1. Pick up call from client who has talked to 3 different people already who have patted her on the head and sent her on her merry way. (Critical Error #1)
2. Assure her that you’re her go-to-girl on this now, and you WILL figure it out. (Critical Error #2)
3. Start perusing the problem. A scene from the Blues Brothers comes to mind…
“What was that?’
“We threw a rod.”
“Is that bad?”
“Yeah.”
4. Spend hours sifting through data, reading changelogs, getting nowhere.
5. Beat down various people calling to check the status because the call has been escalated.
6. Continue beating head into wall working the problem.
7. Start to wonder when they’re just going to fire you over this call.
8. Lose all faith in your skills.
9. Start wishing they would just fire you and put you out of your misery so you can go give that Holly Golightly lifestyle a whirl.
10. Whack people with yardsticks when they check for status.
11. Say screw it and go home on time, feeling like a complete failure.
12. Have dinner.
13. Take a 2 and a half hour nap.
14. Get up, still mad, decide you must do something to make yourself feel better. Realize it’s either consume a bottle of red wine, or go to the gym.
15. Go to the gym because you’re drinking tomorrow anyway and don’t feel like watching hockey with a hangover.
16. Complete some form of large personal record at the gym, get good and wound up and ready to lay the smackdown on the entire world.
17. Come home, fire up computer, recreate each and every problem the client is encountering, discover a few new ones to boot, none of which you’ve been able to do during daylight hours to date.
18. Send email to all who are “checking up on the status” timed stamped 3AM stating that the problem is going to QC in the morning because you’ve recreated everything.
19. Realize that probably no one will notice or care the lengths you went to on this call, and probably won’t say thank you.
20. Get in a few hours of sleep before starting it all over again.
Fear my mad skillz baby.
