This collection of entries is from December 23, 2002.
To the absolute moron in the black Ford Explorer that just had to be in the left-hand lane on the Tri-State Tollway after 1pm, tailgating, crossing the yellow line, then getting off the Tollway at Dempster going East, still not paying attention to traffic: DO YOU HAVE TO READ A FRIGGIN' FORBES MAGAZINE WHILE GOING 80 MPH?????
Major failure at work.
With me, that is.
There's nothing I despise more in my career than to show up at work on a Monday morning and find the system down. And not knowing why. And being the first person there. And having to handle the avalanche of Help Desk calls from around the country from users not only wanting to know what's wrong, but demanding to know how long it will be until they're up (without even knowing the extent of the problem). I handled the whole triage miserably. I failed. I failed so badly that there were calls about my performance. I haven't had to handle pressure like this is in quite a few years and I wasn't ready for it. I should have been more professional, I should have known better. I just let the emotions build and I mishandled the calls. (Thank God I took my blood pressure medication today!!!) All of this because a WINS service goes nuts on a server (not to mention a VPN issue because of a PIX box reconfiguration, but that's a whole other story). So, I've been told, I need to step away and let the phone ring for a while to gain my composure. I have this need to answer the phones and provide quality service, but I guess if you can't deliver quality, then just step away...
I'll learn.