Sad, But True

Well how things can change...

I got off my second confcall, washed dishes, ran a report, did some follow up and was pretty much done for the morning. Next stop was supposed to be Fogo de Chao for our department Christmas lunch (If you *ever* get the chance to eat there, please do assuming you like meat...and lots of it). You will not regret it) but before I could head out the door, my dotted line manager in Sweden calls me up to inform me that there is an issue that our customer wants escalated. Well, I am an Escalation Manager, so I go into action. To make the process that I have to follow short for my readers, let's just say I have to contact a lot of people, coordinate the fix, document everything, and keep communications flowing. For any real escalation, this could take a couple of hours minimum to several days to run. This one started out looking pretty easy, but it soon bloomed into a mess. Needless to say, I missed out on the best meal I would have this year.

I had already shut down my PC when I got my first call, so I had to turn it back on and log onto the VPN again. Once on, I had to dissect a lengthy e-mail, contact our Incident Mgmt in Sweden and then a local tech in Dallas. I logged off my laptop, let my dogs out to use the bathroom (since they would be home all day by themselves since my lovely wife had just left for work), loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly...err... no I loaded up the truck and headed to work.

At worked I found the local tech who was working on the issue and he gave me the run down. I called the tech in India (no disrespect to those who live there or are from there, but communicating to Indian techs is as hard for us as it is for you...trust me) and telling him that his has been turned into a formal escalation and our customer is not happy. We gives me some info and I agree to the plan. I then set out to begin filling out the documentation required for this process (which, BTW, is no picnic to fill out). I get the documentation and the initial e-mail out to everyone and their mothers, then I start playing IM tag with techs and Incident Mgrs. By this time it is 12:30 or so. Lunch started at 11:30. My next meeting is at 2:00 PM. Grrrrr. The Dallas tech does everything he can (it is a very complicated ODBC driver error) and goes to have lunch. He does not have a 2 PM meeting.

At noon, I prepare my first update which is not overly optimistic. I send it to half the planet, including the Inc Mgrs. They are not happy either, but the issue is not an easy one to resolve.

More IM tag with techs and Inc Mgrs. The issue has been escalated to a third party (the vendor of the software). He thinks the latest Microsoft MDAC patch is the culprit. Tech tries to fix it, no dice. 2 PM roles around and I have my next confcall.

This one went pretty well and it is beginning to look just like I thought it would: home grown engineering app runs great on the LAN, horribly on the WAN. To test, some large files are FTP'd from various locations that are complaining to the site where the app is hosted. My guess is that the FTP times are going to be fast. The app is most likely not configured to work on a WAN (which is what 2 of the techs and myself said from the beginning, but the enginerds did not want to hear it) and that is causing anyone connecting to it over the WAN to see horrible performance.

That meeting ends and it is 3 PM. I am tired and hungry (remember I have not eaten yet and I had a microscopic breakfast anticipating a *huge* lunch that failed to materialize)...then my wife calls and I tell her the story. She says that we are going out to dinner and that is final. I agree with her and she starts looking for places to eat (close to me) when she gets off work at 5 PM. I prepare the meeting minutes and send them out to the attendees.

3:30 PM, I am in the hall talking to 3 mgrs about the issue and they tell me it was admirable to stay back to coordinate this issue. Thanx, but I am still hungry at that point. One of the mgrs who used to do this job told me some tricks that will help me in the future, so I plan on using them.

4:00 PM, more IM / e-mail tag with techs and Inc Mgrs. I prepare my last update of the day and tell the tech not to call me unless the world is imploding. Anything short of that he can contact the Inc Mgrs and if they deem it important, they can call me.

4:45 I send out the last update. I held on to it for about 30 minutes *hoping* to get good news, but the news look less encouraging as the minutes ticked by. It appears that the vendor cannot resolve the issue, so they are opening a case with the provider of the ODBC drivers the app uses. NO ONE is happy about that, but what can we do?

5:00 PM, I call my wife and we meet at a little Cajun cafe near my work. The food is remarkably good. The owners are...get ready for this...CHINESE and this is their second restaurant in the area. My wife and I both agree this place is going to be a regular stop.

We leave there at 5:45 and I go to get some gas since I am running on fumes. Traffic is horrible at that time and it takes me 45 minutes to go 15 miles and stop for ice cream and gas. Really.

I got home and let out the dogs (they were doing the pee-pee dance) and gave them fresh food and water. I went and got the mail (all junk) and then settled in to pay some bills online and update my blog.

I missed a great lunch but I think that God was testing my integrity. He wanted to see if I would do the right thing. I must admit, for a few minutes, I thought about just going to eat and worry about the aftermath later, but I could not do it. I may have not had my company Christmas lunch, but I am happy that I did the right thing.