(The original counselling document)

Project 1: Commissary Conversion

I concur that I was assigned the Commissary Outsourcing about February 23, 1998; as stated by Keanan Wright, to "coordinate the move, whatever that means". I adopted the coordinator title, and used it throughout my e-mail communications. I called Janet Smith that day, who expressed confusion, she had been told that John Cole would have the project. In scheduling a kick-off meeting for the outsourcing, I attempted to include Dave Jordan (VP of DP, Edward Don & Company). His travel schedule from Chicago conflicted with the immediate needs of the project, so a kick-off meeting was scheduled for March 2, 1998, with marketing and data processing representatives of Edward Don & Company present. Going over the preliminary agenda, it was determined at that time that Edward Don & Company had no need for the Telxon processing PC, even though Randy Graves offered to give it to them with a bow on it.

Following the meeting, Keanan and I met in his office, where it was determined that since no move was to take place, all that was left to do was the EDI interfacing and blocking of commissary transactions from PICS to GL. I asked Keanan if he wanted me to pursue the EDI, or turn it back over to John Cole. He said why don't you take it, if you have the time.

I continued with development of the EDI interface, which ultimately consisted of 42 components.

I don't remember the exact date, but it was a Friday in late March. Keanan called me into his office about 11:00 AM, and relayed to me that in a meeting in Gene Caldwell's office earlier in the week, it was first revealed that the Edward Don solution was encountering some budgetary problems, and might be in jeopardy. I don't know how many levels of passdown this information used until it got to Keanan, but he said he had to present an alternative at 12 noon that day. I replied that any PICS determination would have to come from him, because he was the only one in the group with any PICS experience. The EDI portion was well on track.

Later that afternoon, I observed Keanan, Randy Graves and Keith Hall in Randy's office. It wasn't until the following week that I was informed of the contingency plans they had made at that meeting. To me, it was at this point that things should have been handed back. Instead, my manager effectively took any control I may have possessed away from me. Ultimately, Edward Don did not need the contingency plan.

I met the goal as outlined in our kickoff meeting and subsequent meeting in Keanan's office. Any changes to that goal were actively distanced from me. The only task remaining is testing, which requires a test tape from Edward Don. It was relayed to me, through John Cole, that at a different meeting I was not included in, that it was decided to defer an Edward Don tape until late June, since they were going to undergo a computer system change over the Memorial Day weekend.

If I was to truly manage the project, rather than coordinate a move, I must question why information and requests were filtered by many levels before coming to me, if the information reached me at all.

I was never requested to produce a project plan; I still do not have access to Microsoft Project Manager. My progress was relayed in weekly status meetings with Keanan. If I was not on track, ignoring items, or not performing to expectations, this was the appropriate time for intervention.

It was during the March and April 1998 time frame that I was experiencing severe neuropsychiatric disturbances; also noted in a previous counseling session by Bill Thurlow and Keanan Wright. It was coincident with my stopping IM Rocephin therapy, and starting Doxy therapy. As a result of the counseling session during this time frame that the Doxy therapy was halted, and Trimox substituted.

The jury is still out on whether an employee should divulge problems and illnesses to an employer; personally and professionally. There is the fear of weakness, and the fear of exploitation of that weakness. There are pros and cons either way. I've always believed honesty is the best policy, in a supportive environment everybody wins. Since the initial diagnosis of Lyme Disease, and associated pathologies, I have kept MRG, in the persons of Bill Thurlow and Keanan Wright, abreast of the progress, complications, refusal of treatments by First Health, manifestations, outcomes, signal points, and provided educational literature to explain the things I can't.

I have personally requested from Bill Thurlow immediate notification of any of the known manifestations or signal points that would dictate an immediate change to treatment, or behavioral modification. As I have repeatedly stated, and been concurred with, "in the absence of feedback, one must assume they are on an approved track." Instead of a non-confrontational intervention or personal observation when events occur, where it could be instructive to all parties and immediate corrective action taken, I have been subjected to stored-up, disconnected charges in official counseling sessions. Keanan stated in the HR visit (that I requested) that he had read all the information in my personnel file. One would hope that a monitoring request of such a serious nature is recorded there.


Project 2: Ponderosa Payroll Polling

This project has a long and confusing history. I don't know when the project originally launched, but it was in October 1997 that John Cole invited me to a project meeting as support for polling issues he didn't understand. During that meeting, it was determined the ReMacs produced Employee Time Detail Report (source code could not be touched), and the MRG written Payroll Adjustment Form Report did not meet the Payroll Department needs for a combined report, with totals.

I volunteered to machine process the two reports, and produce a single report to meet those needs. During October, November, and December 1997, John Cole and I actively pursued trying to get test data. The lack of test data was reported to both Bill and Keanan; Keanan and John repeatedly requested follow-up from Dan Dunfee. Sometime in December, the project was put on the shelf due to higher priorities.

I believe the project was reactivated in late January or early February 1998. At that time, there was confusion as to which version of the Employee Time Detail Report was to be produced. The initial turnover was a summary report. By changing report parms, the Detail Report I had speced and coded for was produced. However, the format for the Adjustment Form Report had changed, necessitating coding changes.

Late February, we recommenced testing. The only problem seen was a difference between the number of units reported polled and the number of reports from the units I received to process. It took about four weeks to discover the EOF character in the file that caused a unit report to not be appended or transmitted, which explained the difference in polled versus received.

The POS group researched alternative solutions, where they came up with an alternative capture method. However, this alternative once again required reprogramming. The April 15, 1998 meeting notes outlined the three options available. Those notes described it would take about four weeks for me to reprogram, while it would take Dan Dunfee four days for his 'strip the printer codes' solution. The Dan Dunfee option was adopted at that meeting. Somehow, before the next meeting, it was determined that instead, I was to make the change. I scrambled to catch-up. The very first test was a failure, because of a corrupted file. The POS team quickly found the cause and a potential solution.

During this time frame, the corporate move took place, and I was assigned additional projects. One of these projects was the Commerce Department, Bureau of the Census, 5 Year Economic Census. The ISR was submitted by the Payroll Department 10-1-97, with a government mandated due date of 2/12/98. I was assigned this project by John Cole on 4/7/98. He had already arranged for extensions in the due date. Following this, John Cole gave me information on the Falcon32 project, where I was to help in testing. This has evolved into me doing all the testing.

This project required extensive new development time, due to the new electronic reporting requirements via the Survey Exchange Format. My mission was to complete by May 15, 1998, the end of the extension. I committed to being done before the corporate move.

I considered this a high priority, to avoid government penalties. In this task I failed, due to the extreme pressure to transfer effort to the 'combined' and 'totals' report. John Cole requested another extension (our last) to May 28th. The Census was reviewed May 18th and sent via US Mail that day.

The emphasis then shifted back to the Ponderosa Weekly Polling Project. Bill, Keanan, John and I had a meeting where we discussed where all the progress holdups were, our issues and concerns. I was asked what would make me comfortable before saying my part of the project was ready to go. My reply was 'seeing the same thing twice'. Throughout the project I had had various formats presented to me, with each new test being a discovery process. With the report files being variable length file, with a different internal order each polling transmission, a comfort level could not be established with a single successful test. A test plan of processing the same information seven different ways was given to me. This is akin to test driving a new car forward, then in reverse, then insisting that two test drives took place.

Another meeting happened after that, with Bill wanting to know what the holdup was. I listed the production abends I had to support. Although recently taken off primary oncall status for the system (for which I am extremely grateful; three years of 4am support calls is enough), I remained secondary oncall, and the primary was not present. I also listed the items that had to be done to advance the financial close, first one day, then two days; all due to the move. John Cole also had to expend additional time backing-out/fixing application problems because not all 'change the close date' activities took place correctly. This is the 'close' and 'move' I've maintained took time away from the project. While I indeed nodded at a meeting, the original question was directed to John Cole. Since the last visit to HR, I have done my darndest to be agreeable and non-contradictory with anyone or any subject. With the upheaval of the move, the changing of the close dates, and being directed by Bill and Keanan to help out other teammates get their PC and network problems resolved, it became darn near impossible to meet with payroll to review reports. Maybe I should have tried harder, but I sure didn't have the energy.

Then another meeting took place with Bill, Keanan, and myself, where Bill stated he was mad that I had missed a commitment, that I had delayed the project. When I asked to back up to the word commit, he stated he had nothing further to say, read the meeting notes, and stormed out of the room.

I went back and read all the meeting notes. I then communicated to my manager, Keanan Wright, that I believed I was due an apology. This request has not been addressed, but coincides with no more meeting notes being published. Even though at the last project meeting, Carol Pfingston publicly thanked me for all my hard work.

Concerning the slander about my integrity: To say two e-mails don't count as several, and ignore the in-person conversations on the subject is extremely disingenuous. The final conversation with Mary Martin, after I forward the last e-mail to the-soon-to-return Beth Briggs, was that she had 'spaced it', she'd get on it.

Concerning the 'clobbering' of test file .001: Yes, my testing destroyed that file. I have always admitted to my mistakes, and published them so that others may learn. I do not hoard knowledge. In this case, the only way to determine 'expected results' was to temporarily 'destroy' the file, by excluding report lines with no extractable data, sorting and counting the categories of the remainder. Using these counts, the reformat process could be tracked through each stage. Earlier in the testing process, it took me two days to find the 'missing' two lines of detail from among over 6,000 lines of input. In the infamous 'clobbered' incident, I inadvertently 'exited' the modified file, instead of 'canceling', which would have reversed my 'expected results' edits. This resulted in the file being invalid for testing, because it was not in the raw state needing testing. I have since (.002 thru .006) made copies of the test files before performing my expected results changes.

The other issues:

Web page - It has been known for some time that I have been learning Java on my own, and was applauded for the forethought. I installed the Java library information on 'my' PC. I was given Microsoft Front Page to install on my machine. While learning anything new, one soon gets beyond the universal 'hello world' examples. To build an application, you must have an application to build. The 'hello world' application does not lend itself to the building block approach. Because I used the a 'personal web page' as a project does not obviate value to the company.

I have also installed software that I have purchased that was strictly for company purposes in order to complete a project, and have never installed at home. If 'working' on web pages is wrong, intervention should have taken place at the first incident, not accumulated to be cited as several. The only 'observed time' that I am aware of is the day of the power outage. Late that afternoon, I was experimenting with background color combinations using frames. I showed everything to Bill, he remained in my cube for quite a while discussing the wonderful things to be found on the web.

There has always been an implicit understanding in DP that some company owned software must be installed on resources not their own to support the company, and through balance some personal tools be placed on company resources. The learning of VB4/VB5 at work has been expected. Java and HTML are the next tool set.

I have also used the Internet at work to research Lyme Disease, and given copies to Bill and Keanan to help in their education, and hopefully gain understanding and support.

Because of the seamless need for support (do from home or work), the boundaries of whose PC is whose tend to become clouded.

CD Pick list - This item has been available on the network for three years. For a departmental picnic in July 1996, my 'home business' volunteered DJ services. I placed both a Karaoke-software list, and a music CD list on the network, and e-mailed the department requesting a review, to let me know what other music they wanted, I had other libraries available.

The "home business" cited has never been for profit. It started as (and remains) a musical therapy device. Both Bill and Keanan have been told about my wife's loss of reading and writing capabilities, and only the artistic side of the brain, stimulated by music and singing, allowed her to maintain functionality. The same cognitive dissonance has affected me, to a lesser degree.

Since that time, each year I have donated a 3-hr Karaoke or 4-hr DJ service to EFOC to support the MS bike team. I have kept those lists updated.

Each of the 'other issues' was meant to be a benefit to the company or employees or our community. Since it is an issue of contention, I will remove the offending artifacts, and cease volunteering for anything.

Personal Observations:

During my tenure with MRG, Bill Thurlow received deserved promotions. Due to the restructuring, he quickly became overload. One solution was to promote Keanan Wright to manager, to offload some of the duties. Keanan quickly became overloaded, and shifted some supervisory duties to John Cole.

Also due to the reorganization and other project needs, what was once supported by eight people was offloaded to three; Keanan, John and myself.

In the meantime, other project needs required of Jerrel Grubbs necessitated hiring a contractor to off-load some responsibilities.

John Cole became so overloaded, another contractor was hired to shift some of the burden.

Since the HR visit I requested, I had the early morning polling support offloaded to the contractor hired to help John Cole.

Then I had high profile projects added. I have been quite open and honest about my disability/inability to track multiple projects or tasks simultaneously. Between the known (and reported) problems extant with my disease, the unnecessary stressors added by misunderstandings, I am bound to make mistakes. This was openly made known, and help requested.