Working at The Department of Corrections, CDCR

 Working at The Department of Corrections, CDCR

The week after our 21 day marathon I was invited to a meeting to define the valid values for the system's gender field. At the time I thought “We need a meeting for this? Well at least it will be quick.” When I got to the meeting I learned that they had already had 3 prior meetings on this. I was in my 40's and I knew about transitioning but I was under the impression that at any point in time one was either male of female. Of course this was 30 years ago, well before those crazy Democrats discovered how to change someone's gender in a single school day. No matter how you feel about the Democrats you got to admit that's a pretty awesome accomplishment. Back in the “old days” transitioning required a series of operations as well as injections and supplements. Hence, there was a question of where in the process did the transition actually happen. Maybe a little like the when does life start type of issue.

When I got involved there were up to 6 possible values for gender being considered. There was the traditional male and female plus male becoming female but still male, female becoming male but still female, male becoming female and now female, and female becoming male and now male. Now we all know that there's all kinds of ambiguity in biology. OK, maybe some of our leaders do not acknowledge this, but regardless, here in California all state penal institutions are for either men or for women. So at some point a decision has to be made on each incarcerated individual where they fit. California does, or at least did, have a prison in Vacaville that houses those who didn't quite fit in but then even Vacaville is designated as a male prison. So ultimately everyone is considered/identified as either male or female even those who are in the process of changing. It was an interesting and complicated conversation and it ended up requiring a couple of additional meetings. In the end, gender ended up with just the two traditional values but a field/attribute was added to designate things like in transition and where in the process the person was.

We were now beginning the design phase of the project. The processes and of course how information would be collected and displayed in the system were laid-out and defined. Each morning we would meet with our assigned TRW programmer and each afternoon we would document what was decided. At the end of the week we were asked by our managers to complete a document explaining everything we designed. We were asked to complete this in a tight timeline. The guidelines for the tasks were a little vague. We did our best to accomplish the tasks turn them in. The next Monday we were asked to do it again but with now a different and better defined criteria. This would turn out to be a standard pattern where we would be asked to do something and then asked to do it again differently. Sometimes we would do it as many as 3 times. It got so when asked for something I advised the users I was working with not to stress over it. There was no need to put too much effort into it because we were just going to be asked to re-do it after it was reviewed by the managers who would then better understand what it was they actually wanted or needed.

The Corrections Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR) was a para-military organization. That meant the chain of command was to be strictly followed. While doing one of our design reviews I had a database question. So I walked over to one of our database guys to ask them. A couple of hours later I was pulled into the top Project Leader's (John) office and informed that I had violated the “chain of command” and that if I needed information from another group I was expected to go through my supervisor who would then pass it up through the appropriate channels. I attempted to explain that it was only a five minute thing and if I had to go through my supervisor it would take a minimum of a few hours and more likely a full day. My plea fell on deaf ears. It was impressed upon me that there was a right way to do things and I was expected to act accordingly.

A few weeks later in an all hands meeting about a task we were being asked to start I questioned something and made a suggestion on one of the elements of the task. I got a hard look and was told this was not the place for that. Once again I got a personal invitation to meet with John in his office where I was informed that it was inappropriate to question him in front of everybody in a big meeting like that. OK, I was new but I was beginning to get it. I was to just do what's asked of me, not ask questions. It was kinda like being back in the Air Force... I actually liked John, but was not a fan of the rules we were expected to follow.

John was the overall top leader but he was not an IT person. The lead IT person was Christie. She was all business and one of those people who seemed to only care about those above her and not so much about those below her. She would frequently sort of read us the riot act, requesting us to work harder and longer. We all were working pretty long hours yet she never praised or thanked any of us, only criticized. It didn't take long for me to start tuning her out. Of course I listened to her enough to understand what she wanted. I got called into her office one Friday about 4:00, which was my normal quitting time, along with my supervisor, Colleen. Christie didn't like something about a report I was asked to provide her. She started yelling at me telling me how I screwed up and needed to make changes, blah, blah, blah. Colleen spoke up and started defending me. This was taking too much time so I interrupted saying “Thanks Colleen” after which I turned to Christie and said. “I'm happy to make any changes you would like just tell me what you want.” I didn't really care that Christie was yelling at me and I didn't care what she thought of me or my work. She was a terrible manager and I didn't respect her. All I wanted was clarification so I could do whatever it was she wanted so I could go home. I think I took her a little by surprise as it became clear that her yelling was having little effect on me. Colleen apologized to me as we left Christi's office. I told Colleen I appreciated her standing up for me but I was fine.

I was now well ingrained in the project. I had gotten to know all the project IT staff as well as most of the rest of the project team. The hours were long and the tasks redundant often seemingly lacking much value. It seemed to me that there was more collecting information and reporting information on what we were doing than actual development. The programmers, myself included, were questioning much of what we were doing. The project seemed a bit of a mess, the tasks a bit chaotic, and, at times, directionless. It was all interesting but something was wrong.