The Deletist

I recently returned to work after an 18-month leave. When I started my leave in 2019, everything was business as usual. This included many of the typical onsite office experiences such as collaborating on documents through email. Patchy online meetings with employees who worked at other locations. This usually ended with a conference call from a landline. Or rescheduling. Cubicle drop-bys. And mostly, commuting 5 days a week to work onsite at one of three locations.

Returning to work over a year, and one pandemic later, things are different. I expected some of the changes. However, some things have caught me by surprise. For example, all the new apps available for working online. One app is specifically for working collaboratively online. Landline phone calls come through my computer to another app. We have a chat service to replace casual cubicle drop-by conversations. The chat service deletes these conversations regularly.

The new apps are great. However, the big surprise to me was how little training I received on them. Proper guides and instructions are also lacking. So while we have all these awesome new tools, some of the work is still “business as usual.” This means relying on outdated, but familiar, ways of working.

The world changed. The workplace changed. The employees, not so much. Navigating through this familiar, but new landscape is taking some time to figure out.

Online Meeting Etiquette

Another big surprise to me is the amount of meetings. I anticipated a lot of meetings when I returned. What I hadn’t expected was the increased amount and the confusion about when to be on or off camera. Now, every casual conversation that used to happen with a drop-by, is replaced with a meeting. Or a phone call. Or sometimes casual chat messages. Since this changes based on the nature of the conversation, I’m still adapting.

As for the on/off camera confusion, I’m still working this one out. I’ve learned to always have an appropriate work shirt nearby. I also noticed some people blur their backgrounds. Or they take advantage of built-in background scenery options. Some people are always on camera. Some people are on camera for the beginning and end of the meeting, but off for the middle. Others are always off. Or only turn the camera on when they have something to say.

In time, I’m sure all these changes will feel like “business as usual.”

Recently I renewed my driver’s license and provincial health card through an online system. Being able to complete this task online and according to my schedule was a relief. It seemed odd that I could renew photo IDs online without uploading a picture. I always thought my photo IDs expired after 5 (or 10 years) expressly to get a new picture. In this case, however, the new cards will likely have my existing picture.

Everything was smooth and easy with the online process, until the end. With a driver’s license and health card renewal, the confirmation documents need to be printed. This is to validate the expired cards until new ones arrive in the mail. The whole process fell apart at the printing page.

After completing the renewal process, and paying the fee, I had an option. I could either print or download the renewal documents. I selected print. When I realized our new printer hadn’t been hooked up to my iPad, I tried to email the documents as a backup option. The documents would only email as a link that opened to a blank page. Before connecting the printer to the iPad, I also tried to download the documents. This option also failed. In the 3-4 minutes it took me to configure the printer, all of the renewal documents had disappeared. Completely. There was no way to recover them. My receipt was in my inbox, but not the critical renewal documents.

Technology Fail with an Online Renewal System

According to the website, I now had to visit a ServiceOntario center to get printed copies. The following Monday morning, in the middle of another pandemic lockdown, I went to the nearest center. I had to explain my situation to two different agents, one of whom had to call his superior for instructions. Finally, I got the printouts.

Throughout this entire process, it seemed odd that I didn’t have the option to email myself the documents. Or that the system didn’t email them automatically like it had the receipt. What about people renewing their documents at a public computer? Or people who don’t have a printer? Why wasn’t there an option to show the renewal documents electronically as verification, rather than a print copy?

A year+ into a pandemic, I expect better with technology and electronic options. Hopefully I receive the renewed cards soon so I can stop carrying around all this paper.

Although technology has an asset through much of the pandemic, some instances exist where it’s been disappointing. Or perhaps it’s my expectation of how technology should work that’s disappointing. For example, scheduling Covid-19 tests or vaccinations is a perfect platform for technology to shine. However, this isn’t always how it works.

Before booking my first Covid-19 test, I assumed it would be easy and straightforward. In reality, it wasn’t difficult, but annoying. It was not a seamless process. Here’s what happened.

I went to the Covid-19 provincial website to find testing centers in my region. A list of options appeared. Here’s where it got annoying. Each testing site had its own sign up process. Some sites allowed me to enter a date, then showed available time slots. Other sites required me to enter all the registration information before providing date/time options.

Getting the results was even more irritating. The testing centers instructed us check our results online. My partner, who went to a different testing center on the same day, received his results the next day. Mine, however, never appeared online. After four days of (anxiously) waiting, I tried in vain to contact someone for the results. Eventually, after seven days and multiple tries, I succeeded. Negative, fortunately. My results never appeared online, with no explanation as to why.

This scenario illustrates a perfect example of how technology is failing us during the pandemic. At this point, booking a test should be routine, straightforward, and convenient. More importantly, the process should be consistent and focused on date/time availability. Most people likely want a test as soon as possible. Therefore, the system should focus on showing registrants available testing centers based on date/time. By contrast, I had to use several different systems to book an appointment.

Ensuring Technology is an Asset

The challenges with booking tests, and receiving results, is a strong incentive to improve existing systems. It could even be an opportunity for more advanced technologies, like medical robots. Trained medical robots could do the testing. Testing centers could be drive throughs, and open longer.

Booking vaccinations could be a centralized process. Instead it’s a hybrid process of waiting in person, calling, and booking online. Or going on waitlists. Again, it depends where you live and what’s available. It’s needlessly complicated. This ultimately slows down the process, resulting in wasted unused vaccinations.

The technology is available. It just needs coordination.

With so many people receiving vaccinations, there’s been a lot of discussion about issuing a vaccine passport. Essentially, the passport verifies whether or not a person was vaccinated. Most likely the passport will be digital. However, many people now receive a paper record of their vaccination.

In some cases, the passport will grant access to indoor dining, sports events, and concerts. It could become a new travel requirement. Though regarding vaccines and travel, some countries already ready require certain vaccinations for entry. So likely a Covid-19 vaccination won’t be any different in that regard. Many schools and daycares already require students to show proof of certain vaccines. Perhaps adding a Covid-19 vaccine to the list won’t be any different.

Some flags have already been raised about potential discriminations with a vaccine passport. It could discriminate against people that have a legitimate medical exemption. Or against people who don’t have the technology to access a vaccination passport. Or against people who aren’t able to get a vaccine because of shortages. Although many concerns raised about the passport focus on discrimination, my concerns are more from a records and information management perspective. These include: security, protecting private (and personal) information, authenticity, and compatibility.

Furthermore, at this point, nobody knows the long-term frequency of the vaccine. It could become an annual shot. This also makes me wonder about the feasibility of keeping all these vaccine passports updated and maintained. At the moment, developers are already working on new vaccine passport apps. What happens if one of these apps goes out of business? It could become corrupt, or incompatible with newer softwares.

For starters, the information requirements and standards for the vaccine passport should come from an authorized body, preferably a global one. This could help ensure that information is compatible across different systems. This could help with authenticating the passports across cultures and countries. For example, if the vaccine does turn into an annual occurrence, the date becomes significant. Writing the date in a standardized format, e.g., yyyy-mm-dd, could make a significant difference. For example, the US tends to write the date mm-dd-yyyy. Whereas other countries tend to write the date from largest to smallest (yyyy-mm-dd) or vice versa (dd-mm-yyyy). These differences matter for something that is time sensitive.  

Is the passport a good idea? Should the Covid-19 vaccine be treated differently from other vaccinations we already receive?

Stay tuned for future developments.