I’m at home today. Working. Really. I’ve brought the new dongley/crypto card thing so that I can logon and access my work documents. From the comfort of my own home. How wonderful is that??? No long journey in rush hour traffic. No radio news. No road rage/traffic jams/road works. This is clearly the pinnacle of human endeavour – to allow not just those top cats, the organ grinders, but us lowly monkeys, to work from home (using our own heating/lighting/electric, working well into our own time, beyond those 8 daylight hours poorly bought and paid for by my own dear employer). And to gain from us (me) our (my) unconditional gratitude!!!
So.
9.15. (A little late, but – well, the time will be made up by no morning coffee/lunch/afternoon tea/chat breaks during the day) Here’s the laptop. Retrieved. Turned on.
9.20 . Here are the instructions. (Carefully printed out yesterday. Five A4 sides of them!) Quick read through….Longer read through. Did I print out the English language version of these anywhere??? (Am starting to foresee some difficulties with this endeavour….)
9.40. Here’s the email, forwarded home as added insurance. (Luckily – the elink is needed, not just the instructions!)
9.45. And here are all the passwords/codes/usernames (all of which should surely allow me to send a rocket to the moon!
And – here are all the paper files which need to be electronically updated/completed (a full environmentally friendly, re-useable, hessian Tesco bag of them!!). Clearly working from home speeds everything up – this lot would normally take me ten days of full on, intensive working!!! But today – today is going to be turbo-charged!!! I’m bubbling, sparkling, rarin’ to go! I’m not going to lift my head. (No checking my home emails. No internet shopping. No checking out blogs. Just because I’m home doesn’t mean I’m in fun mode!!)
So – here goes.
9.46. Click the link. Enter username. User password. So far, so good. Crypto password. (Crypto password???? I’m drowning already!!). Oh – here it is -front of dongle. Pincode. Pincode? Front of dongle box. User pincode. Where’s that?? Back to email. Back of dongle. System number. Now – where on earth... Oh – on the email. Finally. Every possible code entered. (All this techno-babble is no challenge to me, a woman of my skill, intellect, etc). Click log on.
10.00. Log on not recognized. Contact IT systems manager. Not Recognized???? After all that??? And – the only number/name/code I don’t have is the IT systems manager????
What am I going to do with all these files now??
But – is it the remote access work system which has its limitations or the remote access worker????? Second thoughts – it’s definitely the system. After all – I followed all the instructions, didn’t I???
So I suppose you just had to spend the day browsing?
If only…. although I did allow myself a little smidgen of a few seconds to check things out… to read a couple of blogs… to pick up a couple of essentials for the upcoming trip… – just until I could get the document set to do the work in the usual, grinding way, you understand???