See if it flies – Sandra 55

 

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.]

[There's some back story here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and read more recent Sandra episodes like this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

“Why did we not get a chance to input into this?” asked Bill, looking directly into his camera and hoping it freaked David out.

“It wasn’t that kind of initiative,” said David. “It was something we talked about in certain circles and decided to act upon in a proper and timely manner.”

“Without including us?” said Bill. “Was that actually ‘proper?’ It’s a bit off, if you ask me. Especially as I’m, you know, HR, people, employees, face-to-face sort of - well not face-to-face at the moment but trying to reach out and communicate and work with people and you know, this would have been pretty good for all that."

“And who’s checked it from a legal point of view?” asked Janice sternly from the other screen.

“Look, guys,” said David. “You’re blowing this up out of all proportion. It’s just an app, it’s just a  - a - little thing we thought we’d try out and see what happened and then if we liked it, you know we can take it further.”

“But it might have gone further in the first place if you included people in it,” pointed out Bill. “Talk to your people, discover what they want. That’s the key here, David. Not just what you guys in the upper echelons want or whatever. Not that your views aren’t valid and everything, but, you know, you’re asking the staff to promote this app and they had nothing to do with it.”

“Well,” said David, “We don’t really need them to promote it…”

“Oh, oh,” said Bill. “Not even that, then?”

“If anything goes wrong who’s responsible?” asked Janice.

Sandra sighed and decided to leave herself on mute. She took another sip of today’s fantastic coffee/chocolate combo and surreptitiously flicked through the twitter stream where the app was causing a small ripple though hashtag of Epsteins and truckerslife. Sure it’s wasn’t kittengate, but it was a reasonable start for a low-key set up.

The to-ing and fro-ing between the people on the screen in front of her was entirely predictable she thought. Back in the day you’d just head down the corridor and have a quick chat with some one and everything would be done, but now, and especially after such a long time being away from the office, people were frankly tired with the constant zoom calls and having to put everything past everyone else just made everyone’s day stressful. In any case the sun was still shining outside and everyone resented anything that dampened the mood.

“I would like to stress,” said David, “that everyone in senior management have been very impressed and happy with the performance of the business recently. It’s been a fantastic revelation to see how everyone’s pulled together and that the business’ overall figures are still pretty impressive.”

“Words!” said Bill, stating the obvious and using words himself, noted Sandra, “Just words!”

Sandra took herself off mute and waded in.

“If I can just put something in here,” she said. “The app is adaptable. As you’ll know from your own experience everyone is constantly updating apps, bringing in new ideas, fixing bugs all that kind of thing. There’s no reason we can’t introduce new ideas and new parts of the app as we go along.”

The others looked at her - well, as much as they could through their screens. The effect sometimes annoyed Jenny because it could look as if no one was looking at anyone while having sometimes intense conversations.

“In other words if you have idea to add on, or want to change what’s up there then let us know and we can get it sorted.”

“Yes,” said David, relieved. “Absolutely right. So what kind of ideas might you have, do you think, Bill?”

“Well,” said Bill, “You know, something people related. Or featuring our people in some way that - you know - is bit more inclusive somehow.”

“Fine,” said David, sensing the home straight. “Get back to us on that and we’ll get it sorted.”

“Can I put out a sort of user quiz?” asked Bill, “You know, a survey among our staff and everything? We’d get some good feedback and then also it might highlight areas we’re missing on the app at the moment.”

“Great idea,” said David, in a finalising sort of way.

But Sandra was beginning to feel a slight sense of worry now, just gently seeping into this whole project. It wasn’t so much that an increased number of users might mean their Easter Egg was discovered, it was more that increased numbers of ideas would make everything more complicated. And that could mean more disappointment in the overall product. They couldn’t satisfy everyone, and the more ideas that were tabled, the fewer percentage wise would be taken up.

“Sounds promising,” she said.

“Janice?” asked David, “Happy?”

“As long as I know who to blame when it falls over or someone tries to sue us,” she said.