Not a smooth week..

Officially, it has been a week after my long holiday trip back to Sabah….

I’ve been very weak this past few days….I just don’t know why and I’ve never really felt this way…Monday to Friday..I woke up early in the morning to go to work…I ended up sleepy and my eyes were like ‘bengkak’ (not enough sleep or perhaps overslept) although I had at least 4-6 hours sleep every night...with the moody feeling and tiredness returning from Sabah…I have to ignore all these to perform to my best the whole week...

Monday Morning…I knew there were plenty of emails to read and follow up but I didn’t expect I would be really busy to catch up so many things….I came in and gone through all the emails…list down what I need to do, follow up and work on….I was shocked to know that there were several issues reported 2 weeks ago had not been resolved yet….what had happened this past 2 weeks whilst I was away? This was affecting my time to catch up things up….this shouldn’t be my responsibility to follow up issue when they should had been resolved before my return!!! My manager called and I took the chance to seek his explanation to why some of these issues were not quickly resolved! Yeah I was kind of pissed…I have the rights to ask why my colleague didn’t resolve them within 2 weeks! Upon hearing my dissatisfaction...my manager then expressed his dissatisfaction towards my colleagues' performance…..Support as well as the Development Team….what the hell they were doing? He then told me that there seems to have lack of responsibility going on whilst I was away…several easy tasks given to Developers gone way beyond delay…issues in Support Department left outstanding due to lack of efforts in problem-solving process…..the Manager then requested if I could follow up and resolve them ASAP….well I couldn’t say NO to that, right?...so I just gave him a simple “I will certainly do…” So there you go….my first day of my returns…gone through emails understanding their issues…progress been made and etc…there were 3 issues left outstanding for 2 weeks to be exact…..I managed to get 1 of the issue resolved on Monday…then the other one on Wednesday and the last one on Thursday….

I had a bad experience with the last one…the one was resolved on Thursday….what would you do if….A says the output should show A…but B says, it (custom module) is not showing output A…then C says it needs to output A but it doesn’t……B and C are customers....I purposely created 2 systems in order to rectify this doubted theory….my finding were; system A supports the theory given by B and system B supports the theory given by A….current issue was as what C had escalated to us….I had to save A, agreed with B and resolve the issue raised by C…I wrote a simple test plan for C and asked a favour to run a quick test on it…C was correct…so I gave C the resolution to the issue and it was resolved…happy? Yes I was but...suddenly, I received another email from the Project Manager (she was included in the email loop) requesting to halt any communication with Support until further notice…the Project Manager then requested my explanation to why it does not output as what C was hoping…why A says it should show A as what C was hoping but it doesn’t (incorrect information from A)…why I need to have 2 systems to rectify this…and lastly what is my next step to this issue…..reading at the email…I quickly felt bad about it…I couldn’t say A was wrong and the custom module was faulty neither…furthermore, the Project Manager was complaining on why I need C to run a quick test for me….I had this kind of experience 3 years ago when I recently joined the company….So, without further a due..I responded with an apology for A as well as myself for all the trouble caused in solving this issue…I could be pissed off when I responded to the email by saying...I would not hesitate to stop my support towards you/your team if I’ve made your confidence and satisfaction at risk....frankly speaking, I was the one putting myself at risk taking over this issue from A (my manager) and whatever A had responded to them earlier was then used by the Project Manager against my finding….the Project Manager then replied by telling me, they’re always happy towards my commitment and support, also wish to continue but the process I’ve took to solve this problem seemed to raise an alarm….huhu...solving a problem would require co-operation between 2 or more sides…if they didn’t work nor co-operate…there could be no end to this matter unless I escalate the issue to our Project Manager who was dealing with this custom module back in early 2008….which would then cause me a trouble for not able to work independently and solve this quite ‘simple but pain in the ass’ issue…with the promise I gave to the Project Manager, I then seek help from our Senior Developer in UK to re-check the coding for this custom module and forwarded the feedback to the Project Manager….and that was it…. The custom module was built not to show A...B was correct!!!! My resolution had saved their ass for submitting their claim report of funding (Government)

That was almost some of the issues I had been dealing with this 1st week of 2009…..how about the Development Team? I spoke and discussed several matters with them and reconfirmed with them that all the time they were ‘missing in action’ was due to the networking problem the Penang office was having….according to them, they were unable to access to the shared network to transfer files…unable to access outlook email and unable to access the CRM/WO database either….worse, the phones connecting UK-MY-OZ were also down several times a day…shared couple of experience I had dealing with this kind of down time and advice to work hard in 2009 as there have plenty of big plan in line for the Penang Office…confidential so I can’t tell..hehe….whilst speaking with them..I was reviewing their Developer Time Sheet report to ensure they were telling the truth...I then discussed the matter with my manager the next morning..he agreed that there have issue with the connection...and wanted me to help my other colleague who should have dealt those support issues....what kind of help he was requesting? I've been kind enough to my colleague...she can call me anytime in any reasonable time to consult my help in any issue she's having..and I've always gave her answers or guidance to her questions...so...the manager was asking me to stop doing that...he advised me to start changing the way I help her by telling her how she can get the information and answer instead of getting it directly from me without any effort via testing or rectification in our software...

Overall, my first week was so full of work load…full of shit from customers…full of shit from colleagues...full of disappointment from the new colleague (the other new colleague is performing well though but not the other guy) Sounded bad for a new year huh….apart from dealing with the Support and Development Team..I was also busy making several appointments for our CEO who’s coming on 14th Jan 2009….we’re going to have a simple but pleasant luncheon that day at our neighbor hotel, Northam Hotel…earlier, I was planning to make a reservation at the Revolving Restaurant, Bayview City Hotel but due to time constraint….I had to cancel that plan and opted for Northam Hotel (we shared the same building) I don’t know what to expect but I’m sure there will be some issues I will need to discuss personally with the CEO…especially about our office, colleague performances and my personal review of current communication between UK-MY……