It took two days hard labour to get every computer, monitor, printer, projector, TV, Sound system etc. disconnected, crated up and labelled. Not very exciting except for the huge battle of fighting through the stacks upon stacks of folder, boxes and other rubbish that the staff had kindly piled up around and on the computers themselves. And of course the game of cat and mouse we had to play in order to steal way the crates we needed to do the job. They were like gold dust and we had to use all our cunning and stealth to get enough containers to get it all done.
This job complete, we retired down to the basement to await their imminent arrival. As the movers wheeled everything down to the basement on trolleys, the stacks began to pile up and soon our nice new office could not be seen for the amount of hardware occupying every inch of space.
Action stations; we have one day (yes one) to get as much done as possible before the troubled masses enter the fray, and our well laid plans for a smooth transition are flushed down the pooper.
Computers, monitors and printers by the dozens had to be cleaned, delivered to the new rooms and connected up. Power cables had to be replaced, Ethernet ports had to be patched out, phones reconnected and most importantly the kitchens located in order to keep up everyones caffeine levels.
Needless to say, we didn't get very far in a single day. The building is huge and takes a long time to get to anywhere, and even longer to find the place you want to get to. As impressive as the building is, it is a maze of corridors, hidden rooms and wondering builders. Some had been in there for weeks and had only just found their way out.
As every other member of the department was on a seemingly never ending mission, it was down to our team to place the computers in the correct location in one of the larger, main computer areas. Only with the computers in the correct positions would the contractors come in to "drill the holes" in the desks for the cables to go. The desks themselves were of course, the wrong ones, as they had opted for the cheaper option, and would only take half the amount of PC's that were listed.
The area consists of two floors, with large open work areas and several smaller rooms dotted around. Each had to be populated with connectivity to the information super highway. The computers had been delivered to the bottom floor and the internal lift had not yet been commissioned for use. With one hundred and twenty PC's and monitors to put out, getting them up the stairs was going to be a long, hard, tedious job. "No problem" we thought. "We'll cage them up and take them up in the lift outside in the corridor."
Sadly there was one tiny flaw in the plan. The lift had been blocked off up on the next floor by the builders and this resulted in us making a twenty minute round trip up and over the rooftop to the other side of the building to a different lift entrance. Oh, the things we have to do in the name of duty.
We managed to complete the job with only three cracked monitors and the discovery that the electrical & CAT5 sockets were not finished. In addition we realised that the running of the cables was going to result in either a giant chaotic mess or desks that were electrically live after cutting through the power leads. Top notch planning as expected.
The staff filed in in droves; a swarm of excited users who appeared to look more lost than we were. They each find their offices like homing pigeons, only to get the urge to rearrange them before we have even had time to bring their computers in. And so our troubles began.
During the first two days we deflected complaints of "where's my computer?" & "when is such and such going to be done?" with our mighty shields of not caring and eventually the users got the message. "Let us do your job and don't move anything as it WON'T work!"
One particular doofus decided to switch off and move a computer halfway through the imaging process (even though the mouse and keyboard had been taken away,) and then complained that it didn't work: His wailing feel upon deaf, disgruntled ears.
Another row ensued later that week as one of my colleagues dared to place a computer next to the CAT5 socket (as was written on the plan; oh yes, there was a plan,) instead of halfway across the room where the indignant woman insisted it had to go on pain of death. Result: Another disappointed customer. Strangely it then took two days to get that computer imaged successfully so she could use it.
Everything had been planned, checked and double checked, down to the most minute of details. Computer cabinets counted so carefully that once all of them had been placed in the rooms, we were still short: By forty five. Have no fear as ten were on order and arrived a week later. Other cabinets had to be quickly rearranged to help quell the oncoming panic that would ensue when the staff realised the truth.
It's late into the final week when we finally get started on the new exam room. With a pile of desks at the back, more wheelie chairs than was possible to fit in to the room and the connectivity sockets embedded in the floor, we knew it was going to be no small feat.
Being IT, we are naturally furniture movers as well. We get the forty desks in position (three times, as they were never quite right,) with the promise of another twenty five by the end of the week. They shouldn't have. No really, they shouldn't have.
When they arrived, we immediately noticed that they were several inches higher than their predecessors. On closer inspection we found that every desk was designed for a left-handed person. We have nothing against 'lefties,' but twenty five desks were surprisingly excessive with nowhere for a right-handed person to place their mouse. Instead of doing the sensible thing and sending them back to be replaced, we were told to "use them anyway."
Each desk was opened and locked by a key. Not one key that fitted all of the desks, but a unique key for each, times two. Off down to the shopping centre I went to buy key tags, before the keys got mixed up and the exam world as we knew it came to an end. It's amazing the amount of shops that sell key tags, it's even more amazing that they only stock about ten at a time. When I asked for fifty, the shop assistants looked at me like I was asking for a selection of AK47's and a stash of plutonium. A good old discount shop came to my aid and I bought their entire supply amid quizzical looks from the checkout assistant.
The room itself was spacious, until we had filled it with sixty five desks, chairs and computers. So spacious that the desks have to sit upon the covers that hide the electrical and network sockets, so maintenance in that room is going to be a constant challenge.
We plug the computers in, we switch them on and only eight show any signs of life. It's then we notice that there is no power to 75% of the room. Turns out the electricians had placed the majority of the electrical sockets on a single circuit (what a good idea.) With a good forty computers and screens plugged in, it couldn't cope, gave up and tripped the breaker. Sometimes I can relate.
The electrical problems didn't end there. With everyone now partially moved in, generator tests were carried out one evening. It's a good job they were because once it was off, in two buildings the power wouldn't come back on. It was almost 48 hours until it was back on fully. In the meantime no one in those buildings were able to get on eBay and our backup room had completely shut down.
With everyone working flat out for over a fortnight. Working lates, weekends and even bank holidays, we didn't have time to sort out any other technical problems. All staff were notified and warned before hand, but this didn't stop one self-diagnosing weekend IT expert from getting in touch with the following problem and solution.
We all had a good laugh, deleted the email and carried on with our labours.
...Oh and we are still waiting for our drawers to arrive.
LOL, Sounds like a complete 'Nightmare'. Funny story.
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