I don’t know what it is about the last day before Easter weekend that has people thinking I’m gonna work late cause they didn’t get things done. I swear, Every. Freakin. Year.
Today at 12:30 PM - when I leave at 1PM: Here is the data you asked for. The client is escalating and need an answer because otherwise they’re going to have to do a custom workaround if it’s something we can’t/won’t change.
Ma’am. This case is a month old.
On the 17th in our meeting with support, you gave me a general description and I told you to have the client try X/Y/Z. I heard nothing more.
On the 31st in our meeting, you said X/Y/Z didn’t work and you hadn’t had time to do anything else with it. Told you to send it to me.
You didn’t, and I had to chase you down for the case number later that day.
I did a bunch of testing, and asked for client data first thing on the 1st.
You didn’t even acknowledge the request until this morning.
The extent of your work on the case was asking an LLM and getting the wrong answer.
It is an annoying problem, but they can get around it, even without a permanent custom workaround. It is not mission critical.
I will get back to you on Tuesday after my long weekend.
Still better than the year when I spent most of the week helping a client as a favor to support & my VP, I told them on Thursday, “Hey, when I get off at 5, I’m going to be handing this off as I will be on PTO until Tuesday” and they said, “But your PTO isn’t really until tomorrow.”
My VP was also on the call, and said, “No. She has to travel and get on the road. She has handpicked the person taking over to finish it off, you will be fine.”
Y’all, I was not traveling, he just lied for me. 🥰
Oh yeah, he was great. I hadn't even considered just throwing out a white lie to protect my time off.
I'm a little better at that now.
"I have a hard stop at my [normal time off] - I have an appointment."
With a margarita. Or errands. Or Sean for a nap.
Personal obligations is one I use a lot, too.
I hate when I have to use the phrase "hard stop" because it's soooooo corporate buzzwordy, but it actually works.
Play Ball and Fight Fascists
Jeri Dansky
Sindarina, Edge Case Detective