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In the workplace: Small crisis, but a big worry
December 5th, 2007
We sell DVDs. I’m the one who handles our distribution list. There are a lot of people on that list, and we send them what’s really a catalog of all our stuff, with features on the new things, and new rates, etc. The distribution has to be finished on the second Friday of the month, so clients can order for the following month.
I’ve done it often enough, but when the list got updated last week, things went off the rails. I worked all morning, did the new pages, double checked all the addresses, hit ‘Send’ and went off to have lunch.
2PM, I came back, and 48 pages of returned mail were in my inbox. Every single one had bounced. After a few well chosen words to an empty room, I rechecked everything, it all looked OK. Hit ‘Send’ again. Same thing happened. Tried again, I was now very worried, because this was looking very messy. This problem was all mine, and nobody else’s. I was by now worried about losing the job.
I also had 144 pages of returned mail, and one hour to get the things sent.
It had never happened before, and I really had no idea why it was happening now. Having run out of choices, I went to see the boss, and explained the situation. By now, I was a mess, too, very confused. I was also trying to think of an explanation, and I couldn’t even do that. I felt like a total idiot, didn’t even know my own job. I was having visions of Monday, reading the job ads at breakfast.
I think she saw that when I walked in the door. She seemed to be spending more time trying to console me, than on the problem. Fortunately, this manager isn’t the sort who goes to pieces and attacks people if things aren’t perfect.
After doing the emotional first aid on me, she made a phone call, and soon our IT guy was up checking it all out. System OK, links OK, according to the IT backups. So he had a look at the messages themselves, to see what was wrong. ‘Aha!’ he said, and then got into the server from my computer and made some sort of adjustment. He hit ‘Send’ from my list, and that was that. Everything sent, end of problem, with 15 minutes to spare.
Some helpful person had added a new bit of code to our email server during an upgrade. The new software couldn’t read the list, without the adjustment, and just rejected the addresses.
I should have thought of that, really. I should also have had the sense not to keep doing something that didn’t work. I think I just got so worried about how the problem looked, that I forgot to get around to trying to solve it. All I had to do was ask. I got things entirely out of proportion, and paid for it with an afternoon of self inflicted panic.
The moral of the story, for me, was ‘Identify the problem, not how you feel about the problem.’
I mentioned that to the boss, and she just grinned.
Photo credit:eschipul
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One Response to “In the workplace: Small crisis, but a big worry”
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December 12th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Personally, I have seen small things turn into big things at work. Especially in a home business where -thank god- I do not live off of my measly freelance writing income which does not pay very well at all. I see this kind of stuff happen all the time. Small things like a meeting missed or no coffee in the morning can lead to me having not enough energy to complete a days work which in the end leaves me with no pay, money, sometimes a job, and a employer’s confidence.