The handwritten sheet became a clean report and many impossible entries were blocked, but HR was still comparing records by eye. The remaining problem was in the operation around the system.
After we put attendance entry on the AS/400, I expected the monthly work to become much easier. When I returned to HR, however, the staff were still fighting piles of time cards and printed attendance reports.
The reports were easier to read, and the system rejected many logical contradictions. An employee could not claim forty-five minutes of overtime when only thirty minutes had elapsed, or enter a shift that could not exist in that department.
Even with strict validation and cross-checks, HR’s eyes were still strained. The entries could be internally valid while the department head’s review missed a mismatch between the plan and what had actually happened.
HR then became the final place where those inconsistencies were repaired. The software was behaving as designed; the full operating process had not caught up.
That distinction matters. Digitizing an input form does not automatically redesign responsibility, approval, or verification.
CHAPTER 03 · PART 01 · EPISODE 3 / 6 STORIES · 35 STORIES TOTAL