I decided to make today’s picture work.  Why? Because it was driving me nuts today.  

First off, before that story, I must mention that this is a view into the server room.  I didn’t realize it until I was looking at the picture, but this rack at the end (and yes, Hubman, we do walk around talking about the racks in the server room.)  Anway, the rack at the end contains the servers that are the bane of my existence. It is the application that is a pain in the ass to support, always has problems, and it take 13 servers to make the application run.  

(This is where you should shake your head in disgust because it should not take 13 servers to make this thing work. That, my dear friends, is called poor architecture…but I digress.)

Why was work driving me nuts?  Ahh….an easy answer that will take a moment to explain..

We had a holiday closure this year.  They decided at the last minute to consolidate people scattered throughout the building onto one floor of the building.  And then we had snow which meant most people couldn’t get to work to pack.  Instead of adjusting expectations, they decided to move people for them.  Unfortunately, the place they were moving us was not quite vacated by Engineering.  And, the facilities manager won’t move them because he’s afraid something will get broken (delicate equipment).  So, instead of moving people where they were going to land, or suspending the move, they moved us anyway.

Yesterday, I unpacked in my new cube.  And today, I was told I had to move to the cube that I was meant to be in.  It took me a couple hours to find my stuff and get everything setup.  And I got to repeat the whole process today. 

In addition to that, I have had to deal with a very “green” guy from Accounting.  We have been having this horrible problem with a system that has resulted in about 4 weeks of rebuild.  This guys lives in this system.  And, I’ve decided it is because it is easy compared to the alternative which is to actually go get the information himself out of the main system.  Why? Because it’s too hard.  The guy is a year out of college, and he’s whining about it being too hard.  

And, while he is a pain in the ass, I know what the real issue is.  He is unsupervised.  His direct manager is too busy to give him guidance, and his boss is also too busy to make sure the “green” guy isn’t just blowing smoke.  I took a deep breath yesterday, put my manager/mentor hat on, and gave the kid guidance.  Told him exactly what he needed to do.  I explained that this is hard, but it is his chance to be a hero of sorts.  I mean, it’s the bottom of the 9th, bases are loaded, and he has the chance to score the winning run.  And, I’m not blowing smoke – he does.  And instead of getting in the box and giving it a try, he totally walks away.  

Today, he escalated it to his boss who is usually uninformed and comes in pounding the table and demanding immediate action.  And, I….I don’t respond well to that….at all.  Because of how long I’ve been dealing with this stuff (4 weeks, 7 days/week, my fuse is pretty short.  And, yes, he did come and pound his fist on the table.  I won’t go into the details (I know, too late)….but that was how my work day ended.  

And ask me what I got done? I’m in my new cube.  The system still isn’t up 100%.  Nothing like two days in a row like that to make you wonder why you are even getting up to go to work in the morning.

But, as my dad would say, the sun will still rise tomorrow. 

And, I’ll go to work.