Happy Birthday Pat!!

This is an email I sent today:

I had intended to call you on my lunch hour to wish you Happy Birthday today, but my day went kind of like this:

I started a huge clean/format/scheme/cross-reference job which all by itself could take a whole shift of concentrated attention.

I was able to give it 4 hours, when my co-worker left. As soon as he walked out, the emails started:

User A sends a request wondering if User B may have already sent the same one.

I spent a moment wondering why she did not inquire of User B before submitting the request to us, while responding “let me check.” While I’m checking the work log and deleted emails, I get the following email:

[From the NY Doc Center in response to my plea for help with the documents which were now flooding in]: I think Miami already did this request earlier today. I spent a moment wondering why he hadn’t checked first, while responding back “let me check.” While I’m checking the work log and deleted emails, I get the following email:

Please clean the attached document. I forward this request to the help desk.

20 min. later I have established we have no record of having received the request prior to User A sending it, and I am about to let her know that when an email from User B, forwarding her original request, which she had sent last week, arrives, asking “did I send it to the correct address?” No, she had not, but we now have her request and it is now logged in.

I take this moment to email my manager that I am getting backed up with jobs that I can't farm out. She emails back "What do you have?" I tell her. She never responds again.

20 min. later I have established we have no record of having received the same request that the NY Doc Center was asking about, and am about to let NY Doc Ctr know when an email from NY arrives that the guy there has established the same and will now start working on that request. I did not reflect too long on the fact that the last 20 minutes of my life had been a total waste, and clocked out for lunch. Just then I get this email:

[From the helpdesk] “Ticket #54932 has been resolved.” I wonder what the f*** does that mean? Is this ticket for my cleaning request? I don’t have too much time to ponder this, because the phone rings at that moment. It’s some techie in Phoenix asking me if my document had ever gotten cleaned? I tell him I’m not sure. Is my request associated with Ticket #54932 by any chance? After a few minutes he has verified, yes, it is. So, in that case, can’t you tell ME if my document ever got cleaned? No, he doesn’t know. I asked him, how has anything related to this ticket been resolved? He had no explanation to offer. He cleaned the document.

While all the above was going on I receive a request for status on a job. I reply that his request has not been started, that I am the only one in the doc center, and that I have asked my manager for help, and copied manager. He replies, "I'll find other help." I reply, "Thank you!!!" By the way, this was an attorney I have never seen a request from before. He was probably new, sending his first request, and has now probably been scared away from the doc center for life. My dismay is short lived as my attention is diverted to an incoming email:

The SV (Silicon Valley) operator is informing us that she is in SF (San Francisco) today, and that we should expect some requests from SV. Just as I'm wondering what the ramifications of this are, I receive a request from SV. I log it in.

I realize that although I clocked out, I never took lunch or punched back in, meaning I went into unauthorized overtime. I email my manager: "I clocked out for lunch but have been in nonstop emails and phones. Please advise." I never hear back from her.

Receive email from SV to All Document Centers that she is experiencing "a lull,” can she help out with anything quick?

I inquire if she can take the request we just received from SV. Yes, she can.

Some more jobs come in that I am able to farm out to other regions.

I take a short lunch break. Your birthday has completely left my mind for some reason.

I haul a** and manage to finish the job I had originally started just before my shift ends, put on the out-of-office assistant, and bolt out the door.

So, here I am at home, having just uninstalled my virus protection that was conflicting with my computer and getting ready to install a whole other one, and looking forward to being up all night downloading security software, with just 10 more minutes left in today to wish you:

Happy Birthday!! Happy St. P Day!! I sure hope your day was better than mine!

Love

L