work Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

20 Years a Librarian

When we were on the LAN, it was great!

I started my current job as a business librarian on October 19, 1992. It’s the only librarian job I’ve ever had, though I was a page at the then Binghamton Public Library for seven months back in high school.

After I quit FantaCo and spent a miserable year at Blue Cross, I started being nagged by not one, but THREE people, two librarians and a lawyer, insisting that I should go to library school. I didn’t want to; I had tried graduate school a decade before, in public administration; didn’t much like it. Having no better idea, though, I capitulated.

I found that I enjoyed it greatly. My work-study project for the dean, the late Richard Halsey, included doing a demographic study of the students enrolled in the program. Of the 104 folks in the program, the average age was 37, which was MY age! This was extremely comforting.

Since I was in the dean’s office, one of my professors badgered me to hold a meeting to see if we could re-institute a student association. Pretty much because I called the gathering, I got elected as the president, which meant that I got to cajole people to go to various student/faculty committees.

After I graduated in May 1992, I didn’t have a job, so I continued working at Midnight Comics until I was hired by the NYS Small Business Development Center Research Network, as the third of four librarians providing reference services for SBDCs all over the country. It had been in Georgia, but they lost the competitive contract.

First, I had to learn how to run a BBS, a bulletin board system, when I hadn’t even HEARD of it before that. My phone was also the fax line, so I never knew when I picked up whether I’d get a person’s voice or an earful of static.

In those days, we mailed our information to the counselors. We had a CD-ROM reader for a half dozen discs, but had to take turns using it. When we were finally on a LAN, so that we ALL could use the CDs at the same time, this was astonishing!

We eventually got Internet connectivity, but we could not e-mail much info. For one thing, even in the latter third of the 1990s, not everyone HAD e-mail. For another, the e-mail capacity for most university-based servers seemed to be easily exceeded.

Meanwhile, we also lost the national contract, based on the monetary proposal, despite accolades from counselors. So we were cut from having seven librarians at the peak to four. I remember that this was right around the time I was on JEOPARDY! in November 1998, because two of my colleagues declined to come to the Monday night TV watching party after they had been told they would be laid off the previous Friday.

Now we serve just New York with five librarians. Since everyone has e-mail, we can make documents into PDFs, and we have a site where our counselors can collect the data.

This is our fourth location in 20 years. We started in SUNY Central, downtown on Broadway in the “castle.” Then to 41 State Street mezzanine, which was the most stupidly constructed workspace I’ve ever been in; 41 State Street, 7th floor – the only time I’ve ever had a solo office with a door that closed – I LOVED that office; and for the last seven years, to Corporate Woods, and cubical land. Rumor has it we’ll move again next year when the lease runs out, but I shan’t worry about that until the time comes.

My previous longest job was 8.5 years at FantaCo. The next longest was 13 months at Blue Cross. So 20 years seems like a long time. There were times (the El Gato period, e.g. – the less said, the better) when I thought that would not be possible.

Happy anniversary to me.

My second worst job ever (or maybe the first)

the truth of the matter was that there were 40,000 insurance claims or more waiting in the basement.

I noted WAY back in 2005, my worst job; it was working in a box factory. But in some ways, that might be incorrect in that I quit that position after only two weeks. A real bad job would have equal parts suckiness and longevity. By that criteria, that would have to be working as a customer service representative at a major insurance company for 13 months from February 1989 through March 1, 1990; I’ll call it Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Actually, it started off well. We spent the first month in training, where I learned, among other things, a number of prefixes and suffixes relating to medical conditions. Early on at the desk, it wasn’t too bad. But the managers rode the CS rep who was the slowest, and that was disheartening. She eventually quit.

At some point, EBC/BS switched from a dental claims software that was perfectly adequate to one, rumor had it, that was created by some company bigwig’s brother-in-law; in any case, it was awful.

Then in December, there was this purge. The CS reps used to have clerks who would pull the case files for us, but they all got laid off. This made our job obviously more time-consuming, yet we were supposed to be just as productive, and the manager started harassing me. I was very sad not to be laid off.

The medical claims were going to be switched over to a new batch processing system, which, in retrospect, was a good thing, but the timing was terrible. There was supposed to be a two-week period when the old system was down, then the new system would be up. It ended up taking SIX weeks, from the end of December to the beginning of February.

People called us during this period, asking, not if their claims had been processed, but if their claims had been received. The official line was to ask folks to wait patiently because the truth of the matter was that there were 40,000 claims or more waiting in the basement. The customers started getting irate; they wanted to figure out their medical expenses for their 1989 income taxes. People wanted me to go downstairs and look for their claim, which of course was impossible. When they inquired if they should resubmit their claim, the official response was supposed to be “no,’ though the new system was supposed to kick out duplicates. At least on one occasion, a really exasperated customer said, “I’m just going to resubmit, OK?” and I said, “Sure, go ahead” and got dinged by management for failing to follow the company line.

Finally, the new system was in place, and claims were processed, and rather quickly, I must say. BUT when the records were inputted, they did not indicate how much of their claims, for each family member, had previously applied to the deductible for 1989. So for claims on the new system, many charges were applied to the deductible, even when the deductible had been met. This led to a new round of highly irate customers. When a customer complained more than a couple of times on the same topic, it became a supervisor call; at one point, the majority of calls were supervisor calls. I always suspected that this was a deliberate, cynical attempt for the company to save money, figuring some folks would not notice how much of their deductible had been already met.

Now, a customer service rep would have done this process somewhat differently. He would have sent out letters to the customers saying that the system would be down starting the fourth week in January, “so get all your 1989 claims in by that time,” noting that 1990 claims, which people were less concerned about, would be processed on the new system, as well as any straggling ’89 claims. THEN make the switch.

Also, during this period, we were scheduled to switch buildings. One day, I could see the new building had an ambulance in front, then two, then another, then a bus. Apparently, there was something wrong with the ventilation system, and they took some folks to local hospitals. The day we moved into that building was the day I gave my two-week notice. I did not want to be working there by my birthday, March 7, but I did stay until March 1, for then I would have health insurance until the end of April; had I left the day before, I’d only have coverage through March 31.

Interestingly, while only 3 of the 16 people in my training class were still with the company, the five CS reps who had been there before that time remained when I departed. They were built of sterner stuff than I.

I’ve been told that the organization is MUCH better now, FWIW.

FantaCo memories and FantaCon 2013

FantaCon is BACK! Saturday and Sunday, September 14 and 15, 2013 at the Marriott, 189 Wolf Road, Colonie (near Albany), NY.

I worked at FantaCo, a comic book store/mail order house/publisher for eight and a half years. But it was open 20 years from 1978 to 1998. For reasons I don’t quite understand, my friend Broome, who worked at FantaCo briefly in the 1980s, is in possession of a tractor-trailer, sitting on his property, filled with FantaCo publication.

Going through the truck one day, Broome came across a notebook. It was a journal that I started on September 20, 1984; the last entry was June 19, 1986. However, there were earlier entries, written with such detail that I must have transcribed them from the personal journals I was keeping at the time.

Some examples:
May 17, 1980- Wendy and Richard Pini do a store signing of Elfquest 7
September 19, 1980 – [Name of kid]’s younger brother came in, tried to sell comics stolen from the store a year ago.
December 19, 1981 – Phil Seuling’s house party [Phil ran Seagate, our comic distributor; he gave lavish affairs]
January 22, 1982 – we discover that our phone number in Comic Scene #2 is wrong and belongs to a psychologist who was perturbed at getting a “flood of calls”. [We weren’t happy, either; those misdirected calls meant lost revenue. And no, the psychologist wouldn’t give the callers the correct number.]
April 6, 1982 – Blizzard!
November 2, 1982 – Joe Sinnott comes up, buys 10 copies of Life of the Pope, John Paul II, which he inked. [I’m sure we gave him a discount.]
December 28, 1982 – Kris Adams called, indicated that Neal wishes to withdraw 4-page story for Gates of Eden 2 because he’s gotten a better offer from Pacific Comics to publish it in color.

And other random stuff, which took me right back.

FantaCo used to run conventions. They had them, if memory serves, in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1989 and, I believe, 1990. Well, FantaCon is BACK!

Here are the links to everything for need to know about the event being held Saturday and Sunday, September 14 and 15, 2013 at the Marriott, 189 Wolf Road, Colonie (near Albany), NY.

Official FantaCon Facebook Page, where people can “Like” the event

Official FantaCon Facebook Event Page (where people can indicate they are attending)

Official FantaCon Update Website

New vending machines – oh, bliss?

I was leaving the lunchroom, when four or five folks from my floor were oooing and aaahing before they used the vending machines.

I’ve complained about boring old Corporate (frickin’) Woods. Be assured I’m not the only one who feels that way. How else can I explain the excitement, nay, the GLEE of getting new vending machines?

We had had a traditional candy/cookie machine, plus a Coke machine and a Pepsi machine. But the new ones take credit and debit cards, and all sorts of other cashless forms of payment, most of which I don’t quite understand, as well as $1 to $20 bills.

Now this, I know, is not extraordinary. Although I’ve not seen many of these in the area, I know they’ve been all over the world years ago. Still, to think that any kind of innovation came to Corporate (frickin’) Wood astonishes.

And it’s not just me. I was leaving the lunchroom when four or five folks from my floor were ooohing and aaahing before they used the machines. Maybe it’s because the old machines were so terrible, constantly stealing money. The bill acceptor on the Coke machine was particular ornery.

One of my floormates suggested that they were cliched state workers, easily excited by just about anything. No, I think that the place physically is so soul-crushing that any sense of consideration, or cleverness, or progress is meet with near delirium.

But, only a month or so later, we noticed that the new vending machines had their own quirks. One simply wouldn’t accept quarters. The service people were slow to refill the machines, which was visually more obvious than before. Included in the lack of replenishment, change, specifically dimes. One time I put in two $1 bills for a $1.25 item. I hear the sound “phst” seven times for seven dimes that failed to drop, then an actual nickel. It took me weeks to get my 70 cents back.

As Townsend might have said, “met the new vending machines, same as the old vending machines.”
***
Of course, this is one of those buildings where you have to have those stinkin’ badges to get into the building, and then onto our floor. The building is filled with those signs not to allow tailgating. By this, they mean to allow someone else into the building or on the floor. This is violated regularly, fortunately, because I’m often misplacing the floor badge.

As for the building badge, I had put it on my key chain. In a matter of only a few months, the key chain wore off the magnetic stripe of the card, forcing me to order another one. This does not appear to have happened to anyone else; I’m rather special in that way.

The recovery, at least in my tribe

Happy birthday, middle child.

My sister Leslie was employed at a company when her workload virtually doubled, responsible for the safety at 51 drug stores, rather than 26. This is, unfortunately, a rather common scenario in corporate America; one is given so much work that the only way one could possibly fulfill the obligations is to work 60 or 70 hours a week and get paid for only 40. Ultimately, her company was purchased by another company, and she lost her job a couple of years ago.

She survived primarily on short-term, part-time work, and the fact that she had one rental property, which at least allowed her to not end up on the street.

Earlier this year, she got a new job. I’d describe it more fully, except that it’s not entirely clear to me. I DO know that involves her being a safety coordinator. In one scenario, she had to get someone to get rid of bees that attached themselves to a newsstand. She didn’t have to deal with the insects herself, but she did get some city workers to remove the bees, then to ascertain who should get the bill, in this case, the newsstand owner.

Possibly not coincidentally, my father was the vice-president in charge of safety for the construction company for which he worked for a couple of decades. (Hmm – I’m the fire marshal for my office, and took training to use a defibrillator a couple of years back.)

I took her new employment as a sign that the economy recovery, however slow, is coming along.

Happy birthday, middle child.