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Post by ザ・penguin54 on Jun 13, 2017 10:27:10 GMT 9
Hello 国債拘留員 brethren,
I'm doing some research right now on the state of technology in Japanese GYOSEI and just for the sake of anecdotal evidence I was wondering what the status of technology in your office is. For instance, are you unable to use the internet/check e-mail on your work computer? Is your OS/Office software from when you were in middle school? Do you have bizarre security rules about USB drives (I think @mikan used to complain about this)?
Or 逆に is your office a 21st-century wonderland where 決裁s are all done electronically and the fax machine lies dormant and unused because everyone is all about e-mail?
Any other 感想 on the subject (e.g. if your office isn't modernized, any effects you think that might have on productivity) would be much appreciated.
ご協力お願いします。
サペンギンより
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Post by TrickPhoenix on Jun 13, 2017 11:22:32 GMT 9
Oh boy here comes a rant.
To be fair I live in a very small inaka city, but I find that the bizarre security and clunky systems really get in the way of getting things done, and it's awful.
To access the internet I log in to a temporary desktop, from which I log in to a second temporary desktop, from which I can finally open... internet explorer. Which has very heavy security on it, so a lot of websites that I would find very useful for work are completely blocked.
I can copy and paste things INTO the temporary desktops, but copying OUT of it either plain doesn't work, or takes five minutes of whirring and waiting before taking effect.
We now have separate mail systems for internal and external things. Internal mail for the city is done on the primary desktop, using a messaging/mail system that works ok. The implementation of this was initial very irritating for some members of my section who aren't technically 公務員, like the head of the International Association, as she wasn't given an account and had to SMACKDOWN for like a month to get one, which she has to access on a separate work laptop, not her desktop. For some reason.
As for external mail, my personal city email address ceased to exist a few months ago, and I can only use the group mail, accessible from the first temp desktop. Because file sharing is blocked on the computers (no google drive, etc.) we have to use a system called filezen to upload and download things between these temp desktops. For which I need kachou's permission. So anytime I get an email with an attachment I need, or have to send an email attachment outside the city mail system, I gotta go bother the higher-ups. And if kachou is away then it has to wait.
Hmmm what else. USB usage here has weird rules that I don't fully understand, there are special USBs that we can use that require passwords and have to be used only by a specific shared computer in the office. So transferring a file from my desktop to like, a personal laptop involves Find USB --> Request password --> Ask soup to move files to shared folder (which I don't have access to) --> take USB to shared computer --> Enter passwords, transfer files --> Download a driver onto my own laptop so that I can enter the USB password --> get file. Finally.
Since I don't have access to shared folder that scans are sent to, I also have to ask my soup whenever I want to scan something, which is usually only once or twice a month, but it's hardly a worthwhile use of her time.
To login to the computers we have security cards, but everyone just leaves them on their desks? After I first arrived I asked if I should keep it in my wallet or something, which isn't challenging to do for security, but everyone said to just leave it out in the open. And yet in the name of security we also have all these inane computer desktop runaround measures.
All the microsoft software is from 2010, so it could be worse there. We have windows. There are printers and scanners and whatnot that function just fine. I think we still have a fax machine in use somewhere.
But in general everything is backwards and roundabout and slow, all in the name of security. I can't help but think there are better ways to be secure.
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Post by Sheepy on Jun 13, 2017 13:18:23 GMT 9
MY OFFICE TOOK A STEP BACK FROM MODERNIZATION THIS PAST WEEKEND.
I am located in a small to mid-sized city.
Internet: Must log-in to an alternative program that then gives you access to choose one of the several browsers. After selecting your desired browser, you must log-in again to that browser to actually access the internet. However, most websites are blocked as a result of the cyber security system update from over this past weekend. I personally use Gmail for everything, which is now blocked.
No Wi-Fi. Everything is through ethernet cable.
Email: The actual emailing system is on a city-wide portal. It has its perks but is mainly just really odd. I have an email there that I only use once every blue moon, as I only really use my Gmail account.
CDs/USBs: As of yesterday, we are no longer allowed to use either CDs and/or USBs on the work computers. Even if you insert the item, the computer won't even display it as a selectable item.
Fax machines are still a primary way of sending a lot of documents here.
I had to teach a lot of my coworkers about Google Drive; so many of them had never heard of it.
回覧s are still done by paper.
TL;DR I am more or less forced to use my own personal computer (while tethering Wi-Fi from my phone) in order to be able to my job. The irony is that in trying to make the security more secure from cyber attacks, the city ended it up making so inoperable to the point where I and my coworkers are forced to use our own personal laptops to actually efficiently get any work done.
YAY JAPAN. UGH.
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Post by marudate on Jun 13, 2017 13:19:00 GMT 9
Small town CIR here. We use shared Google Calendars for scheduling. Everyone has their own email address. All staff can edit the town home page through a (somewhat dated) interface. Everyone has their own fairly modern laptop (Win 7 32 bit). We have Office 2010 on all, though Ichitaro is required for some official docs (I don't use it).
At the moment nothing is blocked- you can use Gmail, dropbox, etc. just fine.
Personal computers can't access the protected work network but can log in to a free public wi-fi network.
The office intranet connects all non-financial computers and it is possible to create shared folders where coworkers can collaborate on your hard drive. I created a shared images folder for the town that tourism and the town promotion staff can both access.
We still have the paper and stamp 回覧 system, and even some emails to outside parties are printed and passed around.
We try to avoid faxes and encourage email attachments where possible. For my work we are not secretaries so if someone wants me to translate something we request the data they used to create it.
I don't have complaints about technology other than that working here does feel like a big step backwards. For years I thought the paperless office was a joke, but mostly achieved it in my job before coming to Japan. We took notes on computers or on white boards, wrote documents on google docs, literally recycled the fax machine and really only printed things for external distribution. We use an awful lot of paper here.
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Post by nikinee on Jun 13, 2017 14:09:14 GMT 9
Hello, kencho CIR here!
No wi-fi in the building, only ethernet.
Our internet system also changed about a month ago, so we now have the wonderful インターネット分離 system making life so much fun. We can access the kencho mail server through normal browser, but we have to do the remote desktop/仮想ブラウザー thing for every other website. To my knowledge, we can't upload to or download from the remote desktop which is annoying because I have to upload photos to Facebook multiple times a week, although we *do* have an iPad in the office, so I can't really complain.
From last year, we haven't been able to send emails out of the kencho without it being double checked by a designated member of the office. The amount of data we can send has also decreased recently, and it doesn't sound like anyone was actually told about it, either. I technically have an account but it's a general 海外情報担当 account so no name for me.
My computer was new when I got here last year, but we still use Office 2007. Apparently we're upgrading to 2010 next month, but it's only because Microsoft is ending tech support for 2007 lmao.
We can't write to USBs unless they're the special password protected ones.
回覧 is still paper based. I've never worked in a paperless office, but the amount of paper we use seems excessive...
Mostly I wish I could just bring my Macbook in and work on that, which I generally do for video editing purposes... but even that is technically a no-no
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Mumblesnore
Dead Stargod
’Tis the season (for Eggnog)
Posts: 16,154
CIR Experience: Former CIR
Location: Tokyo
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Post by Mumblesnore on Jun 13, 2017 14:45:00 GMT 9
My situation sounds the most similar to nikinee 's かな, but it's interesting how even though this security crackdown is country-wide, each individual 自治体 seems to have done it totally differently. For my inaka town, we have to use a remote desktop to access any website other than our shiyakusho server (which can send 市役所内 emails, schedule/request NENKYU, fill out time cards, etc.), but as far as I know no websites are blocked. I can access facebook, the forums, dictionary websites, and even reddit just fine. But there are a few hangups: - there are a limited number of logins per KA, and only one person can use each login at a time. In my old KA, I had to share a login with two other people, and so I always had to ask インターネット入ってもいいですか before logging in, and I would often have to wait. In my new KA I actually have a login all to myself, but everyone else has to share with at least one other person hue. (Why they gave me the lucky login, I don't know. I'm not worthy!)(and tbh I was a lot more productive back when I had to share internet access). - you can't do anything that involves communication from the remote desktop to the rest of the computer. This means that I can't copy and paste in/out of the remote desktop or attach files to emails, which is REALLY ANNOYING. Now if I want to send a translation to the client I have to save it onto a USB and then send it from a separate computer in the middle of the KA that can send attachments and everyone has to share, so there's often a wait. That's it I guess. We don't have wifi, but that seems pretty common. Luckily we don't have any weird USB restrictions.
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Shimanchu 2024
Well you can tell by the way I use my star I'm a woman's star, no time to star. Music loud and starring stars I been starred around, since I was star.
中年危機イン沖
Posts: 6,892
CIR Experience: ULTIMATE UNICORN (6th year)
Location: Okinawa
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Post by Shimanchu 2024 on Jun 13, 2017 14:49:05 GMT 9
Love Knowledge blocks all personal mail/google web services, along with all kinds of other things according to some arbitrary system. (but not the CHIRP forums for some reason?) We each get our own email address to use with the prefectures proprietary network system.
Same system allows you to create/edit 起案s, websites, web 決裁s etc (but most 決裁s are still done by paper). CIRs here aren't normally given these network permissions, but I needed access to them to do some of the extra work I asked for when I first arrived here.
No more USBs at all as of last month. Anything I want to get off of this work laptop, I have to mail to my personal email address.
Otherwise, the work laptops are all pretty nice and up-to-date, with most newer ones (including mine) having windows 10.
Also, one person in the office keeps a pretty nice keyboard tablet in their desk which has unrestricted web access for anyone who asks for it that might need it for something work-related.
2 printers, one of which is also a scanner/fax machine.
No one in the office doesn't have a work laptop on their desk.
Each island has at least 3 phones on rotatable stands.
ummmm what else.......
we have an electronic label maker? hue
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Post by Ividia on Jun 14, 2017 8:53:23 GMT 9
Everyone has laptops on their desk that are not connected to the Internet, and the entire division shares two in the corner that are. It's been this way since before I came and it's a pain of course, but I'm used to it. Also, our division has secret wifi that we're not supposed to have. SMACKDOWN the system
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Post by CaptainSeery on Jun 14, 2017 9:16:36 GMT 9
I also am subject to the internet remote desktop of doom, which in my case has a LOT blocked. Very annoying. (Before April when we could access the internet normally absolutely nothing was blocked.) We each have our own work email addresses, and most internal communication is done either in person (it's not a big office), by phone, or (mostly only when sending files) by email. Faxes are used, but mostly only to communicate with the ~outside world~ We have the same login cards as TrickPhoenix. I have never been able to use USBs or CDs with my work computer, but I could remote login to my account via a shared laptop and download/upload things to USB that way. Now that doesn't work anymore, although I hear they're going to start registering special USBs to work with the internal system. So if I need to get anything outside of the internal system, I email it to myself, but I have to be careful with that because my work email account only has 40mb of storage and each email can contain no more than 10mb of data. I have to do that to be able to color print anything. Each ka has a laptop that can freely access the internet. I use it at least once a day to check the IA's email account and facebook and my personal email. I hear they have recently set up shared laptops that can access the internet and even print, but I haven't used them myself yet. Pretty much everything is done with paper. There are digital system for making kians and stuff, but it's always printed anyway.
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Shimanchu 2024
Well you can tell by the way I use my star I'm a woman's star, no time to star. Music loud and starring stars I been starred around, since I was star.
中年危機イン沖
Posts: 6,892
CIR Experience: ULTIMATE UNICORN (6th year)
Location: Okinawa
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Post by Shimanchu 2024 on Jun 14, 2017 9:37:03 GMT 9
I also am subject to the internet remote desktop of doom, which in my case has a LOT blocked. Very annoying. (Before April when we could access the internet normally absolutely nothing was blocked.) We each have our own work email addresses, and most internal communication is done either in person (it's not a big office), by phone, or (mostly only when sending files) by email. Faxes are used, but mostly only to communicate with the ~outside world~ We have the same login cards as TrickPhoenix . I have never been able to use USBs or CDs with my work computer, but I could remote login to my account via a shared laptop and download/upload things to USB that way. Now that doesn't work anymore, although I hear they're going to start registering special USBs to work with the internal system. So if I need to get anything outside of the internal system, I email it to myself, but I have to be careful with that because my work email account only has 40mb of storage and each email can contain no more than 10mb of data. I have to do that to be able to color print anything. Each ka has a laptop that can freely access the internet. I use it at least once a day to check the IA's email account and facebook and my personal email. I hear they have recently set up shared laptops that can access the internet and even print, but I haven't used them myself yet. Pretty much everything is done with paper. There are digital system for making kians and stuff, but it's always printed anyway.
Yeah, our office too.
*See email→Forward email to person concerned→Print out email→Bring print out to person concerned*
"Hey, I just forwarded this to you too, but here you go"
#justnipppomthings
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Post by ザ・penguin54 on Jun 14, 2017 10:22:47 GMT 9
interesting responses, very TASU CARRY MASU
for reference, my situations (sounds like it's gotten nearly universally worse since then):
First office: small town yakuba, could use internet with no problem, installed Google Chrome (even though I think it was technically banned), etc. Had a browser-based e-mail that was just cir@[townname] but all of the Japanese employees had their own. biggest complaint was that I had to mail out close to a hundred (IIRC) copies of a paper newsletter every month, which meant printing out a draft, taking it from the 5th floor to the basement to mass copy, use a funky little machine to mass fold them, staple all of them by hand, then stuff envelopes. right before I left we got a fancy new printer that did the stapling for me so I just had to do the envelope stuffing.
Second office: Completely backwards Kencho. We had two cables, one for intranet (which gave access to e-mail and shared drive) and one for internet. Everytime I wanted to use the internet, I had to close my e-mail and all my files (because otherwise they would freeze when I unplugged the intranet cable), get up to grab the internet cable, plug it in (when I first came, sometimes I would need to restart the computer as well), wait, and then finally get to use the (slow) internet. There was only one internet cable for the 島 of 7 people so if someone else was using it I had to wait. Like Ividia my office had secret wifi but it didn't work on the computer, only on our personal smartphones (which didn't affect me much since I had unlimited data anyway). Because of how MENDOKUSAI this was I had to use my tiny iPhone screen and keyboard anytime I wanted to look something up (which was pretty much constantly because 80% of my job was translation/native checking that required researching technical jargon etc).
Worst part was how the IT department kept teasing us that a new system was in the works to allow us to use internet regularly, and they told us it would ready in April of my final year. I spent months looking forward to the day when I could finally stop trying to spend all day using an iPhone keyboard with fat fingers...then April came and IT department was like "hue just kidding, we actually meant September. or maybe October!" (they kept their word and did change it...but, according to my successor and the other CIRs, actually somehow managed to make it worse).
and of course...printed e-mails 4 lyfe
ETA: oh yeah also all of our Office software was from 2003 and on several occasions we couldn't open Excel files CL.AIR sent us because they were in a 2007 format hue
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Post by Ividia on Jun 14, 2017 10:24:09 GMT 9
Oh yeah the secret wifi is for our phones and a secret notebook PC that circulates the office hue
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Post by no yark shark on Jun 14, 2017 10:54:42 GMT 9
My office has wifi, and I bring in my own laptop every day so most of the rules and limitations don't apply to me.
Everyone has a laptop, and they are replaced with newer models periodically (and one at a time). I got a new laptop some time last year (or maybe it was even two years ago?). It uses windows 8. My word, excel, and powerpoint on my work computer are the 2013 version.
I have my own work email address, which I mostly use to send things to myself to print, and send completed translation requests etc. I can also access the shared drive for my department and the general one for the whole city hall. I know that my internet situation has changed but I'm not entirely sure how it works because I just use the city desktop to check my work email and reserve cars when I need them etc. One thing that did change is the way file attachments from external emails are downloaded, but you basically just have to go through an extra portal and it's not really a big deal.
I've never been able to USBs except for a specific password protected one, and there is a file size limit for emails, but it's only really a problem if I want to send something really really big (sometimes an issue with pictures).
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vkasahara
Tried natto; not a fan
Posts: 51
CIR Experience: 1st year
Location: that place with the Lake and NOTHING ELSE
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Post by vkasahara on Jun 14, 2017 17:15:16 GMT 9
Please forgive me, because I'm about to be THAT GUY and brag about how wonderful and amazing and almost-modern-era my office is.
I'm direct-hired by the International Society of a small town. Our office is in an annex building behind city hall, and although we are not technically 公務員 we have a complicated relationship with the city where we get free lease and utilities for the office and a large chunk of our yearly funding in exchange for certain tasks that we (mostly me) perform for the city, such as managing the sister cities exchange program, arranging guest speakers from various countries to do 国際理解教育 at public schools, and translating/interpreting for city hall, schools, the public health and wellness center, etc. We also receive part of our yearly funding from membership fees private individuals pay to join the international society, and from income from language classes and events we hold. This balance of working for the city, but technically being a separate entity gives us the authority to do a lot of things we couldn't if we didn't have such strong ties with the city, but at the same time frees us from a lot of the rules and political BS that government employees are subject to.
As such, there are 5 computers in the office for 3 employees. Our boss has a Mac desktop, our secretary has a Macbook Pro laptop, I have a very large Mac desktop and a very small Mac notebook (I really hate apple products and don't know the proper names of any of these computers, sorry!) and we also have 1 windows laptop for visitors and international society members to use, but mostly I use that one too, when I can't get either of my Macs to do what I want. We have a very nice printer/scanner/copier thing and an ancient fax machine for sending stuff to schools and old people who haven't noticed that the internet was invented. We have internet and wifi with absolutely no restrictions, and USB/CD/SD etc work on all of our computers. I also have a projector and speakers that I use for the "国際理解教育 at public schools," mentioned above. The projector is very old and kind of crappy, so we're budgeting for me to buy a new one at the end of the year if all goes well. I get to pick out the new one and I am trying to find one with speakers built in this time if possible. My favorite piece of technology, though, is the air conditioner! We don't have to follow any rules for when to turn it on, and there are only 3 of us, so when it's hot we turn on the cooler and when it's cold we turn on the heat and do our work in an environment fit for human habitation! The city hall employees are very jealous since their A/C only turns on if it gets above 30 C, so they often find excuses to come over and consult us about fake work problems that don't exist, just to mooch off our A/C.
Compared to my last job as an ALT where I had no computer, no internet, no printer access except for black and white copies of documents I printed at home and brought in with me, of course no A/C in the entire school and no DESK of my own (shared with other people on the days I was at other schools) this place feels like heaven!
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Post by shanshan310 on Jun 16, 2017 11:41:14 GMT 9
Reading this thread makes me feel significantly better about my office.
Everyone may still print off emails and all nenkyu etc is done on paper, but at least I can use my own USB and access my home email at work.
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Post by shanshan310 on Jul 24, 2017 15:21:04 GMT 9
Help I take everything back. They changed the internet last week and now it's total garbage. We can now only access internet via a secure server on internet explorer. A bunch of websites (including my prefecture's JET site) are blocked. I can't copy or save photos. The browser automatically closes after 20~ minutes. If too many people log on to the internet at once I sometimes just get kicked off altogether and can't access it again until less people are online. And worst of all... I can only open 5 tabs at one time.
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Post by Hokuto on Jul 27, 2017 18:07:16 GMT 9
Help I take everything back. They changed the internet last week and now it's total garbage. We can now only access internet via a secure server on internet explorer. A bunch of websites (including my prefecture's JET site) are blocked. I can't copy or save photos. The browser automatically closes after 20~ minutes. If too many people log on to the internet at once I sometimes just get kicked off altogether and can't access it again until less people are online. And worst of all... I can only open 5 tabs at one time. lord that's worse than mine
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