Crisis In Confidence

My colleagues on the helpdesk are great at winding me up. What was all the fuss? There was nothing wrong with a bit of patriotism in the work place. This could be regarded as yet another first (lost count of the number in 2006). My first official international tournament to take place while working in a professional environment. Sure there was Euro 2004, two years ago but that was different. I started working for the firm in London on the day England played Croatia in a must win final group game. There is an interesting story about catching the second half of that match on my personal blog. This is my first World Cup in the real world. Last time around, four years ago, I was in that strange limbo period having finished my second year (at University) and waiting or rather I should say preparing for my sandwich placement (it was scheduled to begin on Monday 1st July 2002). Feels like it was only yesterday, but here we are, days away from Germany 2006. It was perhaps a blessing that England were dumped out of the cup by the time I started my placement, as the office makeup was generally female and quite anti-football, although everyone knew which London team I followed. Football is well supported with my current office and my floor in particular (Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, Spurs and now a Reading fan, make up the Premiership contingent, along with my self supporting the mighty Gunners). So I felt it my duty to buy a flag over the weekend when I was in Clinton Cards. It was more of an impulse buy, I was in the queue about to pay and saw the flag on display behind the cashier and just asked if they were for sale and then just bought one. As I walked out the store, I knew I would hang it somewhere around my desk in the office. The best time was yesterday as England were playing Hungary in a friendly. Even though the PA did comment that it was too early? Too early? There are, only nine days to go, love! But that is not outrageous comment regarding the tournament I have heard in my office. Another female colleague said, "Is there something happening over the summer?". Did I mention my Dad got me an England bear from his work place?

Right back to work. Yes, I actually do work in between counting down to the biggest sporting event in the world. (There is actually a iMac-shaped clocked that handles that taxing task for me). How is work going? It has been extremely busy and my colleague on 1st line has been taking the strain. There have been several rollouts taken place with extremely tight deadlines (turning over forty devices in a week and eleven devices in two days). Considering all installations have to be gone through a rigorous QC check, getting everything done and out the door on time is not easy. Particularly with the phone ringing constantly. I have to be honest and admit over the past few weeks, but especially the past few days I have really been below par in the quality of my customer service delivery. Sure, the numbers may look good on the Crystal Report but there are facts behind the statistics. I really want to get back to the bread and butter of my job. Answering calls, giving a great service and most importantly action things. Too often, I feel in helpdesk jobs, we find out what the easy tasks are and get those done and then avoid the difficult, more complicated issues for later. Hoping that either someone else will come up to the 'plate' or they will sort themselves out in time. In reality neither ever happens. You just get under pressure from all sides to look into the problem and get it resolved. Ultimately, the next few weeks will be a struggle for several reasons. The first one I have already mentioned, but the other is the holiday of the 1st line guy. While I know I can handle answering the phone, I feel I will be stretched. We shall see what happens. Expect the next update soon, then the subsequent posting sometime after 19th June, when normal service will be resumed. Why is there so little out there on the web for International IT workers day tomorrow. Are we just not as important as tobacco?

Final Destination

Took me nearly twenty five years but yesterday I completed my tour of all capital cities in the British Isles. Many people will not see this as a major accomplishment, even a milestone worthy of discussion. I beg to differ. To truly be a citizen of the United Kingdom, should you not visit each location which considers itself to be a worthy member of what we call the unique makeup of our beloved country. I was even going to be clever and state that I have been to two cities in each country, but in the case of Ireland I have been to Belfast and Dublin but of course they are in across a border but technically the same land mass. I would have preferred to have spent more time in Scotland, but it was very much a whistle stop tour. Just like it was some ten years ago, when I drove up with my Dad to Glasgow. The scenery was amazing on our drive down to the client site and I had my Sony CyberShotU at hand to capture a few moments. I hope to be back again soon, to enjoy the breathtaking, tranquil countryside views away from the urban landscape I'm used to!

On my return to the office on Wednesday morning, I was handed my business cards by our wonderful (and always smiling) PA. Result! With six days to go until my seventh month with the company, I had finally landed. I had arrived. There is more, my manager handed me a mobile phone. Sure, it is only a Nokia 6100 but it was moving up from 1st Line helpdesk support. While of course I did ask our Financial Controller for an upgrade to the Nokia 6030, which is the standard device for the majority of users within our division. My request was declined. Then for my manager to also underline this rejection by informing the Finance department that Andrew is not to be upgraded under circumstances without prior permission from himself, in writing and including his signature on any request. Great. I felt more content, when I discovered that the development team have all been issued with 3100 and would have no option to upgrade unless you were high up the food chain, whereby you could request at your leisure, a Motorola V3 RAZR. Suppose it helps to be holding a position of some authority, you can usually get what you want. Or at least have the rules bent in your favour.

Silly Little Mistakes

We are all human, even me and we all make mistakes, particularly at work. It may not be the biggest mistake in the history of computing but it was a mistake nevertheless. My colleagues were quick to point out that, "Worse things happen at sea". I was beating myself up about it for a while. It was stupid and foolhardy. There was nothing I could do about it now, the data was gone but I should have checked it. Then double checked. Not sure why I did not carry out the most simple of checks. There was nothing I could do to make it up to the user. Even sorry was not enough. For a few hours at least I wanted a hole to open under my desk and swallow me up in one big gulp! You must know that sinking feeling inside when you know that something bad, really bad is about to happen.

Worse Things Happen at Sea

Later that evening, as I drove home from work, I thought about it. I thought about the significance of all this data we carry around with us, on computers, PDAs, mobile phones. All this personal data? What is it truly worth? Afterall, you can't take it with you. It is afterall just pieces of plastic and metal. Sometimes I wonder why I spend so much time on my computer, building up a big library of meaningless stuff. Hold on, that is the point, it only becomes meaningless the moment you, the author is gone.

Apart from this minor indiscretion, work is going well. We are busy and have had some frantic afternoons recently, with deadlines looming to get laptops out of the door. While there is a minor calm at the moment, perhaps before the storm. I really need to decide on what I want to get out of this job and where I want it to take me. The thing is, for such a control freak individual, I have no idea where this road is going and at which stop I want to get off. Strange I know but rather keep all options open, time (for once) is on my side.