Itchin' to be free

[darkemeralds]

It's patch season at work. We apply updates to the financial system, and it takes many, many person-hours to accomplish a set of assiduous and detailed testing tasks, a disproportionate number of them labeled with my name.

So I've been putting in the extra hours as required, arriving before 9:00 and not getting home till near 8:00 p.m., and it's driving me CRAZY. I'm a detail-oriented person, but nobody has this much focus. The work structure is full of interruptions and conflicting demands. Yesterday I managed a whole two hours of focus on a particularly heinous test (involving, of all the dire things, taxation), but only at the expense of being rude to some people.

In the win column: a wonderful new healthcare provider has assured me that my recent brain fog is definitely not a disease state, and almost certainly the result of hormonal imbalance. So I'm now on a hormone regimen and reorganizing myself around restored mental capacity, and it's pretty fantastic.

Now if I could just get some time--time to myself, time to think, time to knit, time to write, time to work on my kitchen soffit project--the world would be awesome.

Comments

[executrix]

The tranches of time are not necessarily separate--e.g., manual tasks are wonderful for letting the mind roam, and "rebuild kitchen soffit" could simultaneously be "work out plot ramifications" or "polish dialogue" time.

[darkemeralds]

Very true. Now if only my entire "free" evening these days didn't consist of taking off my coat, fixing a quick dinner, doing the dishes and going to bed.

But patch season passes. It'll be over by Christmas at the latest. And then: Glass Soffit Time!@

[tehomet]

I hope that there's a light at the end of the patch season tunnel? Having to work that schedule ad infinitum would be terrible.

Glad to hear about the healthcare provider, though!

[darkemeralds]

Management announced recently that we'll no longer be patching the system on a semiannual basis, but only once a year. That shaves seven weeks off the craziness schedule.

Unfortunately, the one we're retaining falls from mid-October to mid-December, eating up the most beautiful time of year in this region, plus a couple of major holidays, plus my birthday. I remind myself that there will be only two more of these trials for me before retirement, and it helps quite a bit.

[twasadark]

Glad to hear that you're on the mend! That's great news! Sorry about the work schedule. That's very draining. I hope it lets up soon.

[darkemeralds]

Thanks. It lets up on a reliable schedule--December 3, around 5:00 p.m.--and there are a couple of breathing spaces between here and there.

With my newly resharpened brain, it's not as awful as it was last year. I just needed to vent!

[ranunculus]

Aargh.
Hope the new healthcare approach really works!!

[darkemeralds]

Thanks! I feel very positive about it.

[macaron62]

Sorry about busy time at work but very pleased for you about the positive new direction your health is taking!! When health issues are in the back of your mind, it is difficult to cope with the more difficult times at work. Hurrah for you!

[darkemeralds]

Thanks! Life's pretty darn good, but there's always room for improvement, and this is a good one.

[cat63]

I know little of finance, but it seems to me that any system which needs patching that much and that often is irretrievably broken and needs fixing properly. Of course, persuading Manglement to do anything properly is on a par with nailing jelly to the ceiling, so this is not really a very helpful observation. In conclusion, much sympathy and kudos for not killing anybody.

[darkemeralds]

Well, you know how you get updates and patches to your operating system over the internet? Or to apps on your phone?

This is like that--only it's the step before you get those updates. Even if they deployed a perfect version (which isn't possible), users would soon want changes, which when made tend to break other things. Then the next set of changes affect the last set, and so on to infinity.

That's why we test everything--so that our 5000 end users don't have to discover bugs themselves. We don't go live till we're 98% sure that the fixes haven't broken anything. And you can bet that that 2% comes back to bite us every time. It's in the nature of large systems.

So it's not that the work is pointless, just that it's tedious and frustrating and hard. I just wish management had the power to throw more people at it, so I didn't have to spend so much time on it myself.

[cat63]

Even if they deployed a perfect version (which isn't possible), users would soon want changes, which when made tend to break other things.

I see. Everywhere I've worked where there have been computers has had A System which is usually antiquated and cumbersome but basically functional - I've never worked anywhere that updates its system that frequently (if at all) and certainly not where the employees have to do it themselves, so I didn't realise, sorry.

And I still think they shouldn't expect anybody to work the sort of hours they're demanding from you - if only because nobody can produce their best work that way...

[darkemeralds]

It's the American way of life.

Right across the street from my office are two full city blocks of a tent town, the Occupy Portland movement, people with no jobs and marginal or no homes, out there in the freezing cold protesting the unequal distribution of wealth. It's very hard for me to take much of a stand on overwork when at least I have a good job to overwork in. But man, there has to be a better way!

[cat63]

It's very hard for me to take much of a stand on overwork when at least I have a good job to overwork in.

I get that, but on the other hand, just because other people have it worse doesn't make it OK that you're treated badly :(

But man, there has to be a better way!


Indeed. One shouldn't have to work oneself to death to make a living.

[writerscramp]

"Indeed. One shouldn't have to work oneself to death to make a living."

Heartily seconded. As a wise person once said, "Winning at work shouldn't mean losing at life."

[writerscramp]

You have my wholehearted sympathy on the work front. This time of year, as wonderful as it is and as much as I love it, marks the annual Contemplate-Taking-Up-Drinking-As-A-New-Hobby time for me at work, in which I prepare the billing system for the next year. This year, granted, is not the wholesale takedown and rebuild that it was two years ago, and relative to other years, there are fewer structural changes to be done, so I feel less on the verge of a freak out than years past. But there remain some pretty scary work, including pulling out and putting back together again some key pieces, and adding (read: designing, programming, and building from scratch) a whole new revenue module. Good times! So this is the time of year I become Dory and repeat to just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.

So my hope for you is that it passes swiftly, and that you're able to carve out some time to yourself wherever you can in the meantime.

Speaking of which...maybe we could meet for dinner at Sal's school one of these weekday evenings? It could give you a good excuse to duck out of the office early (well, earlier than 8 PM, at any rate) and get some time away from computers and numbers and the low-grade anxiety of having way too much work to get done. Dinner seatings are @ 7 PM (and usually require a reservation), include a 4 course meal of seasonal dishes for $18, and they offer a nice selection beer, wine, and liquor (whiskey with dessert, perhaps...?). If you're interested, toss out some weekday evenings that might be a possibility on your calendar and I'll see that we have a table reserved.

[darkemeralds]

That is the best idea ever! Yes! Let's eat at Sal's school. Thursday the 10th is open. Tuesday the 15th, Thursday the 17th, Friday the 18th...anything there work for you?

I honestly didn't realize that there was a restaurant at the school, but of course there is! Yay!

Oh, how fun. Let me know if we can work one of those evenings in. I am so up for that.

[writerscramp]

Excellent! Let's tentatively shoot for Thursday the 10th and I'll check with Sal to be sure they're open (a new session just started and I'm not sure when the new classes start doing service again). I'll let you know once I've confirmed with him.

[darkemeralds]

Perfect!

[writerscramp]

Reservations for Thursday the 10th at 7 PM are confirmed. Reservations are under my name; if you happen to get there before me, there's a bar are right at the entrance or you can just go to the table, whichever you prefer. It's not a huge place so no worry that we won't see each other right away. :)

So looking forward to it!!

[darkemeralds]

It's on my calendar! Whee! This will be fun!

Thanks for taking care of the details. I'm really looking forward to seeing you and getting caught up.