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You must reset your .VPN for Employees password IMMEDIATELY!

In order to meet Security requirements, your .VPN for Employees account passwords must be changed every 120 days. This message is to notify you that your .VPN for Employees account password must be changed before 19-Feb-2010.

Immediately = 19/02/2010. I wonder whether I can use this as an excuse for any other IMMEDIATE tasks I get next week

“De Slimste Mens ter Wereld” is a television quiz that in contradiction to its meaning (Smartest person on the planet) finds its candidate in a pool of well-known personalities in Flanders (with a population of 6 million). It’s quite entertaining, nonetheless I hardly ever watch it for practical linguistic reasons in this home. Apparently up to 2 million people watch it, and the supporters get very intense.
This weekend, the program had spawned a “study” in a flemish newspaper (nl). So it’s all about intelligent women unable to find a life partner/husband (the article is focusing on the heterosexuals) . Men apparently don’t want an intelligent wife. I remember this being an issue a good 20 years ago, but I’m surprised to see this is still the case. A lot of friends from university hooked up with somebody else who studied at university, hence with a certain intelligence (no guarantee, I agree…). From all my direct male colleagues, I seem to get the impression that their partner is either or both intelligent and career driven. So is my other half (I use this term loosely, as we aren’t married as such)! She reports to the CEO/VP HR of a large US company, studied history at Reading University and did a post graduate on HR. There’s more to it, she has a very facts-based memory. Dates and names… She’s very competitive when there’s a quiz on on the television. University Challenge, Mastermind, Canvas-crack (although she doesn’t always understand the question 100%)… bring it on. She’s here to beat you
Has that ever scared me? To be fair, until last Saturday, when I read the newspaper, I hadn’t thought about it one single second.

The unions representing the luggage handlers at Brussels Airport threaten with a strike. Reason? Competition is on its way!

Now there’s a whole lot to say against these people (and I will,… in a minute), but going on strike because there’s the possibility of more competition? What next? A status of civil servant for luggage handlers at Brussels Airport?

But now for a more personal rant about how luggage handlers work at Brusssels Airport. Once you’ve travelled larger parts of the world, comparison is possible! And Brussels Airport is by far one of the worst luggage handling you can meet. First of all, you have to know that if you come in from a Schengen country you have to walk miles before you get to the luggage collection area. Quite often, even when it’s calm in the airport, you have to wait quite a while for your luggage. In Singapore (as a counter example), we (K & I) have never had to wait for our luggage, no matter how quick the passport control went (and this is also pretty efficient there!).
Now, admittedly, you càn get lucky in Brussels once in a while. And if you’re quite perceptive, you notice that for each flight there’s a couple of people walking away early. And this is where the magic word SLA comes in. SLA stands for Service Level Agreement (is a contract). Service Level Agreements are difficult to define, and that’s an understatement. There are two major objectives in the SLA between the handlers and Brussels Airport as far as displayed for the customers (very transparent it is not): time until first piece of luggage arrives on belt, time until last piece of luggage arrives on belt. Therefore, the handlers will always make sure that a (limited) number of bags arrive quickly. They don’t seem to be too bothered about the rest. This makes me think that the first objective is the most important one in the contract.
Timeliness is of course crucial for customer satisfaction, but it isn’t everything! Another complaint, often overheard at the belts is the following: “Why does all the luggage for 8 (pick any high number) incoming flights arrive on maximum 2 (pick any low number) belts?”. There’s just not enough space for hundreds of people around one single belt, which makes the whole experience dreadful.
Another vital criterium for customer satisfaction is how personnel treat you. And if all goes well, people from Aviapartner and Flightcare can be “relatively” friendly. But when the shit hits the fan, you as a customer will share the shit! And that is not acceptable. The following is probably too anecdotical, but illustrates how Aviapartner/Flightcare deal with difficult situations. We’re talking about the infamous Sunday end of last year where the airport was partially closed. Not many flights could actually come in, but a lot of flights also never left that day. Karen was coming from London where she didn’t make it back via Eurostar. When she finally made it back from Heathrow (12 hours after checking in there…), all the luggage from all the incoming and cancelled flights was being offloaded on one single belt!!! You can image the additional distress of all these stranded and delayed customers who had to look for their luggage which was being thrown on one big pile (the belt was too full!). Nobody from Aviapartner/Flightcare would provide any help and as a passenger you were left on your own.

So what did I want to say with all this, apart from venting my frustrations about these two incompetent companies? SLA’s are not worth a thing if they don’t truly represent how customers are serviced!. And for mr Schouppe (Belgian Minister for transportation), a third handler won’t necessarily solve the issue, unless this third party willing to commit to an SLA taking into account the needs of the traveller: a happy and painless end to a long journey!
Both pictures by Antoine Solidaire, published under a Creative Commons license

At the gym yesterday, somebody stole my towel. I went swimming, and as most people do I take my towel with me so I can dry off before going into the “dry zone”.
Many have white towels, so I thought it’d be a good idea if I’d roll up my shampoo in my towel. This way, if somebody accidentally picks up my towel, they’ll notice that there’s something in there they didn’t put in there. Thought that was sensible, no?
After my swim, I find my bottle of shampoo nicely put aside on the same chair where my towel was. Only the towel’s gone. Somebody clearly walked off with my towel. Bastard, thief, crook!
Not only is it inconvenient to have to use the hairdryers to dry off, but this towel had a sentimental value. It dates back from when I participated in the Marenostrum competition in Monaco many years ago. It had the name of the hotel on there: Loews.

16.50: leave home, walk towards tram station
17.05: arrival at tram station, seeing a tram leave just as we arrive.
17.45: still waiting for tram 23/24 to come! Losing patience. We decide to call for a taxi.
17.55: first tram since 17.05 is there. We now wait for taxi as it’s ordered and we’re not near platform anymore
18.15: after numerous impatient calls taxi arrives
18.30: arrival at Eurostar check-in where the 18.59 train is displayed as cancelled.
18.32: we realise that Eurostar decided to display arrival times at check-in. Our 18.59 train is going.
19.10: train comes to a halt, smell of metal on metal enters the interior of train: emergency stop for train ahead it seems.
19.15: train on the move again.
20.06: arrival with 12 minutes delay at St-Pancras!

I found this email in my Inbox:

Dear traveller,

According to our records you are booked to travel on Eurostar this week. I wanted
to let you know that from Tuesday 12 January, we will run a near normal service
with only a small number of cancellations. There may also be some slight delays to
your journey.

Please check www.eurostar.com the day prior to your departure for the following
day’s updated schedule.

Yours faithfully,

Marc Noaro
Customer Services Director
Eurostar

Does that bit in bold means that they put the responsiblity of checking with the customer (still), rather than taking responsibility?
Anyway, temperature is above 0°C, so I don’t see why there should be any problems!

Picture courtesy of BGLewandowski, Creative Commons license . Had to do with this pic, as the number of pictures of Eurostar in snowy environments are limited of course