Alright, let me tell you about this thing I call the ‘kevin ride’. It wasn’t an actual ride, like on a bike or anything. It was this whole process I got stuck in last week.
I just needed to get access to this shared folder. Sounds easy, right? Should take maybe five minutes. Send an email, get approved, boom, done. That’s what I thought, anyway.
So, I first pinged my manager. He said, ‘Yeah, no problem, just ask Kevin from IT, he handles that stuff.’ Okay, simple enough. Found Kevin’s contact, shot him a message. Explained what I needed, the folder name, everything.
Waited a day. Nothing. Sent a follow-up. Kevin replies, ‘You need to fill out request form XF-102.’ Okay, where’s the form? He sends a link to this ancient-looking internal site. Found the form, downloaded it. It was a PDF, couldn’t even fill it out on the computer. Had to print it, fill it out by hand, scan it back in. Took like half an hour finding a working scanner.
Sent the scanned form back to Kevin. Feeling pretty good, thinking I’m almost there. Nope. Next day, Kevin emails back. ‘This form needs your manager’s signature too.’ Why didn’t he say that when he told me about the form? Who knows.
Went back to my manager. Got his signature – thankfully he was in the office. Scanned it again. Sent it back to Kevin. This has got to be it, right?
The Plot Thickens
Wrong again. Kevin comes back, ‘Okay, got the form. Now, you need approval from the department head who owns the folder.’ Seriously? I told him my manager approved, showed him the signature. Kevin just said, ‘Procedure requires the data owner’s approval directly.’ This guy, Kevin, he just loves the process, doesn’t he?
Finding the department head was another journey. Finally got hold of her assistant. Explained everything. Sent the form over again. Waited another day. Finally, got the email saying she approved.
Forwarded that approval email to Kevin. Victory! Or so I thought. His final reply? ‘Okay, access granted. It might take 24-48 hours to activate.’ What?! Another day or two?
So this whole thing, this ‘kevin ride’ for simple folder access, took nearly four days. Four days of back and forth, printing, scanning, chasing people. For something that technically probably takes two clicks in some system.
- Find Kevin
- Get told about Form XF-102
- Print, fill, scan Form XF-102
- Get manager signature, scan again
- Get told I need department head approval
- Track down department head
- Get her approval
- Forward approval to Kevin
- Wait 24-48 hours
It’s just maddening. You try to do a simple task, and you get dragged through this maze. Makes you wonder how we get anything done sometimes. That, my friends, was my ‘kevin ride’ of the week.
