Monday, May 11, 2009

My Life as a Bureaucrat in the Sands of Thesiger




"Sir Wilfred Thesiger’s name is inseparably linked to the Rub 'al Khali or Empty Quarter in Arabia. He made two crossings of the great desert space between 1946 and 1948, which he saw as not only one of the few remaining places undisturbed by Western influence, but also an environment where he could truly test himself."




So OK, so far Thesiger and I ain't exactly in alignment, at least not superficially. My exploration of the desert sands of Arabia is a sight more comfy - at least so far. But I must say, I have started to see something of the weird attraction of the sun- and wind-carved wastes of the Empty Quarter here, and something of the seductive qualities that pulled and tugged so relentlessly at Sir Wilfred and T.E. Lawrence.

During our spontaneous gallivant off to Muscat in Oman over the weekend (planning began at five-thirty on Thursday - remember that our Thursday is your Friday - and we checked into our quarters at midnight the same night after snagging standby tickets on an Oman Air flight from Abu Dhabi to Muscat), my flat-mate Marco and I got a look at the sunblasted outback and I noticed within me a weird inclination to hop out of the cab and just start walking...

However, I settled for snorkeling with the big green sea turtles, loafing around the pool and reading. Just started the book my BFF Skag gave me for Christmas: "Seaworthy" - about another nutjob who sought out discomfort the way some folks look for the next bar.


Anyhow, I will now get to the Bureaucrat bit, not having accumulated enough personal experience as a Bedouin to topple a tissue off a toothpick...


The following, by the way, is pirated straight from a message I sent to my brother, Rai, a few minutes ago. I realized while sending that it contains the detail some folks have requested regarding: "WTF do you DO over there, anyhow?" Hopefully this will satisfy them. With apologies to Rai, then, here it is:

Haven't done a blog post in a while - work is murderous busy right now, and for the next couple months, promises to remain so. We (my flat-mate Marco and I) did manage to nip off on a spontaneous weekend jaunt to Oman, and Margit and Nora are arriving a day apart this next weekend, after which we will off be off to Germany for various amounts of time: Nora til the 25th, me til the 29th, Margit til who knows.

My work is to analyze the situation, assess need, develop systems and implement them for AECOM Middle East (until recently Cansult Maunsell AECOM - check out the website (http://www.aecom.com/ for company info) - the systems in question being "Document Controls" - a highly critical part of the QAQC function of any architecture, engineering, project management, construction supervision organization - all of which applies to us.

There were no such systems in place when I got here, and my task is to have one in full operation by the end of June, after which I will continue to iron out the bumpy bits, train people and then manage the critter til I get tired of it. "Document Control" is the set of systems, procedures and protocols needed to ensure that business and technical documents are properly numbered, registered, delivered, stored, archived, and most importantly retrievable on demand.

In the architecture, engineering and construction business, it is critically important, as you might imagine, that people are also working with the correct versions of documents. "Documents" in this case would be proposals, contracts, reports, surveys, drawings, specifications, calculations, etc., any one of which, if not timely and properly released can mean the very quick loss of millions. As of now our office is handling roughly a hundred projects ranging from small ($20M
range) to large ($10B range), with a staff of around 2000 in the ME.


My title is "Manager, Document Control" for the Abu Dhabi branch, but the way things are going, my office will probably be working throughout UAE, since there has been no consistent, uniform application of procedures or system through out the area. I seem to be the one driving
the push for such systematizing right now, and I have a great deal of support from corporate management in the area.


It's quite challenging, fun and exciting, in fact - contrary to what one might think (document control? How droll...). The people I deal with are pretty high-level professionals and generally a lot of fun to work with. I had a staff of three when I got here, and my resource plan for the coming months will raise that number to between nine and twelve, depending on how efficiently we can put things into play. Those are immediate, direct-reporting folks - there are also a few dozen more in satellite offices and project site offices as well, who are under my "remit" as they say here. I drive around the UAE a lot in the course of my duties, too, so I'm not stuck in one place, and my time (although very much spoken for) is under my own control - so if I want to work at home once in a while, I can - or work some extra hours and take a day off if I need to.

So that's probably more detail than you wanted, but I figger, what the hell - take what you need and leave the rest behind. How did I wind up here, you may wonder? Well, for one thing, I don't consider myself "wound up" just yet. And for another - WTF knows! I messed around with computers and my own businesses enough to pass an interview a couple years ago in SF at the invitation of a friend who thought I could probably pull off setting up and running a project site office, and one thing has led to another. I put it down either to the rather remarkable inability of corporations to sniff out BS, or to their rather remarkable ability to sniff out potential, in spite of obvious lack of credentials and education. Either way, I'm not complaining.

I'm having fun, and am delivering good value for the bank I'm making - which is not outrageous, considering the cost of living here, but certainly sufficient. And way more than that if one glances ever so briefly outside the "safe" little bubble of western civilization...