Posts tagged Users’ Office

Useless Orifice

2 years ago

by lovehurts in On the grounds, What is it for?, You're doing it wrong

Oh my god. I am a CERN user. Hence, I am priveleged enough to have the opportunity to interact with a very special group of people here at the lab: the Users’ Office. Today, I will introduce you to this incredibly useful resource by holding a tutorial on the use of their website; trust me — you’ll need help. Feel free to follow along with the screenshots presented below, or have a look at the site yourself: Start Here!

A great start to a great site.

Say you have one (1) task to accomplish on the U.O. website:

You need to figure out what is required for a move to CERN (e.g., from your home institution)

That’s it. To begin, you have a few options based on the offerings on the lovely home page. Intuitively, you would choose to click on the ‘Before Coming to CERN’ link. After clicking, up pops a lovely PDF file with a flowchart; after three minutes of perusing this, you realize it’s the flowchart from hell. In fact, you’re not even sure where to go from the first balloon. Back to the drawing board. Glancing again at the home page, you think, “Perhaps it’s useful to read the Newcomers Guide — after all, it’s on my to-do list.” After clicking the link (NB: you can choose the link from the menu sidebar or from the body of the page), you’re shocked and astounded by the transformation which has taken place. (more…)

broken link Users' Office web design

Any given Tuesday

2 years ago

by lovehurts in You're doing it wrong

On a day which I dubbed suitable for a couple “quick errands,” it all started with a quotidian morning at the bureaucratic and meeting-laden wonderland that is the world’s premiere high energy laboratory:

08:00 – Snooze. Hard.
09:30 – Wake, prepare, bike to CERN. Coffee. To the Users’ Office!
09:55 – Users’ Office lines are my 2nd favorite.
10:55 – Users’ Office experience complete, for now…
11:05 – Arrive at Financial Office after minor confusion navigating Buidlings 3,4, and 58.
11:07 – Walk ashamedly away from Financial Office. Pick-up for reimbursement: the Post Office (?).
11:10 – Post Office lines are my favorite.
…
11:16 – Awkwardly ask Mr. Post Office for my money, struggle to verify my identity.
11:20 – Leave Post Office, rejected. Reimbursements need 24 hrs to be processed.
11:30 – European lunch (of course).
…
13:30 – Return to Users’ Office with the morning’s missing documents.
13:52 – Users’ Office Round 2 complete.
14:29 – Read e-mail from Users’ Office; understand vacuum of U.O. internal communication.
14:31 – Head to Users’ Office for Round 3…
15:00 – Group meeting.
16:42 – Much-needed coffee.
17:00 – Finally, time for work.