Privacy Breach

Posted: Wed 2 September, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Agency Idiocy, Business, Corbett, Customer Services, Geeky, Laziness, Marketing, People, Stupidity, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Yet again, today there’s a story about another place revealing a confidential list of customers in emails – and as usual, in what’s known as a Corbett round here (courtesy of a certain Irish marketing person) it’s looking like the leaker sent the email using CC instead of BCC.

In this case, the information is even more sensitive than usual, as it’s people who’ve used a particular STI clinic in London, and may have also revealed their HIV status.  Oh, bloody whoops.

It amazes me how often this seems to happen – and how easy it should be to fix.

The first answer is, obviously, train people.

But after that, it’s about defending against laziness and stupidity.  But even that’s pretty easy.

All it really needs is a block on recipients in CC.  If you’re sending an email and it’s got more than (say) 10 addresses in the CC field, it simply asks if you’re sure you want to send it with those people in CC rather than BCC.  That’s an email-client thing – but is easy to do.

It can’t be that difficult – my own email clients all already ask if I want to send an email with no attachments if the message contains keywords like ‘attached’ or ‘CV’, after all.

A similar thing could be done on the mail-server as well – put in a rule that if there’s more than [defined limit] of addresses in the CC, it doesn’t send without an authorisation, an acknowledgement that this is OK.

There will still be the odd blithering fucktrumpet who manages to send out a whole mailing-list in CC (or even To) – but at least make it harder for them to do so.

Surely that’s not asking too much?

 

Short-Term Let

Posted: Tue 9 June, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Advertising, Agency Idiocy, Bad Ads, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Housing, People, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Three years ago, when I was looking at moving (and ended up where I still am now) there were a couple of other places in the running – they fitted my plans, location and cost wise, if nothing else.

I go past one of them regularly on commutes, visits to parents and the like – so I see it come back on the rental market every six months or so (which is, not coincidentally, the usual period for a first short-term tenancy)

It’s pretty grotty, and right on a busy main road, so I’m not surprised it’s regularly in need of new tenants – and it looks like this, so it’s hardly appealing…Rental PropertyThat’s the only photo of it. There’s nothing of the inside at all – which always triggers my alarm bells, and is why I didn’t even visit it, so I’ve no idea what it looks like inside. I can’t imagine it’s much good though.

Even the sales description doesn’t do it any favours.

A One bedroom cottage situated on the outskirts of [village]. The property benefits from a parking area to the side and views of the countryside to the rear. Offered Unfurnished and Available Early July.

Entrance to Rear, Kitchen, Lounge, Bathroom, Double Bedroom, Shared Courtyard Garden, Double Glazed Windows, Electric Heating.

What fascinates me is that people choose it at all. OK, it’s dirt-cheap – although actually still a bit more expensive than the place I ended up with – but that doesn’t make it an appealing proposition. I’d imagine it’s even less of one after you’ve visited, seen the location and heard the road noise.

So I do wonder what type of person chooses it, and why.  And (of course) where they go next, once their six months there is done…

 

Issue Avoidance

Posted: Wed 25 March, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Agency Idiocy, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, People, Thoughts, Work-related | 2 Comments »

With one of the current jobs, the agent/agency involved has been insanely needy all the way through – regularly calling, wanting to “catch up”, and generally been a complete pain in the arse.  He’s absolutely incapable of following simple instructions – for example, “My mobile doesn’t work when I’m at home, so don’t call, just email” – he’s not managed that once. Always calls three or four times, then leaves a message, and so my phone goes into meltdown when I do leave the house.

Anyway, after yet another splurge of these, he asked how the contract was going, to which I replied that it was OK, but not brilliant. He asked why, and I told him – it’s not what I’d been told, not what I was expecting, and just generally isn’t great. (It’s one of those things, and I can live with it – besides, there’s only two weeks to go on it, and I won’t be renewing/extending)

And you know what? Since then he’s been absolutely silent. No acknowledgement, no calls, nothing.

All of which just makes me think that actually, he’s a bit of a tosspot.  He’s pushed so hard for communications and catch-ups, but when he hears something that might mean doing something, he runs a mile.

It’s a safe bet that I probably won’t work through that agency again. It’s not a big issue – there’s loads of the buggers out there – but it’s just a bit annoying.

Ah well. Two weeks.  That’s all, just two weeks to go.

Failed Survey

Posted: Wed 9 July, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Advertising, Agency Idiocy, Cynicism, Domestic, Work-related | Leave a comment »

I got a survey by email today from Randstad Technology, asking about skills required for management and leaders, as well as about Career Progression etc.

Now, glossing over the fact that my version of “Career” is to use the definition of “to move swiftly along; rush in an uncontrolled way” (as in ‘Careering downhill’)  – and thus not really relevant to me, and my opinion not being really relevant to it – there’s a couple of pretty glaring errors on the second page, which amused me somewhat…

OoopsSo I’m assuming that the third top attribute should be ‘numeracy’, and one of the three top skills should be “attention to detail”…

Acronyms

Posted: Fri 13 June, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Agency Idiocy, Creativity, Customer Services, Cynicism, Web Development, Work-related | Leave a comment »

The current place has just launched a new product for their customers. They’re proud of it, and they’re flogging it now.

It’s been called “Alternative Reporting System for Executive Decisions”.

No-one – not one of ’em, not marketing, not the board, no-one – has realised what the acronym for this product is. And they’re launching it.

I could tell them. I can’t be arsed.

[I so wish I was making this up. But I’m not]

Waiting For Pay

Posted: Thu 17 April, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Agency Idiocy, Domestic, Finances, Work-related | Leave a comment »

This current contract has had one major downside – the agency in question have the worst pay schedule I’ve ever seen.

Of course, there are also quite a lot of other downsides, which is why I’m not going to be extending or renewing the contract anyway. But that pay schedule is definitely a contributory factor to the entire thing.

It’s come through an agency I hadn’t previously dealt with, and while they did say that the job paid monthly (which is fine with me) they carefully didn’t explain quite what they meant. This tells me that they damn well know the pay schedule is insanely broken/dodgy, but can’t be chuffed to do anything about it.

Usually, a monthly contract is paid by dint of the contractor submitting an invoice and getting paid seven days later. All well and good. You have an invoice deadline of (for example) the 23rd of the month, submit by then and get paid for month-end.

Not with this agency. Oh no.

You submit your invoice for the end of the month. They then take three weeks to pay, *and* still send it BACS, so it takes three days to hit your account. So, for example, the invoice for March, submitted by the ‘March’ deadline of 4th April (don’t ask) doesn’t hit a bank account ’til 18th April. (Which is a bank holiday – something the agency only realised when I asked them what they were doing about bank holidays)  For me, because this one has gone through an Umbrella company, I don’t get paid ’til the next working day – the Tuesday after Easter.

My colleague who started on 31st March won’t get paid til the 23rd of May.

In short, that’s shocking. And I can’t wait to get paid (three days before my contract ends).

You Had One Job…

Posted: Sun 23 February, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Advertising, Agency Idiocy, Cynicism, Pedantry, Stupidity | Leave a comment »

While out and about this weekend, I spotted this sign, and simply had to stop and take a picture of it…

How worrying is it when an Estate Agent can't spell reserved

Romans Estate Agents, you had one job, and this is what you get…

(Amusingly, their website also claims “a thorough approach to every aspect of our business”)

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