Scene 8
Day 2 1:00pm
As Linda was discussing the issue in detail with Perry, she advised me to send across a mail to all the users to let them know that we are working on the issue and also she would let me know once the issue has been resolved. Similar stance I had taken with Rajinder I thought and trudged back to my desk to send out the mail. As I sat my desk, Sukhi came to my cube, as he had heard from Linda about the problems we were having. Though he did not know much about the application, I explained to him the situation just to see if he could get some pointers. Though he too did not have any idea he gave me the news that Linda spoke with our Manager(Onsite) Vijay about how I am not resolving the issues at my end and running to her. This explained the smile when I had gone to her cube. It was just 5-10 minutes between the time I contacted her and reached her desk, but she had done enough in those 10 minutes to pull me down in front of my Manager. Though eventually she herself has not been able to resolve the issue, but I knew she would never mention that to Vijay. Sukhi wished me good luck and went back as I sat staring at the monitor thinking now what all would be the reactions of Vijay and Manas. Thats it, I decided, now this issue has been escalated enough and its time for me to resolve it and thus I started looking into the servers.
Scene 9
Day 2 3:00pm
I spent some 20 minutes checking the files and then opened the config file and removed the extra characters in the area where the parameters were defined. Then restarted the application and lo-behold the application was back up and running. I went up to Linda's desk and announced to her that the issue has been resolved. She could not believe and wanted to check the application once more from her side. Once she was satisfied she asked me for explanations and that's when I opened the old config file and showed the extra spaces. Her face went Red because as per the log before I had got to the file, it was modified by her login and guess she had inadvertently put the blank spaces in the file. She did not want to own up the mistake and kind of mentioned that somebody must have played around with the file. I too agreed with her statement and went about explaining the process on how in a systematic way I found out the error. She requested me to check with the customer so that the ticket could be closed, while she took up the task of letting Perry and the business team known the latest on the issue and my heroics.
Scene 2
Day 1 1:00pm
I was Linda's desk for the meeting but as usual she was not at her seat. This happens invariably whenever I have a meeting with her, so as usual I just stood outside her cube. As I was standing Bajrang's words were going through my mind and suddenly I noticed that Linda had not locked her computer and she was going through the config file for one of our applications. I started getting weird ideas which led to a small plan. I checked both the aisle's to make sure that Linda is not coming over and entered some spaces into the file. The plan would work only if Linda would save the file before closing it and I just prayed to God that this happens. The application usually restarts everyday at 11:00am and therefore nobody would know about it until tomorrow morning. My mind was thinking about the things to happen Linda arrived and apologized for being late and as she was explaining the reason of being late, she saved the file and closed. For those 20 secs I never heard the words spoken by Linda but my eyes were just making sure what she was doing with the file and once the file was closed I was relieved man. We continued with our discussion for which I was there and once done I went back hoping that my plan would click.
Scene 11
Day 2 11:30pm
Bajrang opened a can of beer while I had my usual Soda. Cheers and thus began a night of our enjoyment. Sukhi, Vishesh and Rajan too joined us and just as the party was brewing one of our's phones started ringing. Though I did not have any alcohol it took me couple of minutes to realize that it was my phone - may be success had gone to my head. It was a call from the Service desk and my party ended because now I had a new issue to deal with. :-(
Appreciate it!! Part 2
Scene 5
Day 2 11:15am
I returned to my desk and to my surprise saw 3 new chat windows with all of them pointing to the same issue. I acknowledged the 3 them and now had to start working on this new Gereprine ticket. As I was analyzing the contents of the ticket, Rajinder called back and he confirmed my thoughts that this was a new issue which we have not faced earlier. We both discussed and negated some of the common scenarios but still were not able to get a break through. I needed some time to work on the issue and hence ended the call with Rajinder promising him that I will let him know the details once I resolve the issue. Just as I started digging into the details, I was disturbed by another call - this time from the business user and she wanted to know what the issue was and why it happened. I had to explain her that I was just starting to look into the issue and will let her know as soon as I have an update. Meanwhile another 5 mails from some of my known customers came in saying that they are facing the same issue. This was getting insane because since the issue was reported I have been working on telling everybody that I know the issue and I am working on it rather than actually working on it. I was going through the log files to see if I could get some pointers when there was another phone call from unknown number. I thought Rajinder had found something and quickly picked the phone only to hear the deadly voice of Offshore manager Manas and he wanted to know why I had not filled my time-sheet for the last week. Though I was trying to tell him that I had already submitted the same, he was just going on rattling out the importance of time-sheet, something about the quality and quantity of the data, something about billing, blah blah...it went for the next 5 minutes. I had to literally shout back - "Manas I have already submitted the the time sheet for last week. If you still have any issues I will call you back in 20-30 minutes as I have a production issue". Somehow the word "production issue" cooled him down and he agreed to check at his end. Now as I was looking through the log files, I saw that the users were not able to connect to the database and when I checked with the DBA he confirmed that there was no issues with the database and everything seems to be fine. The only other thing I could think of was that probably the web server was not talking to the Database server, but on checking with concerned team they too gave a green light saying that there are no issues. I was kind of running out of ideas and decided to check with Linda if she would have some idea about the issue. After all I just had to waste time and then have Linda take a look as usual....or is it something unusual this time.
Scene 6
Day 2 12:00pm
Linda welcomed me to her cube with a cunning smile and as I sat down in her cube she started off with her theories on how you get to know the system only with time and that she has been working on the system for the past 5 years and knows the system in and out. This has happened many a times and I never understood whether she says this with genuine intentions or is it just to make me feel that I could not even solve this problem on my own. Anyways my main aim was to solve the issue and so just watched the steps she was following ignoring her theories. Most of the steps were the same Rajinder and myself had gone through and I was able to give her the results for them just to let her know that I too did the same analysis. After some 20 minutes Linda declared - this is something we will have to discuss with the vendor so lets call Perry and check with her. This meant another 20 minutes of call and going through the same steps again, however deep inside I was happy as at least this was something new and not some silly issue which Linda would have resolved in few minutes and once again bragged about I know the system...blah blah blah.Perry too could not find anything wrong and wanted some more time to check through her notes.
Scene 9
Day 2 4:00pm
"Yes the issue has been resolved at my end" - were the Golden words from the customer and with this I was able to close the Gereprine ticket and at last sent out a mail to all the users confirming that the issue has been resolved and they should be able to work in the application without any issues. I had resolved the issue for which Linda and Perry spent 3 hours in research and were not able to find anything. I had become a hero and then started the flow of Appreciation mails from all the Managers involved. Linda too was kind of impressed that I was able to solve the issue however I could see the question in her eyes - "How did he do that?".
Scene 10
Day 2 11:0pm
The appreciation mails had reached Manas and he looped in the whole of Offshore to let them all know my good work. I was reading through all the mails back at my home when Bajrang got back from his movie. He noticed the smile on my face and wanted to know what it was all about. I showed him the mails and he was surprised that to see so many appreciation mails. He started congratulating me and was really happy to see them. He wanted to know the complete story and when I explained to him the whole act he was shocked and surprised by the turn of events. Then all of a sudden he started laughing loudly and I joined him now with my own cunning smile.
Day 2 11:15am
I returned to my desk and to my surprise saw 3 new chat windows with all of them pointing to the same issue. I acknowledged the 3 them and now had to start working on this new Gereprine ticket. As I was analyzing the contents of the ticket, Rajinder called back and he confirmed my thoughts that this was a new issue which we have not faced earlier. We both discussed and negated some of the common scenarios but still were not able to get a break through. I needed some time to work on the issue and hence ended the call with Rajinder promising him that I will let him know the details once I resolve the issue. Just as I started digging into the details, I was disturbed by another call - this time from the business user and she wanted to know what the issue was and why it happened. I had to explain her that I was just starting to look into the issue and will let her know as soon as I have an update. Meanwhile another 5 mails from some of my known customers came in saying that they are facing the same issue. This was getting insane because since the issue was reported I have been working on telling everybody that I know the issue and I am working on it rather than actually working on it. I was going through the log files to see if I could get some pointers when there was another phone call from unknown number. I thought Rajinder had found something and quickly picked the phone only to hear the deadly voice of Offshore manager Manas and he wanted to know why I had not filled my time-sheet for the last week. Though I was trying to tell him that I had already submitted the same, he was just going on rattling out the importance of time-sheet, something about the quality and quantity of the data, something about billing, blah blah...it went for the next 5 minutes. I had to literally shout back - "Manas I have already submitted the the time sheet for last week. If you still have any issues I will call you back in 20-30 minutes as I have a production issue". Somehow the word "production issue" cooled him down and he agreed to check at his end. Now as I was looking through the log files, I saw that the users were not able to connect to the database and when I checked with the DBA he confirmed that there was no issues with the database and everything seems to be fine. The only other thing I could think of was that probably the web server was not talking to the Database server, but on checking with concerned team they too gave a green light saying that there are no issues. I was kind of running out of ideas and decided to check with Linda if she would have some idea about the issue. After all I just had to waste time and then have Linda take a look as usual....or is it something unusual this time.
Scene 6
Day 2 12:00pm
Linda welcomed me to her cube with a cunning smile and as I sat down in her cube she started off with her theories on how you get to know the system only with time and that she has been working on the system for the past 5 years and knows the system in and out. This has happened many a times and I never understood whether she says this with genuine intentions or is it just to make me feel that I could not even solve this problem on my own. Anyways my main aim was to solve the issue and so just watched the steps she was following ignoring her theories. Most of the steps were the same Rajinder and myself had gone through and I was able to give her the results for them just to let her know that I too did the same analysis. After some 20 minutes Linda declared - this is something we will have to discuss with the vendor so lets call Perry and check with her. This meant another 20 minutes of call and going through the same steps again, however deep inside I was happy as at least this was something new and not some silly issue which Linda would have resolved in few minutes and once again bragged about I know the system...blah blah blah.Perry too could not find anything wrong and wanted some more time to check through her notes.
Scene 9
Day 2 4:00pm
"Yes the issue has been resolved at my end" - were the Golden words from the customer and with this I was able to close the Gereprine ticket and at last sent out a mail to all the users confirming that the issue has been resolved and they should be able to work in the application without any issues. I had resolved the issue for which Linda and Perry spent 3 hours in research and were not able to find anything. I had become a hero and then started the flow of Appreciation mails from all the Managers involved. Linda too was kind of impressed that I was able to solve the issue however I could see the question in her eyes - "How did he do that?".
Scene 10
Day 2 11:0pm
The appreciation mails had reached Manas and he looped in the whole of Offshore to let them all know my good work. I was reading through all the mails back at my home when Bajrang got back from his movie. He noticed the smile on my face and wanted to know what it was all about. I showed him the mails and he was surprised that to see so many appreciation mails. He started congratulating me and was really happy to see them. He wanted to know the complete story and when I explained to him the whole act he was shocked and surprised by the turn of events. Then all of a sudden he started laughing loudly and I joined him now with my own cunning smile.
Appreciate it!! Part 1
The Story and all the characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Scene 1
Day 1 12:30pm
As Bajrang, Sukhi and I were having lunch we were discussing about how our project, though being production support, was never gaining enough visibility with respect to other projects in our area. Day in and day out there were appreciation mails for the other members of our team except for us 3 and the main reason for this was Linda - our team lead. She rarely appreciated out work and whatever we did she felt that we could improve. She never went in detail about the applications which we supported and whenever we faced some issues, we had to contact her and probably that is what she wanted - to be in control and not let us take over. As I had the last piece of Garden Burger I informed Bajrang and Sukhi about my meeting with Linda at 1:00pm and about how again it was another case of going to her with respect to a new issue. Bajrang lamented - "Unlucky souls we are - production support with a tough team lead. We are never going to get any recognition for the work we do."
Scene 3
Day 1 3:00pm
Bajrang just walked into the cube for a coffee break and as I accompanied him, asked him if he would be happy if at least one of us got an appreciation from Linda. He looked at me and said that's impossible and I reminded him impossible means I M possible :-). Its a great feeling to see the expression on the face of the person who does not have an idea of what you are upto. Initially I was planning to tell him but then decided it would be only after the everything went well.
Scene 4
Day 2 7:45am
Click....That was the end of a phone call I had with the offshore team. The screen showed 2H:03M:45S as I was ending the call, phew....have been working on the issue since 5:30am and now its almost time to get ready and go to office. Though its not the ideal way to start your day, at least I was satisfied that the issue was resolved. This is pretty usually for any IT professional working in production support. There are no defined times to work as issues are expected anytime and so you too are expected to be prepared for the same.As I glanced around my room mate Bajrang was still fast asleep unaware of my suffering since morning. Anyways I did not sleep well last night and was looking forward to the day in office :-)
Scene 5
Day 2 9:00am
As I started driving to office, my phone starts ringing again and with a doubt I pick up the phone hoping that it is not another issue. It was Linda, my Team Lead, on the phone to check the status of the issue. Somehow Leads and Manager's are like the Police officers in Indian movies who come into the scene once all the problems are solved. Anyways she was happy that issue was resolved and I continued with my drive to the office. Though I had been working since morning, never had the time to check my mails and just as Outlook connected to the network there were 35 emails waiting for me. Luckily most of them were pertaining to issues faced in the morning with the users, business team trying to find out what exactly happened in the morning. It took me another 30 minutes to reply to all them and let them know what exactly the issue and what we did to resolve the issue. Just as I sent across the last mail, the telephone light started blinking....."unknown number" read the screen and I knew it was the offshore team. "Hello Sai"....said a familiar sound from the other end. It was Ravinder and he wanted to discuss some of the existing Gereprine tickets before he could work on them. With the Offshore call over and nothing outstanding to be looked into, I was catching up with the latest around the world when at the bottom of my screen came the words "soda time?". It was Sukhi, my friend and team mate, and usually after settling into our offices we take this break to refresh ourselves and also share the interesting(of others life) and non-interesting(of our life) happenings in the last 24 hours. We are sometimes joined by Vishesh and Rajan too and by the end of the break we end throwing brick-bats at each other.
Scene 1
Day 1 12:30pm
As Bajrang, Sukhi and I were having lunch we were discussing about how our project, though being production support, was never gaining enough visibility with respect to other projects in our area. Day in and day out there were appreciation mails for the other members of our team except for us 3 and the main reason for this was Linda - our team lead. She rarely appreciated out work and whatever we did she felt that we could improve. She never went in detail about the applications which we supported and whenever we faced some issues, we had to contact her and probably that is what she wanted - to be in control and not let us take over. As I had the last piece of Garden Burger I informed Bajrang and Sukhi about my meeting with Linda at 1:00pm and about how again it was another case of going to her with respect to a new issue. Bajrang lamented - "Unlucky souls we are - production support with a tough team lead. We are never going to get any recognition for the work we do."
Scene 3
Day 1 3:00pm
Bajrang just walked into the cube for a coffee break and as I accompanied him, asked him if he would be happy if at least one of us got an appreciation from Linda. He looked at me and said that's impossible and I reminded him impossible means I M possible :-). Its a great feeling to see the expression on the face of the person who does not have an idea of what you are upto. Initially I was planning to tell him but then decided it would be only after the everything went well.
Scene 4
Day 2 7:45am
Click....That was the end of a phone call I had with the offshore team. The screen showed 2H:03M:45S as I was ending the call, phew....have been working on the issue since 5:30am and now its almost time to get ready and go to office. Though its not the ideal way to start your day, at least I was satisfied that the issue was resolved. This is pretty usually for any IT professional working in production support. There are no defined times to work as issues are expected anytime and so you too are expected to be prepared for the same.As I glanced around my room mate Bajrang was still fast asleep unaware of my suffering since morning. Anyways I did not sleep well last night and was looking forward to the day in office :-)
Scene 5
Day 2 9:00am
As I started driving to office, my phone starts ringing again and with a doubt I pick up the phone hoping that it is not another issue. It was Linda, my Team Lead, on the phone to check the status of the issue. Somehow Leads and Manager's are like the Police officers in Indian movies who come into the scene once all the problems are solved. Anyways she was happy that issue was resolved and I continued with my drive to the office. Though I had been working since morning, never had the time to check my mails and just as Outlook connected to the network there were 35 emails waiting for me. Luckily most of them were pertaining to issues faced in the morning with the users, business team trying to find out what exactly happened in the morning. It took me another 30 minutes to reply to all them and let them know what exactly the issue and what we did to resolve the issue. Just as I sent across the last mail, the telephone light started blinking....."unknown number" read the screen and I knew it was the offshore team. "Hello Sai"....said a familiar sound from the other end. It was Ravinder and he wanted to discuss some of the existing Gereprine tickets before he could work on them. With the Offshore call over and nothing outstanding to be looked into, I was catching up with the latest around the world when at the bottom of my screen came the words "soda time?". It was Sukhi, my friend and team mate, and usually after settling into our offices we take this break to refresh ourselves and also share the interesting(of others life) and non-interesting(of our life) happenings in the last 24 hours. We are sometimes joined by Vishesh and Rajan too and by the end of the break we end throwing brick-bats at each other.
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