Well, our work slowdown isn’t going so well. My partner in crime closed 29 calls yesterday, and then I closed 19 today. We kinda suck at this.
I did have one call today that went horribly wrong. Client calls, requesting the mgr (not cause she’s the mgr, just cause she’s a known quantity), mgr is on another call that will go on a while, so I grab it. Client says she’s under a deadline (never good) and is willing to work with me. Wide ranging mess. Very wide ranging. We start at project #1 on the list. I pull data. I see one issue, but miss another one. Have her run update X on this project, as it does indeed need to be run. Running this update brings the issue I initially missed straight to the forefront in a most glaring fashion. To the tune of a change of $85,000. Not that running the update broke anything, it just really brought the brokenness right into the spotlight. Big time. With sequins and a brass band.
Client is starting to freak out, as she is basically thinking I made it worse. This is not good.
I get her off the phone, claiming to need to check something, but in reality trying to think of anyway to not have to say, “Oh my god, you have screwed this up so badly that this is really going to come under the category of abuse of support, and your deadline can go right out the window now.”
And then just flat out panic. I mean, crap, this is project ONE of a multi-page display of her fuckups. In my heart of hearts, I know I can fix it - that’s not the problem. The problem is, she doesn’t remember and/or understand what she’s done to break it to start with and this is going to be an uphill battle every step of the way, with her reminding me the entire time that she’s under a deadline.
Panic completely and utterly won. By this point, mgr is off the phone and I go and beg and grovel for her to please, oh PLEASE take the call. She does, with good humor and kind words.
Said mgr is also going to design on March 14. She is gonna get one hell of a going away basket of goodies from me.
