What Emergency?

I’m always amazed as to how easily a small situation or problem can turn into the emergency of the day where I work. It’s happened a couple times for the same project and both times when I’m away from the office. Neither was an actual emergency. x(

I am the unlucky one who gets to be responsible for some project at work. It’s an application that gets used in pretty visible situations, but is generally used infrequently. Users can easily do their job without this application, but it does make things easier in the long run. I didn’t write the thing and I’m not responsible for the design, but I am unfortunately the guy that gets called any time the thing breaks (or seems to break).

Today was a great example of a a small situation that blew up into a big emergency. One of our users was allowed to test a new version of this application. They were supposed to find all the bugs, etc. Well they found a bug and I’ve been tied up in meetings so I didn’t have time to fix it yet. Since all they are doing is testing they were in no rush.

All of a sudden this morning they think they might need to use the application for some situation. They try to call my desk, but I’m not there. I’m actually 30 minutes away for a meeting with another agency. They freak out an start calling everybody. A number of Captains get called and suddenly the Captain I’m with gives me his Blackberry to show me the message.

I call the Captain back find out what is going on and assure him that I’ll be back by 12:30 to fix the problem for the users. Now, I’m under the impression they are using the application for an active situation (although they are not). I go back to my meeting.

About 30 minutes later a secretary comes in to tell us all that somebody is on the phone looking for me. I go up and end up talking with my direct supervisor. I explain the situation again and assure him that I’ll be back at 12:30 to fix the problem. Again everybody thinks the appliation is being used and that this problem is keeping them from doing their job.

We return to the office, I create a fix, test it and send it to the guys by 1:00. I call everybody back, but nobody is around so I leave messages. I explain this all to my boss and says “thanks”. Then another (third) Captain stops by to ask me if somebody got a hold of me to fix this problem. I told him the same thing and that the situation is under control.

I get back to my desk, get a call from the guys in the field and find out the truth of the situation. They are NOT using the applicaiton. They might not use it at all today. They are fully aware that the bug I fixed wasn’t going to keep them from doing their job. We also had a workaround.

Usually, this stuff would bug me, but I’m coming to expect it. A quick phone call asking for a bug fix for some minor bug turns into a circus. And in the end they don’t end up needing the fix.

This happened once before where the guys in the field wanted to ask me a question about the application. It was an “emergency” and I had to leave a class I was attending to call them on the phone. The “emergency” ended up being a question of “Can the app do this? No? Okay. Thanks.” ~X(


5 Responses to “What Emergency?”

  1. jessie Says:
    March 3rd, 2006 at 10:32 am

    i’m in the same situation at my job. i believe that it’s like that no matter where you work ’cause i’ve seen the “circus” in several environments. sucks, don’t it?

  2. Shaun Says:
    March 3rd, 2006 at 10:50 am

    I’d be okay with things if these we actual emergencies, but to me questions != emergency. 8-}

  3. Dad Says:
    March 3rd, 2006 at 4:54 pm

    I’ll bet theres a Blackberry and or a laptop in your future for these away missions . They will find a way to tie a leash on ya :) Also do these captains ever talk to each other? I mean someone sent you out to the field to the meetings. Government jobs,,,, they never change….:-?

  4. Shaun Says:
    March 4th, 2006 at 9:19 am

    I’ve already been “threatened” a couple of times. One said something about getting me a division issued cell phone. The other mentioned putting me on the project on a full time basis. It gives me chills just thinking about either. Having to carry a cell phone for work or spending all week working with Microsoft Access. :o

  5. Dad Says:
    March 4th, 2006 at 4:59 pm

    Sewer plant is hiring: oh ya still the cell phone delima. Tell them you need caller id and vibe feature. screen your calls . if that don’t work tell em ya had no service. works for me8-|