New Phones

Our FederalEntity has begun to implement a new phone system. By 2008 the whole place will be using new Voice over IP (VoIP) phones. They run through the internet, just like Vonage. It's the new, high-tech thing to do so it only makes sense that we spend millions of dollars crapily implementing it.

Everyone will be getting new VoIP phones at their desks. This is great because I still haven't figured out what most of the 20+ buttons on my current (circa 1978) phone do. Maybe it's best I start from scratch. They will be conducting like 50 training sessions on how to operate the new phones. I'll probably go to 2 or 3 of them. Hey, anything beats sitting at my desk.

The best part is they're making the switch desk to desk, person to person. And to mix things up a bit, VoIP users have encountered lots of trouble placing calls to non-VoIP users. Yesterday, anyone who tried to call me using their VoIP phone got a busy signal. And I was the only one in the office, so all of my coworker's voicemails instructed people to call me for assistance. I can only imagine the day when I finally get my new VoIP phone and I try to call my coworker who sits right next to me and it doesn't work. Isn't technology amazing?

Oh also, VoIP phones don't work during a power outage (happens infrequently) or when the network goes down (happens weekly). I think I'll stick to email.