Pexels/Reddit
Isn’t it insane when people get triggered for you doing your job?
This guy shares how he shares a simple flaw in the system with his team and they did not receive it well!
Check out the full story!
Make me be part of the fault finding team? Imma gonna find dem faults!
It had been decided the world would be a better place if two of our campuses were merged into one.
They were only a mile apart and the new site was 3 miles away, so there wasn’t a big location issue.
Sure, some people had a harder commute, but some got an easier commute. It’s kind of equitable when you think about it.
This is where it gets bad…
To make the new build a rousing success there would be consultations, and people would be consulted, and everyone would be listened to.
Yeah.
You know that didn’t happen without me telling you, don’t you?
Each department was to send a representative to the New Build Consultation Group.
Despite my best efforts to stay quiet or even absent every time the subject of a mandatory volunteer came up, I got voluntold to go.
I, in all my mid-level position glory was to represent IT.
Fine. I really didn’t want to take part in a farce of a consultation so all the mistakes could be labelled as “unforeseeable”.
Things got really inconvenient!
But if you’re going to send a professional fault finder to a consultation I hope you have a full load of ink in that pen.
The meeting comprised 5 people from different departments and Susan, who worked in Facilities, so had been given the job of managing the new builds.
No one seemed to think there was a significant difference between booking rooms for training courses, making sure coffee and lunch breaks were catered, and making a multi-million £ building come into existence and transfer hundreds of staff and thousands of students over to it.
After introductions, top of the agenda was parking.
UH OH!
To be fair, I think it was smart to start with the contentious issue.
Parking was already a problem and the rumor was there would be less parking at the new site.
This would be solved, apparently, by not having any student parking.
Ignoring the inconvenience this would cause, and questions over the public transport suitability, there was already not enough staff parking, so how was messing over another group helping us?
After a bit of vague details about (somehow) rewarding car sharing, we were furnished with the magnus opus of technology that would solve all our issues; a gate with number plate recognition.
THIS would stop all those pesky outsiders coming over ‘ere and stealing all our spots. Something that had never been an issue.
That’s INSANE!
I’d been quiet until this point as I thought it all a bit daft, and I was formulating a plan out of the job anyway, so these issues were unlikely to affect me much.
But now we had hit on some technology I felt the need to chime in.
I let the others ask their questions to understand how a number plate recognition gate works.
For those not aware, it’s a barrier with a camera.
When you pull up it reads the number plate on the front of your car (all cars have a very standardized white front number plate in the UK), translates that picture to letters and numbers, looks it up in a database, and if it finds a match it opens the barrier.
He knew he had to do something about it!
Once everyone understood the technology I opened up with the problems in their happy-path only thinking.
OP: “So Jan and I” *points thumb at unsuspecting woman sat next to me* “car share every day, and she drives. But today her car is broken, so we take mine. What happens when we get to the gate?”
Susan: “What do you mean?”
OP: “My number plate won’t be in the system, so what happens?”
Susan: “Well, it could be, even if you don’t drive normally”
He tried taking his way around it!
OP: “That assumes a level of preparation. What if it’s an emergency?”
Susan: “There will be a call button. You can speak to someone to get let in.
I ignored the likelihood of that call system being managed, instead focusing on the loop-hole she’d just opened.
OP: “So I’ll just be let into this carefully controlled car park with limited spaces, based on my say so?”
Susan: “Uhhh…”
OP: “And you said I could have my number plate in the system”
They didn’t wanna listen!
Susan: “Yes”, pleased to not be talking about the space issue again.
OP: “Which one?”
Susan: “Which what?”
OP: “Which number plate? I have 2”
Susan: “You do?”
OP: “Yes”
Susan: “Why?”
That sounds weird!
OP: “Because it’s illegal to use the same number plate on different vehicles”
Susan: “Oh. Right”
OP: “So can the system cope with more than 1 number plate”
Susan: “I’ll check on that”
While she took a note about the multiple vehicle issue I reloaded.
OP: “Great. What if my other vehicle is a motorbike?”
They kept dodging the point!
Susan: “I don’t think that will be a problem”
OP: “Yes, but I’m guessing the camera is on the gate and looking at the front?”
Susan: “Um, yes”
OP: “Motorbikes don’t have front number plates. How will it read it and let me in?”
Susan: “I’ll check”
Finally the cherry on top!
She then wrote another note and brought the meeting to an end, siting “time”.
A few weeks later I heard from someone that there had been another New Build Consultation Group meeting.
I hadn’t been invited.
Mission accomplished.
YIKES! That sounds satisfying.
Why didn’t they see the problem in the first place?
Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this one.
That’s right! This user is happy that this guy pointed the flaws.
This user knows where the real issue is.
This user knows how things in America work!
This user shares their experience on the Jury committee!
This user knows that a 10th person is important!
Who would have thought that merging campuses could be such a big deal!
What an absolute mess.
If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.