I’m now in my office, and I have figured out how to retrieve my phone messages. I saved the best example of expanding my memory for my third example. I now have to boot up my computer. To logon to my personal office computer in the morning, I need to type in my login and password.
If I decide to think and reflect for a while and am not actively clicking away at the keyboard for a short space of time, the computer locks itself and I have to login again. I do this five or six times in a usual day.
Now, if I need to get into the university-controlled computer functions to retrieve items like my class rolls, report cards, etc., after my personal office computer is already up and operating, I need to type in an additional set of my identification prompts including my seven digit faculty number and then my personal password.
I have another set of passwords and codes for my adjunct office computer and yet another set for my home office computer.
The University graciously gave full-time employees the fringe benefits of health insurance, health insurance co-payment reimbursement, life insurance and a retirement plan. If you want to review any of these benefits, make modifications, see out of pocket totals, etc., please log-on to the individual companies’ specific website.
You guessed it; each one has their own login and password. First, you must log-on just to register and create your own password and identification code. Once this is established for the health insurance company, the life insurance company, the retirement providers and the re-imbursement facility you can attempt to login to view your account.
If you get confused and make three unsuccessful login attempts, a robot threatens to cut off your access privileges. Now you will have to call the companies home office or better yet, their IT department in South Asia (please hit the right series of prompts on your phone pad and wait in the queue) in order to get permission from their office to re-set your computer back to the original home registration page, so you can register all over again.
Of course you must type your address, social security number, birth date and account number into your phone key pad before a live person will respond to the call. They have immediate access to your account, but you may not. Have you ever wondered why you type the information into the key pad when they ask you to repeat it back to them again for security purposes?
Let me summarize. I need a code and a password just to turn on my home, office and second office computers. Likewise, I need codes for my office phones, home phones and cell phone. I also need codes for some office doors, parking lot gates and all reproduction machines. I need a code for my health options, 401K, life insurance and re-imbursement account. That is just the employee part of my work day.
I need access codes and passwords if I want to access my bank accounts online, pay for gasoline self-service at the pump or to make a deposit or withdrawal at the ATM machine. My automated bill payments have codes, as well as my internet and e-mail accounts, and the utility company advisories like holiday exceptions to garbage collection days and the correct times to water my lawn.
I tried to be slick this year and renew my car tags on the very last day. The outside of the renewal envelope indicated that citizens can renew online. When I went to the website delineated on the outside of the envelope, the computerized directions told me to get a pin number from the renewal paperwork inside the envelope. The spot for pin number was left blank on my renewal papers. The automated, self-service, computer screen tab states, “if there is no pin number on your form, you must appear at the renewal office in person!” Someone is really trying to mess with my brain.
The irony of the whole situation is that my home is located on the outer fringes of the Tampa Bay area, right between the first hole of a golf course and one of the largest nature preserves in the area. For relaxation I enjoy sitting on my patio and watch the deer, possums, raccoons, owls, hawks and squirrels interact in a natural setting right in my own back yard. Here I can forget all about those passwords and numbers. I am able to unwind immediately after I type in the five digit access code that lets me through the privacy gate to my section of the neighborhood.
I had barely transferred these words from my head to a piece of paper when I saw a colleague of mine in the hallway. I walked with him down to the faculty mail-room. As we approached the key pad on the door he stated that the pass code was too easy to remember and it is about time someone changes it!
Dr. John J. Bertalan
Visiting Associate Professor of Education