A Software Rant

Several months ago, my employer changed the software they use for timekeeping. The software is annoying for a number of reasons but I have had relatively few problems with it - until today.

See, I am going on vacation and, since I want to get paid for the time off, I was trying to do my timesheet before leaving. But, of course, me being me, I don't have quite enough vacation days. No problem, I figure - I can take a few days of no-pay, something I have often done in the past.

In the past, if I were to, say, take 2 days with no-pay over 2 weeks, I could easily charge 4 days of vacation and 1 day of no-pay in each of those weeks. The new software told me I could not charge no-pay until I used up all vacation, comp time earned, and personal holiday. (The latter two are not relevant, as I have not earned any comp time this fiscal year and I already used my personal holiday for the Friday after Thanksgiving.) So I charged vacation for all of the first week and duly signed that time card.

Which meant that I needed to charge 3 days of no-pay for the second week. Which still triggered the error message that I needed to use all my available vacation, etc. first. Using the "leave inquiry" function, I found that I had some odd fractional number of vacation hours. Of course, you can't actually put in 7.8621 hours into the form. So I tried putting in 8 hours for one day - which got me the message that I need higher level management approval to use vacation beyond what I've already accrued. But I still got the same bloody error message about using all my available vacation before charging no-pay.

In short, the software simultaneously insists that I am using more vacation than I have but I am not using all my accumulated vacation and, therefore, it will not let me sign my timesheet. The on-line help does not address this. And I could not find a phone number for anybody in HR who deals with the timekeeping system. (I suspect that, even if I could find such a number, reaching somebody this week would be unlikely.)

I sent an email to our group business manager (with my boss and our secretary copied on it) and I am sure he will straighten things out because he is a miracle worker. But I had better things to do with the 45 minutes or so that I spent futzing around with this today.

Trendy Ingredients Gone Too Far

I hate to come home to my place being a complete mess, so I tend to do a certain amount of scurrying around and tidying up before going on vacation. In this particular case, I was clipping coupons that have been sitting on the sofa for a few weeks. (Which is a chore I always intend to do right when I am reading the Sunday newspaper, but rarely get around to before said coupons expire.)

And there is a coupon for a new variety of Eight O'Clock called "Metabolism Boost." The gimmick is that this coffee is infused with antioxidants from green tea.

I don't drink commercial coffee, being the unrepentant coffee snob I am, so it is probably not fair for me to comment. But I do want to point out that coffee is higher in antioxidants than green tea.