This past week, Fiserv announced that it is acquiring CheckFree Corporation, the company I have worked for over the last few years. The news came as quite a shock to everyone I spoke to, though that doesn’t necessarily mean people fear the worst. It’s split pretty evenly between pessimists and optimists. I’m a pessimist, though… Continue reading Combining Cultures
Tag: checkfree
Humanoid Resources
It is a continued struggle with my logical mind to deal with Human Resources. It doesn’t matter what company it is, Human Resources is the quintessential inefficiency expert. That must be the only private sector area in which the government still reigns on high. The formalities requires to interact with Human Resources are mind-boggling. You… Continue reading Humanoid Resources
Corporate Musical Chairs
Last week, Carlos told me a story that was potentially blog-worthy. I didn’t blog about it because I felt that it needed to have personal frustration associated with it, rather than just his. What he didn’t tell me was that I would undergo the same treatment a few days later. Today, I got my first… Continue reading Corporate Musical Chairs
Simple, Instrumented, Bullet-Proof
I had an “all-hands” meeting today at CheckFree in which we discussed our division’s strengths and weaknesses. One of the things I gleaned from this was that there is a desire by upper management for solutions to be simple, instrumented, and bullet-proof when they’re handed off. This rings true in many people’s minds, I think.… Continue reading Simple, Instrumented, Bullet-Proof
Office Movements
A great injustice at CheckFree. Where I am, on the 3rd floor of my building, the toilets have the flushing power of a Mexican prison (I doubt this is the case, but imagine a dirt-floored prison cell with a groove cut in the floor to shed excrement away in due time). You’ll have to flush… Continue reading Office Movements
Lava Orange (Georgia Clay)
I finally got my new car after seemingly insurmountable odds against me. We’ve had a string of bad luck lately, but I hope that this and other recent events signify the end of all that. You may recall the details around the purchase of Amy’s car, the Honda Element. I swore I’d never go through… Continue reading Lava Orange (Georgia Clay)
SMS 2003 Health Check Results (Techie)
The health check was more or less a complete success. We didn’t actually have any real problems in our environment, though we were given some performance tuning options to resolve any that *may* arrive later. That said, the single most important piece of information regarding an SMS 2003 engineering task has been this: “The SPN… Continue reading SMS 2003 Health Check Results (Techie)
Thup, Thup, Thup…
There is something really awesome about the sound of a helicopter coming up on and passing you. Maybe it’s just the military-style choppers that emit that powerful thunder-clapping with their rotors, or do the news reporters have it too. This morning, a military medical transport (Huey?) flew a few times, low, over the CheckFree campus.… Continue reading Thup, Thup, Thup…
Unfair Freebies
At CheckFree, employees are given an awesome privilege of a reduced-price meal plan at the onsite cafeteria. The system works out to everyone’s favor, giving the company more productivity from employees and the employees have decent food, cheap. The problem comes in with contractors. Contractor’s are charged 250% the employee cafeteria price. I understand that… Continue reading Unfair Freebies