"Bad"ge Story

Sometimes, I wonder why we believe that everything using high end technology should work and something with no (or least) technology should not work! Are we made to believe that technology should always work even without a good process behind it?

This is a story, about how I finally managed to get my identification and access badge at a customer location in one of the most developed nations in the world.

I was all set to travel onsite for a short term project. As per the customer’s policy, I had to take a short interview for a background check. I was also told by some well wishers that I could get my identity badge at the offshore customer location with which, I could gain access into the onsite location from the very first business day!

I intimated the concerned in the offshore badge room about my schedule of travel and expressed my intent of collecting the badge well in advance before my travel onsite. Despite my several follow-ups and calls, I could not get my badge as, I was told, the customer had not yet created an ID for me. I was forced to think, that getting the badge onsite would definitely be a much easier job than getting it from offshore. Thinking so, I decided to go about the badge formalities at the onsite location even if that meant some precious business time would be lost.

The first and second business day at office just whizzed past with all the formal introductions to the client team, self introduction, trying to understand what was happening around and gauging the efforts required in the project. The building Security had given me a temporary sticker to reveal my identity and my colleagues helped me to gain access inside the work area.

On the third business day, I decided to go to the badge room to collect the badge.

I left the office to reach the badge room which is a cool, 16 miles from my location of work. I reached by 11:15AM. I was not too familiar with the city and hence decided to hold my taxi assuming that work happens very fast here unlike in India. There was a queue of 3 other employees waiting for their turn to get into the badge room. I joined the queue, silently appreciating the clean surroundings, the professional ambience and the even more “professional” looking people.

5 minutes passed, 10 minutes…. 15 minutes, 20 minutes……

What is this? The queue didn’t seem to be moving at all. It was almost 12:00PM and I was hoping, I could get my identity badge quickly and get back to my office location for lunch.

At 12:00 noon sharp, the badge officer came out saying it was his lunch time and he had to close the badge room to reopen only by 1:00PM!!!! I was surprised. It was probably just 15 more minutes and he could have issued the badges to all of us in the queue before closing shutters down for lunch! Something made me feel that he would yield if I told him about my taxi waiting (what a simpleton you are!!!). He coldly replied, that I would have to wait no matter what and banged the badge room door on my face. The other people in the queue went away, probably to have their lunch. But where should I have gone? I didn’t know anything about the city. So I decided to continue to stay until my turn for the receiving the badge. Though I was not too happy about having to skip my lunch staying here, I was impressed with the officer’s sense of personal time.

I saw myself staring at the show piece paper clock with its arms showing 1:00PM and words above it (reminding me that after all the badge room is going to open again) “I’ll be back at - 1:00PM” hanging on the door of the badge room. The officer came out of the room around 12:30PM and found me waiting. May be he felt uncomfortable that I was still waiting in that place and had not gone like the other employees in the queue. He approached me and said, he would try to open the badge room door 10 minutes in advance so that I could collect my badge well before the others returned. Saying so, he again went into the badge room and shut himself. Around 12:45PM, he called me in. Everything looked hi-fi inside the badge room. The officer asked me to fill up some forms before asking me to pose for a photograph for the identity badge. He filled up all the details in some of his complex softwares on his Dell machine. Now was the time for the photograph! (well this is something, that I hate the most….) He asked me to stand up for the photograph. He had an elaborate set up (like the ones you see in GK Vale). I was completely floored by the set up. Totally impressed that even a badge room has such a great looking set up in this country, I stood at my smiling best to get photographed. But hey – this was not working!!! L. The whole set up was NOT working!!!! As a stop gap arrangement, the officer had a Cannon digital camera. Wow! What a level of contingency planning, thought I. The officer asked me to pose again for the photograph. But this one wasn’t working too!!! The officer tried to get it working by opening all the irrelevant enclosures in the camera but could not. He was getting restless at the faulty cameras. To hide it, he kept blaming the batteries. He even telephoned somebody and told them about the urgency with which the batteries were required. After nearly 20 minutes, when nobody arrived with the batteries, I thought, I should help this helpless officer- at the mercy of two cameras - and gave him some spare batteries taken from our cab driver, Joel. But it looked like the camera was in no mood to work. It had conked off!

The officer appeared very embarrassed. He apologized and asked me to come the next day. !!! So much of technology around in the badge room, but what was the use?
At this point, I remembered how I got my badge at our own Indian government office for one of my previous projects. The security officer called me to his room. He had a web camera, took my picture, fired a print out, did the authorizations, got it laminated and gave me the badge – all in a matter of half an hour.” To think of, I used to keep mocking these departments for their poor usage of technology and processes.

I could do nothing but tell the Officer that he had done his best to help me! I returned the next day to the badge room. Thankfully the cameras were set right. I was photographed and my badge was made ready within a short time. I collected it, thanking the officer profusely and returned back to my work location. Heaving a sigh of relief, that at last, I had my badge, I swiped the badge at the entrance door. The door did not open –Access denied . Another trip down 16 miles to the badge room?