Fozzie's weekend from hell: A quick work dynasty

[SirFozzie]

Well, this is going to be a fun little weekend.

As some know, I work for a tech support company here in MA. I was working an Asia shift on the weekends (6 PM-2AM Friday and Saturday Nights, Saturday and Sunday Asia time) to try to help out our Australian team through february, March and April. Well, now it's may, and it was supposed to be over.

Except, our boss's boss asked me on Thursday "Dave, can you do the Aussie Shift on their weekends until further notice?"

He expects it to be just one more week, but, who knows. Oh yes, the person from our Australia office who usually worked the same shift I do has now left the company (having two people make things a lot easier)

On my product, (a backup storage project), most of the work is done during off-peak hours and weekends.

Combine that with a couple other volunteer duties for the weekend, and here's the schedule for the week.

Friday Night
6 PM-2 AM "Regular" shift. I am the only person from my technical group on this shift. So if two or more really bad cases come in, I'm in trouble.

Saturday Morning:
2 AM-10AM: "On Call" shift. Basically, I don't have to be active in the queues, but if a call comes for a "SP" case (mostly government/sensitive sites, where a call has to be handled by a US Citizen on US Soil), I'm the one who has to take it. So you can't really go anywhere, since you have to be available on short notice (and of course, you always have to have your cell phone with you if you do go out)

Saturday Afternoon/Night/
3 PM-2 AM: Regular shift+. Basically, I'm coming in 3 hours early, because I'm the only one who would volunteer to come in early, because one of the two Americans on the day shift has to leave early. Oh yeah, and from 6 PM on, I'm running solo again.

Sunday Morning: An hour's drive up into the city to be there to celebrate my father's milestone birthday (60).

I am so going to need the three days off to recover.

And the fun starts in (check watch) 2 hours. Fun.

[SirFozzie]

Oh yeah. It's begun already. We had a large amount of turnover from the previous shift, and we have CSM's (basically the big head honchos) begging fro anyone to support their customers, because they're hearing it from the customer, but we're already strapped to the wall. I'm typing this while on a webex/call with a customer.

C'est la guerre

[SirFozzie]

Part I Complete.. work tailed off towards the end, so now I'm in the "on call" part.. basically, my biggest demon wil be resting enough so I can work at 3 today, while being ready if the phone rings.

[SirFozzie]

I fell asleep a few minutes before 10.. call volume was light at least. woke up at 2:45, and starting my 2nd shift.

I'm generally fatigued, but not really tired, I'm sure that will come soon.

At least I have cases to distract me

[hoopsguy]

Guessing call volume is not that heavy this evening, based on your posts in the NBA thread?

Good luck getting through a tough stretch. I do not envy you.

[SirFozzie]

Kinda sorta. We had two crazy periods. From 3 Pm-7:45 PM, and 11:15 PM till now. at one point (around 12:30 AM Eastern) we had 3 severity 1 (ie customer down, data unavailable or data LOSS) cases in the queue and 1 engineer. Me. You do the math.

I'm just finishing the turnover call. The last hour and a half were fueled by caffine, and sheer bloody mindedness, because I felt like I was ready to crash. As soon as I get off this call, it's straight to bed. Then, it's get up around 8-9 am to drive to my folks for the birthday lunch and all the festivities afterwards. I just hope I can grab a nap at sometime in the afternoon.

The good news is I'm now off work until Wed.

[DaddyTorgo]

ugh - i hate your life

[SirFozzie]

I'm not exactly thrilled either, especially as I don't have a guy in cork to give the case to just yet.

[SirFozzie]

Finally free! Run away! Run Away Run Aw.... *thud*

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

[SirFozzie]

Well, as the saying goes.. this is it.

got up at 8:45, a little less then 5 hours sleep, and made it up to Boston for my dad's birthday celebration. We had lunch (about 10 of us) at a local resturaunt, and I can't wait to head home and sleep.. when they announce we're heading to a relative's house for cake, ice cream and gifts.

Arggggghhh.

Somehow, I make it through. to be honest, I don't really remember much of the drive home. I am home. I'm exhausted, my back is killing me, and I'm probably about to destroy my sleeping pattern for the rest of my "weekend" by this.. but screw this.

I'm going back to bed.

[SirFozzie]

Woke up at 9 PM (that's about 4 hours "nap"). I think you can call my sleeping pattern for the next two days destroyed