. No problem, we have another key to get in there... it's the one that's one the set of fire emergency keys, in the pretty red box with the glass in front of it. So, I got to break the glass. They hate it when I break the glass. Apparently, it's a major production to get another piece of glass. I don't know. So, calling it an accounting emergency, I took full responsibility. For some reason, they never yell at me. Everyone else they yell at. I don't get it, you'd think they thought I was scary or something.

My coauditor was supposed to leave at 2am. At 1:30, I received the bills from the banquets department. I went to the restaurant office to generate the food and beverage reports. This usually takes 10 minutes at the most. This time it took over an hour. Got one of those funky messages that means I have to have tech support dial in and spank our server. And I also got an out of balance tag on one of the reports. The out of balance I can deal with, I just pulled up check adjustments, picked the department, and scrolled through the checks. I found the problem check, determined that I had to click one button to fix the problem, clicked the button, and hit save. Nothing. I exited out of adjustments, told it to save the last screen info, went back in, and did it all over again. Nothing. It wasn't gonna take my changes. So I printed out the out of balance check, called tech support and left them a message about the problems, set up the modem for them to dial in, and went back to the desk.

After getting to the desk, I sent my coauditor home, appologizing for making him stay so late. He told me there was a room that had a remote that didn't work, and engineering wasn't answering. I told my security guard to take the remote from an empty room and take it to the room that needed it. Somewhere in there, the security guard and I both forgot what room needed the remote. (fortunately, the guy called the desk again. I'd be pissed about the nagging, if we hadn't forgotten which room he was in).

Tech support calls me back, I manage to mostly explain the problems, but I tell him I'm busy and won't be able to walk him through anything. The error message he's cool with, he knows what to do. He says he'll dial in and call me back when he's done with that. I manage to figure out how to deal with the out of balance check, get some of the food and beverage stuff entered into the computer, and check my time.

It's now coming on 3:30. This is not good. I have at least another hour and a half of work to do, and only half an hour to do it in. See, our computer network goes down at 4:30 for an hour. The actual computer audit takes 15 minutes. I have about 15 minutes worth of printing stuff out to do after the audit's been run. I don't have to run the audit before the back up, but it's a really good idea to. Besides which, 5:30 in the morning is NOT a good time to have the computer shut down again. But, I'm not going to get the stuff I need to get done before my zero hour... and besides which, it's Sunday morning, and we don't have a lot of people scheduled to wake up early (imagine that.) So, I bite the bullet, and decide to hold of on the audit. This makes me much more calm and reaszonable.

Apparently, I was so much more calm and reasonable that when tech support called me back, he thought he was talking to a different person. I made engineering watch the desk so that I could go back to the restaurant computer and show him the problem check. He was baffled. His only theory was that the computer wouldn't let me change a closed check. I pointed out to him that I have changed lots of closed checks (did four of them before calling him), and that this was a specific error that I had seen before. I always love it when I manage to baffle tech support.

After dealing with him, I took my mountain of paperwork into the back office and churned through it. Was done just in time to run the audit at 5:30. Smooth sailing the rest of the morning....

Until this kid walked in, walked around the front desk, found the walled off extension of the front desk where we put people with large conferences who want to have a registration desk, sat down, and fell asleep. I walked up to him, informed him that he couldn't sleep there. He grunted. I repeated that he couldn't sleep there. He grunted. I told him if he didn't leave, I was going to call the police. He grunted agreeably. So, I called the police. Three cops showed up (apparently, this was the only drunk college student they could find on a Sunday morning in a college town after a football game). Turns out he thought he was in Brody Hall. Brody Hall is the dorm across the street. The police called his roommate, told them they were taking him over there, and would the roommate kindly meet them in the lobby. Then they escorted hm out of the hotel.

I just want to point out that all of this was in one night. And this is just the highlights. Never mind the people calling me at 3am for a 7am wakeup.

And this is all with the old familiar (if crappy) system. I am in fear of the month after the changeover right now. And I want the name, phone number, home address, and email address of the person who decided that it would be a GOOD idea to change computer systems during the football season (you know, when we're usually so full on the weekends we charge and extra thirty dollars because we can?). I want them dead.

*We are owned by a university. Part of the deal is that we hire students to work in various positions in the hotel. A student supervisor is therefore a student who is supervising other students. These students are not my bosses. I often get to tell them what to do. This is one of those perks of my job that I'm not supposed to enjoy so much. On the other hand, these people will someday be GMing in hotels that I might possibly work at. This makes me wake up in a cold sweat if I let myself think about it.

ms_n · #9 09-28-2003, 01:16 PM

Cheer up, Eris, because....er, well, cheer up.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #10 09-28-2003, 03:26 PM

Yeah, what Sharon said.

eris esoteric · #11 09-28-2003, 08:10 PM

Hey, whatever doesn't kill me makes me laugh my ass off, right?

Redlass · #12 09-29-2003, 12:39 AM

Yup. You're definitely case study material. Mind if I write this one up?

eris esoteric · #13 09-29-2003, 06:14 AM

Not that I'm calling you a vampire or anything Bridgette, but why do I sometimes think you're my friend just so I can pass the good stories on to you?

Redlass · #14 09-29-2003, 01:08 PM

'Cause I'm a vampire? With light damage reduction so I can function during daylight hours?

eris esoteric · #15 09-29-2003, 01:36 PM

Well, at least you're only talking about me being a case study in terms of my work...

Redlass · #16 09-30-2003, 01:45 AM

That's only 'cause my friend no longer works for the Community of Mental Health... er, oh, nope, I didn't say that out loud, did I?

eris esoteric · #17 09-30-2003, 07:33 AM

*sigh*

eris esoteric · #18 10-10-2003, 06:29 PM

OK, so the new system is up and running.

First night: The systems folks and the comptroller were basically running the show. Ryan (my coauditor) and I were basically there to add stuff up. It was a bizarre feeling, watching the audit go down. It was like this: Imagine you're the engineer of a train. You drive this train down the same peice of track 5 days a week. And then one day, you're walking along the track, and you see the train coming. And there's several people in the engine, all arguing about where the train should go. And you really don't like any of these people very much. And then you see, further down the track, a pile of rocks, and the train is heading right for them... and there's not a damn thing you can do to stop it. There's a curious feeling of... relief, and freedom as you watch the train barrel down toward the rocks...

Second night: Ryan did food and beverage, I did rooms stuff. I am elated and ecstatic. Rooms department reports are now simpler to read and deal with. I was actually seen hugging the computer at one point. Then I did banquets, because I was done doing stuff before Ryan did. Banquets is a nightmare. I am slightly worried about this when I leave.

Third night: Ryan and I swap. I do f&b, he does rooms. DOOOOM. We are dead. I never thought I'd find myself wishing to have the old food and beverage stuff back, but this piece of crap we have is ridiculous. Utter garbage. It doesn't even balance to itself, much less to the main system. DOOOM.

Fourth night: No home game tonight, so I told Ryan to take the night off. (I'm getting Sunday off out of the deal.) Just got an email that my favorite comptroller is going to be there with me tonight. This is in response to my email about the piece of crap f&b computer. I'll have all sorts of things to tell her about tonight, oh joy, oh bliss...