Two Things (KV, Phone)

Thing 1: KV lay-offs

I read today that KV Pharmaceutical terminated/laid off 700 employees. I worked at KV for several years as a janitor and met a lot of good people there, many of whom I still call friend. This sucks. From what I can gather, most of the problems leading up to this were brought on by an FDA investigation. I know first hand that everybody freaks when the FDA shows up, even my role was accentuated as the place had to be spotless. Even the chemical spills that were impossible to clean.

I can also say that in my experience, many employees seemed to be concerned with safety issues and even production issues (which admittedly I don't fully understand) but often complained that the higher ups weren't concerned. Typical business management philosophy I suppose, watch the bottom line and to hell with everything else. Now, I realize that everyone complains in their jobs, and I didn't ever take the bitching that I overheard any more seriously than my own venting. But now, well, it makes you think.

Much is being made about the former CEO of the company, I'll just use his initials, MH, who basically ran the place into the ground. He held an art degree, a prerequisite to running a drug company, wouldn't you say? Therefore, naturally, he was an eccentric. Many of his buildings were designed with dramatic scoops, which were nice but hardly functional. He also had some weird ideas. I remember talking to the maintenance guys about a new office building KV was opening, and how MH ordered trees from around the world. Palm trees in Missouri. When informed that the trees would die, he made it clear that the trees would be planted anyway. Of course the trees did die, and of course he got pissed off and fired the landscapers. This is the kind of thinking that ran the company. So now there are quality control problems, and a lot of good people are out of work.

So if anyone out there from my KV days happens to stumble on this and read it, I just want you all to know that my thoughts and prayers are with you. I hope you all are okay, and those of you who have been affected, may you find work soon. Feel free to leave a comment, or if you have my number (you all know who you are), give me a call. I'd just like to know my friends are okay.

Thing 2: New Phone

This weekend I got an upgrade on my phone. Originally I was hoping for a Blackberry, but my only choices were a refurbished one for about $30, or a new one for like $200-$400. Well, since my budget for this upgrade was roughly free, I opted to hold off on the spiffy Blackberry for a while. Instead I got the Sony/Ericsson W350 Walkman phone. It's a step up in terms of quality for virtually all my features (though I still have to text the long way), and I get an mp3/4 player and video (!) with it. So the phone's pretty cool, but there's one problem.

I can't get the music program to download any damn music! After downloading all the programs that I was assured would make this function work, I was still getting nowhere. It turns out that the phone wasn't being fully recognized by my computer. So after more clicking I figured out that the driver wasn't downloading. To fix this, I need to insert the disc which came with my phone. Except that it didn't. Windows has no other option for me to download this thing either. Therefore I am currently stuck with a cool feature I can't use. I'm sure I'll get this straightened out but right now it's just frustrating.

I'm going to bed.