What Not To Do When You Have To Work At 21:00 On Friday
Knowing that I have to work on Friday night, I decided to sleep in and go to the I B M office at 13:00 for my client’s conference call. Although it was supposed to last an hour, I didn’t even leave the I B M office till 17:45. And the worst part about it? Despite the fact that I have created a calendar marking all the dates for which all the servers I was supposed to work on as well as created a spreadsheet inventorying all said servers along with their dates, someone dropped the ball and forgot to get the final approval in for an activity that was scheduled for this coming Monday since June 15! Despite sending out email after email, as well as the said documentation, someone on the client side dropped the ball. As a result, the activity is now postponed.
I was so frustrated by this lack of dedication on the client part, that I wanted to scream at the office. I’d be lying if I wasn’t banging on the desk during the call, smashing my head on the table, and muting the telephone just so I can get out of the chair and start jumping up and down while pulling my hair. I even went as far as slamming shut the screen of my laptop so hard that I had to check and make sure that nothing broke. Aarrgghh!!!
After hanging up the phone, I wrote a politically-correct way of expressing my frustration. I have learned early on in my career that in order to get what you want, or to express your frustration without putting people in a defensive mode, you simply have to play with words. I hate to say this, but I’m really good at it, even though in real life when it comes to interacting with my personal relationships, I’m not a bull-shitter. I say it just as it is. Anyway, this is the email I sent out:
Guys, what can I do to ensure things like this don't happen again? I have created the spreadsheet with the dates discussed from the 06/15 meeting we all had with [client manager], as well as created the calendar indicating which servers had been approved/agreed to and which ones are still needing approval with several icons/markers, and continually updating them and sending them out. The spreadsheet has buttons that will let you sort by proposed dates so we can see what's coming and pressing. I have also sent out emails with a summary of upcoming servers for the week that are in question, as well as discussing them during the Wednesday status meeting. If there is anything I can do to help you out and make this more streamlined and helpful, please do let me know. If the documents I've created and sent out are not meeting your needs, please please do not hesitate to let me know what I can do to improve them. I'll do my best to enable all of us to see this project through completion with as much ease as possible.
Of course, anybody who knows how to play corporate politics will see through the smoke that this is extreme frustration in disguise. I was so pissed that after doing all the project management work for the project manager, shit are still not getting in order. So in my need to let steam off, I called up Rosa, Sabine and Cesar. The plan? Go to Rivers Bar and Grill by the River at the Mercantile Exchange, and drink our frustrations away. After all, Sabine had a shitty day at work as well.
We all convened around 18:00, and began relaxing. The first round? I had a Miller Lite, while the others had a Screw Driver. The second round? We all had the 24-ounce Fat Tyre beer, save for Rosa who can’t drink beer. Another glass of Screw Driver for her. The third round? Another round of said Fat Tyre except for Rosa, who I suspect is a super light weight. By the time we downed our drinks and food, it was already 20:15.
Nothing wrong, right? Except I still had to go home, get in my car, and drive to Schaumburg, which is a cool hour away and work at 21:00! Remember that I had to work overnight, thus the sleeping in? Yeah...
Kids, here are the two things you shouldn’t do if you are pressing for time and have to go to work.
ONE: Try not to have a massive “happy” hour immediately before you have to go to work. And if you absolutely must have “happy” hour to release the pressures of work, don’t go for three rounds of drinks in a matter of two hours.
TWO: If you know a few days ago that you have to work overnight on Friday, fill up the tank before waiting till the hour when you are leaving for work. On Wednesday after work, although my tank was running low with the empty indicator light turned on, I decided to postpone filling up my tank till the day I go to work. So naturally, while on my way to work tonight, I was getting really nervous. Not only was I really, really late, I was tempting the devil much like Kramer did when he took the used car out for a test drive, checking to see how far they can go with the empty indicator light being on.
By the time I got to my favorite, and pseudo-closest, gas station, this is what it looked like on my instrument panel (note the needle on the gas gauge):
So kids, take my two lessons and file them in your little head for future reference. Lucky me, I’m not fired (yet), and I didn’t get stranded on I-94 without a portable gas tank in my vehicle. =)
Update (2007.06.25): Thank you to those of you who felt concerned about my well-being. Apparently my statement on lesson number one was concerning some of you. And I admit I did not elaborate as much when I wrote this entry, and due to readers' concerns, I have to clarify a few things.
1) I wasn't drunk after the happy hour, despite the fact it was 3 drinks in a little over 2 hours.
2) I cheated. I actually gave half a bottle of my last beer to Cesar at the tail end, because I knew I had to go to work.
3) After the whole happy hour thing, I did have to walk to the Metra station, wait for the train, ride the train, walk a while to find my friend's car, catch a ride from her who supposedly parked near(?) the Metra, etc before I myself got into my car and drove to work.
The whole point of lesson number one was not about how one should not get smashed immediately before leaving for work, although that is actually good advice for anybody. In my context, it was more about having a longer-than-planned happy hour till 45 minutes before having to be at work, when you know it will take you about an hour to drive there, and another half hour to get to your car at the very least.
In any case, I really appreciate your concerns.
I was so frustrated by this lack of dedication on the client part, that I wanted to scream at the office. I’d be lying if I wasn’t banging on the desk during the call, smashing my head on the table, and muting the telephone just so I can get out of the chair and start jumping up and down while pulling my hair. I even went as far as slamming shut the screen of my laptop so hard that I had to check and make sure that nothing broke. Aarrgghh!!!
After hanging up the phone, I wrote a politically-correct way of expressing my frustration. I have learned early on in my career that in order to get what you want, or to express your frustration without putting people in a defensive mode, you simply have to play with words. I hate to say this, but I’m really good at it, even though in real life when it comes to interacting with my personal relationships, I’m not a bull-shitter. I say it just as it is. Anyway, this is the email I sent out:
Guys, what can I do to ensure things like this don't happen again? I have created the spreadsheet with the dates discussed from the 06/15 meeting we all had with [client manager], as well as created the calendar indicating which servers had been approved/agreed to and which ones are still needing approval with several icons/markers, and continually updating them and sending them out. The spreadsheet has buttons that will let you sort by proposed dates so we can see what's coming and pressing. I have also sent out emails with a summary of upcoming servers for the week that are in question, as well as discussing them during the Wednesday status meeting. If there is anything I can do to help you out and make this more streamlined and helpful, please do let me know. If the documents I've created and sent out are not meeting your needs, please please do not hesitate to let me know what I can do to improve them. I'll do my best to enable all of us to see this project through completion with as much ease as possible.
Of course, anybody who knows how to play corporate politics will see through the smoke that this is extreme frustration in disguise. I was so pissed that after doing all the project management work for the project manager, shit are still not getting in order. So in my need to let steam off, I called up Rosa, Sabine and Cesar. The plan? Go to Rivers Bar and Grill by the River at the Mercantile Exchange, and drink our frustrations away. After all, Sabine had a shitty day at work as well.
We all convened around 18:00, and began relaxing. The first round? I had a Miller Lite, while the others had a Screw Driver. The second round? We all had the 24-ounce Fat Tyre beer, save for Rosa who can’t drink beer. Another glass of Screw Driver for her. The third round? Another round of said Fat Tyre except for Rosa, who I suspect is a super light weight. By the time we downed our drinks and food, it was already 20:15.
Nothing wrong, right? Except I still had to go home, get in my car, and drive to Schaumburg, which is a cool hour away and work at 21:00! Remember that I had to work overnight, thus the sleeping in? Yeah...
Kids, here are the two things you shouldn’t do if you are pressing for time and have to go to work.
ONE: Try not to have a massive “happy” hour immediately before you have to go to work. And if you absolutely must have “happy” hour to release the pressures of work, don’t go for three rounds of drinks in a matter of two hours.
TWO: If you know a few days ago that you have to work overnight on Friday, fill up the tank before waiting till the hour when you are leaving for work. On Wednesday after work, although my tank was running low with the empty indicator light turned on, I decided to postpone filling up my tank till the day I go to work. So naturally, while on my way to work tonight, I was getting really nervous. Not only was I really, really late, I was tempting the devil much like Kramer did when he took the used car out for a test drive, checking to see how far they can go with the empty indicator light being on.
By the time I got to my favorite, and pseudo-closest, gas station, this is what it looked like on my instrument panel (note the needle on the gas gauge):
So kids, take my two lessons and file them in your little head for future reference. Lucky me, I’m not fired (yet), and I didn’t get stranded on I-94 without a portable gas tank in my vehicle. =)
Update (2007.06.25): Thank you to those of you who felt concerned about my well-being. Apparently my statement on lesson number one was concerning some of you. And I admit I did not elaborate as much when I wrote this entry, and due to readers' concerns, I have to clarify a few things.
1) I wasn't drunk after the happy hour, despite the fact it was 3 drinks in a little over 2 hours.
2) I cheated. I actually gave half a bottle of my last beer to Cesar at the tail end, because I knew I had to go to work.
3) After the whole happy hour thing, I did have to walk to the Metra station, wait for the train, ride the train, walk a while to find my friend's car, catch a ride from her who supposedly parked near(?) the Metra, etc before I myself got into my car and drove to work.
The whole point of lesson number one was not about how one should not get smashed immediately before leaving for work, although that is actually good advice for anybody. In my context, it was more about having a longer-than-planned happy hour till 45 minutes before having to be at work, when you know it will take you about an hour to drive there, and another half hour to get to your car at the very least.
In any case, I really appreciate your concerns.
posted by StHalcyon at
23:38
1 Comments:
If you are talking about the New Belgium Brewery beer, it is Fat TIRE, not Fat Tyre.
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