Re: [libreoffice-users] How to handle regressions

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the suggestions, but I assure you, I have had many, many
conversations with him about this over these past 15 years I've been
managing his systems.

On 10/1/2014 9:03 AM, Tom Davies <tomcecf@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi :) 
> I think probably the best way to handle it is to arrange a meeting with
> your boss.  Make sure it's a proper meeting rather than just trying to
> catch him/her "on the fly" while he/she is busy dealing with other stuff. 
>
>
> Apologise profusely for having tried to save the company x amount of
> money! 
> That you did so by trying to avoid the needed upgrade to MS Office
> 2013/365.  Explain that you have put tons of your own time into saving
> the company money in this way.  Let him/her know that the office workers
> are now demanding that the company buy in MS Office 2013/365 at a cost
> of x. 
>
> Let him/her know that MS products typically run into many problems when
> they are first released but that most of those have probably been fixed
> by now.  Let him/her know that by delaying the cost you have ensured
> that the company should run into far fewer problems with their purchase
> than they would have done if they had just spent the money back when MS
> Office 2013/365 was initially released. 
>
> Maybe point out that there still will be problems because each version
> of MS Office has problems reading some files from any previous versions
> and that will continue to be a problem as each new version of MS Office
> needs to be bought.  Maybe follow-up by saying that converting documents
> to LibreOffice only suffers that problem the one time and that future
> versions of LibreOffice are built to ensure that old files can be read
>
> Maybe say that the whole exercise to save the company x amount seems to
> have created tensions with colleagues and been disheartening and taken
> up a lot of your own time and that for those reasons you would rather
> not be involved with installing MS Office 2013/365. 
>
>
>
> Basically wash your hands of it and point out that your motives were
> good but that it was tooo much of an uphill fight that you are not happy
> to continue with.  It would help to know the licensing cost, x.  For
> 2013 i've heard around $500/machine for the version with Access in it or
> for 365 it's probably a monthly figure. Companies can often get a
> discount and get a "volume" license. 
>
> DON'T offer to share your research on this!  Just make it sound like you
> have heard a rumour that it costs roughly x.  Picking the right version
> of MS Office is notoriously difficult and likely to run into problems. 
> Whichever version you (or anyone else) choose is likely to be the wrong
> one and incurr extra, hidden costs = if it's you that did the choosing
> or recommending then they might think it was you deliberately sabotaging
> the project so make sure it's someone else that is highly visibly to
> blame. 
>
> Similarly with installing it.  it's likely to be a lot more of a
> struggle than they probably realise and is likely to over-run both in
> time taken and costs.  So, again make sure you are visibly distanced
> from it.  Try not to help in any way to avoid getting the blame when
> they make mistakes!  If they need information then deliver it to your
> boss for your boss to hand on to whoever is doing the installs. 
>
> Hopefully they'll need to get some external consultants in to do it, and
> as is typical in the Window world those consultants will be tooo
> arrogant to ask for any information or help. 
>
>
> Maybe at the end of the exercise arrange another meeting with your boss
> to talk about talking back routine administration of the MS Office
> systems and just express amazement at just how high the costs were, that
> you had been trying to save the company from! 
>
>
> It might be worth asking a lawyer's advice about refusing to do certain
> parts of what might be in your employment contract = there might be
> justifiable excuses.  Perhaps time to take a holiday? 
>
>
> Sorry this is not particularly useful!  I know you have worked hard at
> this and now find yourself in an untenable situation so i hope you are
> able to work out a way of freeeing yourself and maybe gain a lot of
> respect from your boss and maybe from the other workers too. 
> Regards from
> Tom :) 


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