Busy as a Bee

Friday was a very busy day for ETG.  First, our Goldmine went down.  It was throwing SQL errors.  I was trying to chase down the cause of the disconnect - It happened right after some MS updates hit the server (which isn't supposed to happen, but it did anyway) and forced it to reboot.  The source of the problem could have been very basic to very complex.  In trying to chase the source, I kept coming across "Make sure the password is correct."  Before I could really research that issue, Rod was in my face, telling me very helpful things to do.  "You need to reboot the server.  That will fix it." Now, considering I had already been troubleshooting this problem for an hour while Rod was nestled in bed dreaming of sugar plums, I wasn't too fond of his "Let me tell you how to do your job" theories.  "I am on my third reboot right now.  Do you really want me to reboot it again?"  He just muttered something cranky and left.  Some time went by, perhaps 3 minutes.  "So, KATIE, aherruMMMM!  When are you going to call MICROsoft to fix this problem?"  "Well, Rod, I don't know.  I am not convinced that the problem is with Microsoft, so I am hesitant to call them until I can find out what the problem is."  Rod let some more time go by, perhaps 4 minutes.  "So, hackUMMM! Katie!  When will this problem be FIXED?"  I let out a big sigh.  Why must I be so misunderstood?!  "I don't know, Rod." That, of course, was not good enough.  "Well, I need a TIME that it will --"  "9:38 pm, Rod, it will be fixed by 9:38 TONIGHT."  Well, of course, that just pissed him off.  "You are NOT being SENSITIVE to the NEEDS of the SALES TEAM!"  He was actually irate.  I think I saw spittle fly from his lips.  Literally!  I really do think he spittled!  "Well, Rod, are you being sensitive to the needs of the IT Team?  I need to be left alone to work on this.  The more you interrupt and ask questions, the--"  "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE NEEDS OF THE IT TEAM!"  I laughed at him.  He spittled again.  This was getting fun.  "Well, then the IT Team doesn't care about the needs of the Sales Team."  I know it was petty, but I mean really, who says something like "I don't care about your team" and then wants you to respect their needs?  He walked into that one, if you ask me.

Some more time went by.  Perhaps 6 minutes elapsed.  Rod informed me he was calling Microsoft.  "Ok," I said.  "What do you plan on telling them?"  Well, that got him quiet.  "Well, aren't YOU going to be on the call?"  I was patient.  "No, Rod, I have no idea what the problem is yet.  I keep getting interrupted." There was silence for perhaps 2 minutes.  "Well, I'm calling them ANYway and I exPECT you to PARTIcipate in the CALL."  Fine, whatever, as long as it would shut him up.  So I informed him, "Fine, but I'm not going to sit on the phone while you navigate the system and argue that you won't work with someone in the Philipines, or in India, or anywhere but the US.  That alone takes you an hour or more, and frankly, that's what I dread about calls to Microsoft when you decide to take charge."  Now this is where things got interesting.  Rod turned it around on me.  "You aren't willing to speak to someone in India?" he asked.  I said, "Ohhh no you don't! I have no problem with it.  You are the one who argues in circles with people until you get someone in the US."  He paused.  "OH, yes, well that's TRUE, I don't LIKE people in INDIA."  I just ignored that comment and tried to return to work.

But, of course, Rod made that impossible.  He continued to pepper me with questions, such as the version we are running of this or that, which service pack, what our license number is...  Essentially, the only time I got to troubleshoot the password problem was before Rod got here.

The call that Rod set up ending up taking hours.  I knew we were chasing red herrings, but I wasn't ever given a real opportunity to troubleshoot the problem myself, and in peace.  Finally, I ended up asking Rod if we could conference in Goldmine support.  In about 2 minutes, I got the information I needed about database storage locations and found out the problem was, indeed, a credentials issue.  I fixed it, and presto, Goldmine started working.  Lovely, 6 hours wasted, but at least I got GM back up!  So off to lunch I go... and upon my return, I discover....

That Rod's install of Peachtree isn't working.  Great.  So I ask him to leave his PW in case I need to login and as soon as he left, I had to go work on his work station.  Ick factor +4.  I had to smell his smell while I worked.  Ick factor +5.  Three hours later, working with PT tech support, we still can't figure out why it's not working, I have to leave, and Rod is checked out for the weekend.  Lovely thing to look forward to come in to on Monday... And not even time to blog!

On a lighter note, Rod spoke to some devs on Friday about working here.  I heard him talk about the medical benefits that they would receive here (ha!), that there are 5 employees here (haha!!) and that we are a development company (hahahaha!)  It brought back memories of my own interview here when he lied about the same things to me - the size of the company and employer covered medical and dental insurance.  What a crock!  But, who am I to tell the truth to the next new guy?  Luckily, he'll end up replacing me anyway, and then I don't have to be here any longer. 

I can hardly wait!

(hopefully another blog to come later today)

Eye Tee Girl