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Jan. 31st, 2024 08:33 amThe day job exploded in a not-fun way yesterday. We use a proprietary application to create, edit, generate, and check all field reports. It was built in the 90s and it shows. Changes you make to the app may or may not show up depending on how many changes it's trying to process at any one time, and sometimes our field techs will create a certificate only to find it has disappeared! Part of my job is re-transcribing these certificates when that happens.
The app is...old, has a lot of personality, and almost certainly does a lot of things it wasn't originally designed to do. Thankfully the company has recognized this and they're working to move processes to more...stable applications.
Part of that work is a new version of the app that went live earlier this week. Because labwork tracking is being decoupled from it, there are a few eccentricities between the old version (which we have to use for every cert created before Monday) and the new one. One of those, it seems, is simply not saving certificates from our field techs. Yesterday the hammer came down on that, so we've been bombarded with dozens of tickets asking us to re-transcribe hundreds of certificates.
In addition to that, I've gotten at least three or four tickets regarding orders I've already checked for a persnickety client. I've been asked to make a number of "small" changes on a whole lot of certificates, which will also take time. In addition to THAT, there's the usual workload that hasn't stopped just because we borked our app.
Oh, and there are bound to be any number of unrelated bugs for the app's new version popping up. Some are just annoying, but some are...truly mystifying and total show-stoppers. We won't be able to provide our clients with the reports they need if they aren't fixed.
It's been a fun week so far, and it looks like it will continue to be fun for the foreseeable future. While we still talk a good game about work-life balance, it also feels like we should definitely be pulling some overtime to take care of everything. So I'll be looking into that.
A friend from the East Coast will be visiting with us this weekend, which should be fairly chill. He's an artist who can work from anywhere, and is perfectly content putting on something bingeable, drawing and hanging out. He's also a big horror fan, so it'll be fun catching each other up on some of our favorite movies from the past year. My head should be chock-full of nightmare fuel by this time next Monday!
I'm still struggling with the writing. I need to carve out at least 30 minutes of quiet focus for this, but there never seems to be time. I cut the workday early yesterday to go to the gym, then came back to work for another hour (with horrific gym brain). After that, cleaning up the kitchen and making dinner took us into 8:30 or so; by that time, all I wanted was an episode of Deep Space Nine and a little bit of game before bed.
I haven't been able to get up early enough to write (or read) first thing in the morning. With the day job emergency, it's hard not to feel far behind all the time -- even taking 30 minutes to do THIS means neglecting a bunch of tickets that are probably time-sensitive. Until I feel better about my work capacity I'm not sure how much I'd be able to concentrate on writing during the work day.
Tomorrow is the day where the rubber meets the road, as it were. I'd really like to write, read, and meditate every day in February. It'll be really tricky on Mondays and Wednesdays especially, so I'll have to spend a little bit of time considering a game plan.
The app is...old, has a lot of personality, and almost certainly does a lot of things it wasn't originally designed to do. Thankfully the company has recognized this and they're working to move processes to more...stable applications.
Part of that work is a new version of the app that went live earlier this week. Because labwork tracking is being decoupled from it, there are a few eccentricities between the old version (which we have to use for every cert created before Monday) and the new one. One of those, it seems, is simply not saving certificates from our field techs. Yesterday the hammer came down on that, so we've been bombarded with dozens of tickets asking us to re-transcribe hundreds of certificates.
In addition to that, I've gotten at least three or four tickets regarding orders I've already checked for a persnickety client. I've been asked to make a number of "small" changes on a whole lot of certificates, which will also take time. In addition to THAT, there's the usual workload that hasn't stopped just because we borked our app.
Oh, and there are bound to be any number of unrelated bugs for the app's new version popping up. Some are just annoying, but some are...truly mystifying and total show-stoppers. We won't be able to provide our clients with the reports they need if they aren't fixed.
It's been a fun week so far, and it looks like it will continue to be fun for the foreseeable future. While we still talk a good game about work-life balance, it also feels like we should definitely be pulling some overtime to take care of everything. So I'll be looking into that.
A friend from the East Coast will be visiting with us this weekend, which should be fairly chill. He's an artist who can work from anywhere, and is perfectly content putting on something bingeable, drawing and hanging out. He's also a big horror fan, so it'll be fun catching each other up on some of our favorite movies from the past year. My head should be chock-full of nightmare fuel by this time next Monday!
I'm still struggling with the writing. I need to carve out at least 30 minutes of quiet focus for this, but there never seems to be time. I cut the workday early yesterday to go to the gym, then came back to work for another hour (with horrific gym brain). After that, cleaning up the kitchen and making dinner took us into 8:30 or so; by that time, all I wanted was an episode of Deep Space Nine and a little bit of game before bed.
I haven't been able to get up early enough to write (or read) first thing in the morning. With the day job emergency, it's hard not to feel far behind all the time -- even taking 30 minutes to do THIS means neglecting a bunch of tickets that are probably time-sensitive. Until I feel better about my work capacity I'm not sure how much I'd be able to concentrate on writing during the work day.
Tomorrow is the day where the rubber meets the road, as it were. I'd really like to write, read, and meditate every day in February. It'll be really tricky on Mondays and Wednesdays especially, so I'll have to spend a little bit of time considering a game plan.
