June 19th, 2010
A Good Week
Every now and then it happens at work. You have A Good Week. I had one this week.
My current job involves travel. Most of my 11 years at Lotus/IBM have been spent working road jobs, some by choice, this last one as the result of a reorganization a couple of years ago. In the past, I might go onsite to teach, help with system planning, or now and then for emergencies of some sort. It was a fun job for a while, but the travel, especially after 2001 was/is brutal and I just got burned out and moved to a desk. As I told my manager then when I left that job, "I love this work, I hate the job."
The current job puts me on site with customers almost exclusively when something is wrong. The calls usually come at the last minute, some days the same day you need to get on the plane. This makes the job uniquely stressful for me and for my colleagues in the same group and our teammates in the worldwide groups. On the worst days, you walk in with a Big Blue target on your back and you take the bullets and try to fix things and you stay there as long as you need to - sometimes weeks. Sometime you win, sometimes you lose - you get jaded. You go home a wreck. On the best days, you are seen as Mighty Mouse, "Here I come to save the day!", and you walk in, fix things and walk out an average of 3-4 days later. All else is in between.
Hotels look the same, airports blend together and all airports are awful. You remember customer's faces and forget their names. You see them later and stumble, stammer and try not to look stupid. The best your brain can come up with is: Customer - nice one, or Customer - mean one. You go to places you've never heard of and you go to boring places and now and then you get to go to New York City and visit friends every night. Mostly, its a lonely existence with a lot of late hours working in hotel rooms because you have nothing else to do, you eat the same food everywhere. You call home for comfort. Those with kids sometimes miss birthdays and events - although to our collective credit, most push back now on this kind of stuff. Everybody with a significant other gets hammered on the home front because they too are lonely, left to handle things and want your attention and focus when you get home - at the exact time you want to simply walk into your house, find a quiet place and get your legs back under you.
Every now and then you have what's classified as a Good Week. I had one this week. I walked into a customer who needed some help, but who wasn't sinking. They recognized me from my speaking gigs at Lotusphere and for the View conferences. They liked my sessions and were (I think) glad to see me. Best of all I was able to pull together what they needed using my resources and friends and get most of their issues handled and left them in a better place. I will write up a report with more detailed stuff later. But the place and the people were great. The hotel (a Hilton) was outstanding - they had a bathrobe laid out on my bed when I checked in (how nice!) and there was fresh fruit, cheese and crackers in my room (that just never happens in these days of corporate cutbacks.) The hotel had a walking track out back and the weather was fantastic.
The guys at the customer site (#nerdgirl ratio 7:1) were all super nice, very competent, just a little over whelmed. One guy in particular pushed me to get out to a local Asian restaurant with him for a quick lunch one day instead of the usual eat-at-your-desk normal days I have on the road. His reason? "I'm worried about you being lonely and eating by yourself all the time when you travel." It was seriously all I could do to not bust out in tears. Of course I went out for lunch. One joke that these fellows kept making was that they didn't want to go onto my slides for how NOT to do things in Domino. I told them that Paul Mooney does those, and they didn't rate on a worst practices scale - at all.
Also this week I got an individual shout out from my manager on our internal quarterly virtual meeting held by our director for my ability to stay upright for 11 years on this job, for completing my Master's Degree this month while doing it, and for helping out with training our internal groups. It was an unexpected pat on the back, nothing more and much appreciated. It doesn't take much to make me happy sometimes.
My job is what it is and I'll make the best of it. I love helping, I love fixing, I freaking hate airports. I got a pat on the back - that helps. I met some really nice and kind people whose names and faces I will NOT forget. I walked into an Apple store down the road that had a 16G iPad in stock and did NOT buy it and my credit cards thanked me. I caught a standby seat on an earlier flight and got home 3 hours before expected and managed to make it out to hear some live music last night. Thanks to the people and the things that made this week an official Good Week.
Created 6/19/2010 10:41:33 AM by Giuseppe Grasso
(Giuseppe Grasso http://www.dominopoint.it)
great post, I've loved reading it, with a growing smile on my face!
[2] wow
Created 6/19/2010 11:12:27 AM by John Vaughan
(John Vaughan http://jonvon.net)
Wow what a great post! Amazing...
[3] Nice one
Created 6/19/2010 2:26:10 PM by Bill
(Bill http://www.billbuchan.com)
My relatives and friends have long stopped joking that my 1,000 mile commute a week is in any way glamourous, interesting, healthy. At least I get to go to the same bed in London, staying with a friend (who often cooks).
Hotel roulette - fun for a while - really really sucks.
Good for you for lasting this long. And treasure the good weeks - these days there are little enough of them.
---* Bill
[4] Great view to shear
Created 6/19/2010 7:14:40 PM by palmi
(palmi )
Susan, There is something to be said about life of IMBer that does his/hers work away from home. To much airports and hotels can be a pain. The appreciation of the work you do is sometimes undelivered. Your blog was so thoughtful, and full of perception and depth. Keep up the hard work.:)
[5] Great Post
Created 6/19/2010 8:39:34 PM by David Leedy
(David Leedy http://notesin9.com)
Wonderful post Susan. Really enjoyed reading it. Glad you had a good week. Hopefully next week will be a great one!!!
[6] It is Good when it all comes together
Created 6/20/2010 12:07:16 AM by Keith Brooks
(Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com)
I know all too well what you wrote, did it for years before, during and after I worked for Lotus.
It is not all glamorous, even if it is fun sometimes(how many people can say they got sent to Venice, Italy for work...twice).
But a good week and an early flight home is all we ever wish for in these jobs, glad you got it this week.
Hope you get it every week.
[7] Humans
Created 6/20/2010 12:31:53 AM by Andy Pedisich
(Andy Pedisich http://www,andypedisich.com)
Every tenth time, the serendipity kicks in and you can see yourself in a clear time.
But I agree, too many people shortchange the impact of the trip. The airports, the taxis, trains, and hotels wear down your soul to a nub. Congrats on still getting the word out and the job done, while still taking the time to smell the roses.
Andy
[8] Great road warrior summary
Created 6/20/2010 4:37:07 AM by Chris Miller
(Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com)
The best part is if you can take each of the days with a smile and brush most of it off. We are luckier than we know having the knowledge and ability to even make it to that place in a career
[9] pretty much sums it up
Created 6/20/2010 6:10:50 AM by Paul Mooney
(Paul Mooney http://www.pmooney.net)
It is "a day in the life" for most of us. We get cynical was the weeks melt into each other of logistics, politics, planning and blame, hotels, airports, time shifts and forgetting personal things you shouldnt.
Every once in a while, we get to meet nice people and make nice things works.
Great post Susan. All I could do when reading it was nod.
Gets me wondering - a session for lotusphere (non tech)
"A week in the life of a consultant" - what makes our job easier when working to fix issues.
[10] I know exactly how you feel!
Created 6/21/2010 7:53:53 AM by Casey
(Casey http://Don't have time for a blog :\)
Susan, this is a great post and I know exactly how you feel. My last onsite I missed both my kids birthdays and was gone for 3 weeks.
I think you left off the part about driving in strange cities you've never been to and accidentally getting on toll roads when you don't have any change. lol
My last onsite visit was approx 9:1 for stressed out IT guys to nerd girl ratio for some of the meetings. :( It ended up being a productive trip though, so that's good. They actually took my advice which is even better.
I hope we get to travel together some time. We could have some NSDs!
