Ducks fly south for the winter, whales move north to breed, but few mass movements surely match the organisational drama of a Google migration at work.
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Just ask the guys in IT.
That time in every modern business where you switch to a new technological operating platform and someone calls it "progress". Triggering mass consternation across the network as the everyone's computer says "no" when they go to log in.
Reports soon start filtering in of individuals reacting in a less than agile and nimble fashion. It could have something to do with working from home in their ugg boots during the pandemic. Or it could be they know very little about technology.
The process seems to go beyond turning off the computer and turning it back on again, even though IT says it's pretty much as simple as that. It's made all the more challenging because working from home, you can't bail up an IT person in person, or by phone, email or at last resort, raven. Consequently there's a bit of ravin' at online hangouts, if people can manage to log in.
You'd think they would have made this new part of the cloud soft and fluffy but it seems distinctly dark and stormy. That's because you now can't log into it due to password issues, triggering an existential crisis about identity.
This in turn brings into focus who you thought you were and what the hell you thought you were doing. Hopefully HR isn't watching.
If only you'd kept notes from the last technological end of days.
"Roll the dice and see what happens" isn't the most precise plan when trying to sync your phone to your laptop, but if something works, hey, what's there to lose?
Except maybe all your contacts, leaving individuals to ponder the concept of turning your personal hotspot on and off.
Of course, all work places go through technology transitions and each survivor has their opinion about the process and outcomes.
In our industry for example, we've moved from stone tablets to papyrus, the Gutenberg press to hot metal typesetting, and now these days to rebutting accusations that everything we publish is fake news.
And I have to admit that when PM Scottie from Marketing announced recently that Australia was being hacked by a state-based actor, I thought he was referring to one of the Hemsworths.
But now I realise the enemy is within.
Not necessarily the IT department, but rather the far-from-sophisticated player sitting in front of the desktop desperately seeking the escape button.
Talk about terminal. Oh well, the more things change, the more you're encouraged to log a ticket.
