Coming up for air.

I knew it would be a tough day when I got to work and there were people outside the door waiting to get in. The temp called me 'his saviour' for having keys to the office. Oh great.

Usually when I get in there are minimum 2 but lately 3 or 4 folks already at work. But the early tech and bossman are both on leave. So I check my systems then take a gander at the one the early tech usually monitors and bam it's got errors on the screen. We have support from the developers, but they are a time zone west of us. Thank goodness they go to work early.

Then an enlightened user comes in and says that he can't get the keyboard to speak to his server. Sure enough the keyboard is frozen but we can't find any way to help it. The servers are all fine - it's just the keyboard unit. Luckily one of the techs came in and dealt with that - I know very little about hardware.

In the end I spent about 3 1/2 hours dealing with systems that usually aren't my bailiwick. When I sat down at noon to do my own work I discovered that the stuff I put off yesterday didn't have what it needs to run - and the person who can give it to me isn't available until late tomorrow. Guess that's what I get for putting it off.

I'll admit I've lazed a bit this afternoon. Trying to catch my breath. It's been too much drama for me. I swear I got yelled at by 4 different people for the sin of taking care of a system when the primary contact was not available. And that doesn't include the 15 minute solemn discussion with one user about how we need better contingencies and options. Geeze I'm just an unhappy peon I don't set policy. To be nice, though, I just told her that 'perhaps I am not the person you should be discussing this with since I am not in a position to make any changes'.

All the responsibility, none of the background. That seems to be the prevailing situation here.

Ooh and web boy will probably quit real soon now. He's pissed. I got to hear him vent for a while. Now he's too pissed to even vent. And I've just got to say they are definitely screwing him. And I say that in spite of my contant complaints of his carelessness and lack of useful skills. It's ugly here.

TTFN.