Shuffling the Schedules (while munching M&Ms)
It’s the middle of the week, and already I’m feeling drained, void of any valid nutrition. I’m chowing down on Chinese food because, even though I’m an avid, passionate cook, I just don’t have the time nor patience. I’ve been working on an inoperable site, due for a re-review by the higher ups, in less than 15 hours.
Before my words are read as exaggeration, I have been eating. Just not the good stuff. Sure, my early morning protein shakes are legit, but the M&Ms beckoning throughout the day make me almost forget about lunch.
It’s been a whirlwind last week and a half. I turn 30-something this Friday and in my usual tradition I plan to get my hair chopped (Locks of Love donation), have lunch at a fantastic Thai place, and make a donation to a worthy charity. I’m sure I’ll need to work as well, which leads me to my mistakes this past week and a half…
I didn’t say no…
Not to the guy who desperately wanted a site up in under two weeks. Someone busted the first deadline, and it wasn’t me. As other scheduled issues crept up, coupled with people who should know better tinkering with, then breaking their sites, the 16 hour days I was putting in (weekends included) still wasn’t enough. And YES, I do need a full night’s rest - I’m useless otherwise. Today we parted ways (doesn’t happen often), and things now seem to be falling back into place.
I gave them one of our cell numbers…
And now they won’t stop calling. When that phone rings, it has to be answered.
I spent time working with a host I knew couldn’t do the job…
We’re talking 20-40 second page loads and application time outs. I knew what the problem was, they blamed me. One of us was going to look stupid, so I copied the site and ran it on another locale’s server. The host… still blamed me and the coding, then finally ignored any other requests to confirm the server configuration files. Fortunately, the client had trust in me, and moved to another host. A host where, incidentally, the same pages load in under 2 seconds. Time wasted: 3:14 over 4 days.
And did I mention the bank?
I’ve heard similar stories, thought they were absurd. We have a corporate business account. I’ve got copies of all the original paperwork. But the bank changed hands twice over the past ten years, which leads us to this morning. I got a polite, yet irritating phone call. On the last hand-change (some three years ago), the account was set as a personal one. Apparently they can’t just change it without changing - you got it - the account number. Great, new checks were just ordered, and being a virtual company some 90% of our transactions take place via auto draft, electronic withdrawal, electronic depositing and PayPal. What fun.
So, what did I learn? That it’s okay to decline doing a task if it’s apparent that it will throw a monkey wrench into the works. That I need to be more clear as to what constitutes an emergency, and what does not (cell phone). That when it’s clear someone is not knowledgable enough to host an ecommerce store, no amount of attempted training is worth it (did I mention that they were unreachable by phone after 6 p.m. and on weekends?). And that when service companies and financial institutions are merged or bought out, it pays to stop by and confirm your account info is in order (that would have saved quite a bit of time this coming week).
What’s next? I’m fixing to upload final files on this once inoperable store, then shoot some backup files off to a former client. Tomorrow I’ll wake up, and get back on some lingering tasks, in hopes that Friday I can take a few hours off for a long overdue, relaxing lunch and trip to the salon.
