5:00 AM: Get up with alarm (woke up about 30 minutes earlier, not on purpose)
6:35 AM: Leave for work (distance: 40 miles)
8:10 AM: Arrive at work, irritable from a 40-mile, 90-minute drive
8:20 AM: See email from staff advising that the accounting system is unavailable. Tech support ticket with screenshots of error messages has been submitted to IT.
8:45 AM: Attempt connection to accounting system via an alternative method. Receive different error messages. Submit new tech support ticket with screenshots.
9:30 AM: Begin troubleshooting conversation with IT. Troubles continue.
10:10 AM: Accompanied by IT tech, place call to software company’s Tech Support desk. Set up remote session. People who know this stuff better than I do and actually understand the programming poke around in the system.
11:00 AM: Can’t really work on anything else because my computer is being used for the troubleshooting/support session, so I start this list.
11:25 AM: Watching many things happen onscreen; not understanding most of them, but grateful we paid for the annual maintenance/support plan.
11:45 AM: What “stalled” looks like. Call is about to be escalated by software provider.
11:55 AM; Escalation will be a callback to IT. IT will handle it on the accounting server, so I get my computer back. Answering emails and working on spreadsheets till lunch.
1:00 PM. No news from Tech Support is probably not good news. Stopping for lunch.
1:45 PM: News–the system can’t be fixed as is and will need to be fully reinstalled. No one knows why it stopped working and started generating connection errors and denying access, because “everything looks right.” My boss will have to approve the cost. My boss is the CFO and I think he is unlikely to balk at doing what’s needed to make our accounting software operational. Meanwhile, I have spreadsheets.
3:00 PM; THE SYSTEM IS FIXED! PERMISSIONS ARE RESTORED AND USER ACCESS IS GRANTED! And our IT person is a stubborn, dedicated tech goddess who refused to let this rest! But I will be leaving work in an hour, so I’m sticking with the spreadsheets for the rest of today.
4:10 PM: On my way home with hopes for a more productive Tuesday.
I’ve had more than one day like this. Thank goodness it has never happened on a day when I’ve had to do something major – like pay commissions. Hope today is better.
Nothing has crashed for a day and a half, but I still hold my breath when I try to connect!
So, oddly I found this fascinating. I’m curious about that list app thingy.
The List App is an iPhone-only social-media app dedicated to making lists. I’m finding it a lot of fun to play with, and you can find some very creative list-makers on it!