As I started getting more responsibilities
on my first contracting job and my time seemed to shrink. So, I began to work overtime and also I began
to appreciate working late in the evening or on the weekend because most people
were gone and I could get work done. One
night I was still working at 8:00 pm and my phone rang, the caller ID said US
Government, so I knew that it was the client.
But, this was really odd, because most government workers come in to
work early and they are usually gone by 4 or 5 pm. At first I thought that it was probably a
wrong number, so I let it go to voice-mail.
But the phone kept ringing. So,
after staring at it (I know that is bad, but it is 8 pm on a Monday night.), I
answered. The client on the other end of
the phone was one of the Test Leads. She
gave me her name, and told me what project she was working on, and said that
she needed my help. The client was
preparing to start testing, but they didn't know the server names that they
needed to have access to for the test environment. And, they were worried that they were going
to miss their deadline if they didn't get that information soon. I explained to her that I did not manage the
test projects in the labs and that if she needed any help, she needed to talk
to her the test lab Project Manager. (Every
project had a PM from our department assigned to them. The handled all of the lab preparation and
any issues for each project. This
included everything from preparing the test work stations to scheduling admin
support when needed. I knew how it
worked, because I had participated in the committee that designed the
process.) I had the list of all of the
Test Lab PMs with their assigned projects and I told her that I would be happy
to provide the contact information. Beverly had been assigned
as the PM for her project. I told her
that Beverly
would be here in the morning and she could supply
her with the information that
she wanted. As, I was about to hang up,
she replied “I don’t want Beverly,
she doesn't know how to help me and she won’t return my calls anymore.” “Anymore??!!
What do you mean anymore? How
long have you been trying to get the information?” I responded.
Her reply was “About two months, maybe more.” Next, I told her, that I still couldn't provide
the help she needed. I recommended that
she call Jim, which was Beverly’s
supervisor. Then, she told me that she
had talked to Jim and he started avoiding her phone calls as well. I paused, and then I asked her why did she
call me? Her response was strange…”I
called you because I was told that if anyone in the department could help me,
it would be you and if you can’t, you would find someone who could.” I laughed and asked her who told her
that. She said, “I was told not to
provide their name. But they said that
if I let you know what was going on, you would fix it.” I stopped laughing. My reply was “Thanks, I think. I can’t do anything tonight, but I will
contact you tomorrow and let you know what I find out.” I hung up the phone and went to Keith’s office;
he was working late as well. As I was
walking to Keith’s office, I thought how they know I was still here. Well, maybe Keith knew something that I didn't. I told him what had just
happened. He didn't seem to know
anything about this either and he didn't seem happy. But, it was now, 9:00 pm, so there was nothing
that we could do now. He asked me to
schedule a meeting the next morning with Beverly and Jim.
The next day we met with Beverly and
Jim. First Keith lectured them about using
the caller ID to avoid calls from the client, and he asked them to seek out
assistance if they don’t have the answers.
He explained how our client is always looking at ways to trim their
budget, and our department could end up on the chopping block, if we do not
prove that we have value. Beverly and
Jim promised to respond to the clients calls.
Next, Jim asked why was I present at the meeting. Keith explained that the customer called me
last night at 8 pm and asked me to assist on the project, and in turn, I notified him. He also explained that
because the client called me, and because it was a mystery on who recommended
me, I would take temporarily take over the
project until the issue was
resolved. Jim was not happy, because I
was not part of his department, but Keith said, “We don’t know how Cara’s name
came up and we don’t know who’s watching the outcome of this project. Beverly
needs to provide Cara all of the information on the project and she will become
part of your team, yet still report to me until this is over.” Jim and Beverly left the meeting irritated
and I left the meeting overwhelmed. I
was already working at 8 pm on some nights, how was I going to fit in another
project? After the meeting, Beverly provided me with
the all of the project information and added me to their meeting schedule. Also, she sent out an email notifying the
project that I would not be their Test Lab PM.
A few hours later Rose, our department’s
Administrative Assistant escorted an angry looking man to my desk. She said, “Harry, this is Cara Massey. Cara, this is Harry, he is the Test Lead on
our side, and he hasn't been able to get the support that he has needed from Beverly, so he wanted to
meet you.” After that, she left. I felt this large migraine coming. This was all I needed another unhappy
person. “Harry, what seems to be the
problem?” I asked. “This is the
problem!” He said. And, he slammed a sheet of paper on my
desk. It was a completed server access
request form. “No one has been able to
tell me, where I need to submit this so I can get server access for my team for
testing. I have been getting the
runaround from your department PMs for the past couple of weeks. I know that you just got assigned to this
project, but maybe you can help me.” He
said. I blinked, and thought, this had
to be a set up, it can’t be this easy. It
just can’t. So, I looked at the form
again. And, I asked him, “Are these all
of the names of the servers that you need access to for testing?” “Yes.” He responded. “OK, give me your phone number and I will
call you as soon as I know anything.” I said.
Next, I called the Test Lead on the Client
side, and I told her that I had the names of the servers that she needed and
that I would email the list to her. Also,
I asked if she new where the contractor’s server request form needed to be
submitted. She explained to me that that
the sever request form was in the process of being placed online, and the paper
form had already been phased out.
However, they could not add the server names for this project to the
online form, because they did not have the information. She also told me that Rose was suppose to
provide them a list of all of all of our contract testers as well as a list of the servers and networks that they needed access to, so they could be added to the new online form. Once the form was updated, the contractors
could go online and request access.
Everything would be completed by the end of the week. So, I gave Rose all of the information that she needed and I
contacted Harry and informed him that at the end of the week he would need to fill
out an online request form and it would take about a day for him and his test
team to get access. I also told both
Test Leads that I would keep in touch with them until all of the issues had
been resolved. And, I said something
that I didn't want to say, (sigh) ”If you have any more issues, feel free to call me
anytime.”
After testing started and everyone was
happy, I asked the Test Lead to tell me who had given my name. She still refused. I told her that I would keep track of the
project until it went to production and I was going to keep asking. Well, at least the issue had been resolved
and I could go back to my normal chaos.
I sent Keith a status report and said that I had completed my
tasks. He called me and told me to come
to his office. When I got there, he
said, “I want you to be a part-time Test Lab PM. You will attend all of Jim’s meetings and you
will assist the other PMs if they have any problems or meeting conflicts. That way you will know the status of all of
the projects and can let me know if there are any issues that I need to know
about. Also, you need to decide if you
want to continue working on my staff or become part of Jim’s team.” If I became part of Jim’s team my title would
change from Senior Technical Writer to Project Manager, and I might have been
able to get a raise. But, I knew that
Jim and the rest of his staff didn't want me, and I was still going to have my other responsibilities. So, I kept my
position as being part of the Director’s staff.
I decided to do that because that way; Jim was limited on the amount of
abuse and crappy work that he was going to hurl towards me. I was right, after all Keith was Jim’s boss
as well, so I had kept myself protected.
.
Oh, I did find out who recommended me. He was the former Government Director that I
worked with when we were designing the Test Lab process. He had moved on to a different project less
stressful Department, but when he heard what was going on, he provided my name.
#callerid
#responsibilities
#migraine
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