New Year's tales engineer post

The hardest part before the New Year is to make a schedule when an engineer should not thump. Here's the thing: the X-team of on-site engineers has a standard shift shift, there the soldiers just sit in the office. And we also have regular projects, and for those where there is a support service, someone should always stay in touch. Therefore, we carry laptops and modem phones with us, even at parties. And - certainly - we do not drink if you need insurance today.

From the examples, my colleague somehow went on a date, and instead of talking to a girl, he remotely raised the server.

And for the New Year, the adequacy of applications for technical support is changing dramatically.Once, for example, on the 31st, critical equipment flew out: it turns out that the customer “put out” the rack in order to call the engineer. They understood that they wouldn’t release him from duty on duty. They made a service case for him. Arrived, and there is a clearing with vodka, a satisfied customer and a New Year's gift for a good job.

In general, take tea, a cookie - and come in, I will tell.

The main problem of the New Year is the customer’s desire to save on support for 10-15 days of Januarywhen, like, nothing happens anywhere. “I don’t need anything,” the customer says, “I am all myself.” Ok, we say, and we make the duty schedule easier. As a result, the necessary engineer can leave Russia corny, there will be no people left. And on the night of the first day, something falls, and this something gets a prize for the best tantrum of the year. What is the most annoying - even if you want to help, it’s not always physically possible: you cannot remove the “X-team” from duty, but the fact that someone else will be in Moscow is not a fact. There are no other people: here, from the same banks from January 1 to January 15, 30% of consumer loans are issued per year - so in some cases we have a shift on duty right at their office so as not to go.

Once, according to a rather rare system, with which 3 people are able to work in Russia, there was a familiar “dry” schedule.They wrote it with the understanding that the probability of failure there is extremely low, but the order is the order. In general, according to the law of meanness, HE came. And far off there is nothing to do, it was necessary to go. The fourth person closest to the customer was versed in this system. This was one of our tops, which, by no means, pulled on an ordinary engineer. Naturally, he decided not to particularly advertise his position, but simply changed into a sweater and drove off. Well, then the reality show "Feel in Russia" with a rude watchman and more. He said nothing, raised the system, left. He says he remembered his youth.

I had a similar situation when I began to manage the department.We sit at the customer, calmly discuss a big contract with their tops. All such in ties, a chinar. And then a disturbing phone rings. The problem with the service, the SLA is 4 hours, the engineer only gets three in traffic jams. I'm on the spot. Well, I asked to wait 20 minutes, I reached the server, I decided the question. It was just interesting for me to shake the old days, but the customer had a feeling, as if he suddenly had a turn in the client room, and one of the tops went out to stand at the checkout.

Another engineer answered directly from the bathmore precisely - outside on a snowball with a phone. The ticket closed quickly, it was in his interests. When something completely unpleasant happens, you need to spit on everything, get in a taxi and go. In my youth, right from the New Year's party, I once broke down. One more time, the customer asked directly a specific specialist, threw the call across half the planet. We talked for about twenty minutes, then the customer could not stand it and asked to leave the beach, because the noise of the surf was annoying. In faraway snowy Russia.

In December, there is still a very busy schedule overall.Budget organizations “sour” money — these are saved budget surpluses that can be spent. As a result, we are starting a boom of orders for various preventive works, all kinds of buns that have long been wanted are being introduced. While all infrastructures are frozen until March 10 (God forbid that it flies during the peak period at retail, for example), in December there is a real movement in the public sector. The overhaul of the UPS is done, every fan is checked, air conditioning is cleaned, instructions are written, regulations are made, emergency recovery plans are thought out ... For several years we even made a special pagein such a case, if interested). The worst story was when one big boss, summing up the results of the year, at a press conference promised "before the end of the month" to launch one big system, where there was work until February. I remember that we then, by a miracle and inhuman effort of will, raised the basic functionality, and then we completed all the holidays. But there is a plus - usually long approvals for government agencies took a couple of hours instead of a couple of days or a week.



Here is another memorable case in the photo.It was necessary by the end of the year to complete the “unfinished” ERP replacement for the aircraft building holding in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The city is far away, so colleagues went right away with a group of 15 people to do as much as possible immediately on all profiles. Who did not have work at the moment (according to the schedule there were "failures" in 2-3 days and the weekend at the customer) - do not leave the same way. Therefore, on the advice of experienced colleagues, they immediately took skiing and snowboarding equipment. Our healthiest project, I guess.

On holidays "checkers" begin for the work schedule.For someone without a family or a very young one - the New Year is uncritical, but the bonus for December 31 - January 1 is significant. Someone older, sometimes, tries to change so that this year they don’t have to be on duty at all, and next year they don’t leave anywhere and take all the shifts. Dispatchers, guards, storekeepers of reserve warehouses - they also all meet right at the workplace. As a rule, the work is boring until the 4th day, but there are sharp peaks when something breaks - it is then remembered for a whole year.

I remember once in a "quiet" year of technical support, they just increased their rights.On the eve of the New Year, the guys were bored, and they got to the PBX, began to replace the internal letter numbers of their acquaintances. The result was "Santa Claus", who asked what gifts the person received. The harmless rally ended on the first call to the security guards. And a good epic in the spirit of Mitnik could have turned out.

Due to the Russian specifics of the holidays, the support work is complicated. Someone who knows how to iron knows that the usual service case “slammed the pen in a laptop” turns into “accidentally sat on a laptop”. And “poured coffee on the laptop” changes to “poured beer on the laptop with champagne”. Coffee - you can still wash it, well, or it's a keyboard replacement. Beer and champagne are almost always a new motherboard. Drink with a laptop - drink vodka. Vodka is diluted alcohol, if you're lucky, just dry it and continue to work.

People are also changing. Again, for each project, we draw up a list of knowledge and competencies on the part of the customer, and assign a deputy to each responsible person. It sounds very funny in December, but there’s an incredible amount of benefit. For example, Vasya went too far with champagne and instead of “Hello” there was only something unintelligible. And we already have the phone of the second person who can help or give the necessary access.

Or here's another great case.The guy received a level 80 system administrator certificate in the morning, passing the next MS exam. Well, of course, worried. Arrived at the office, relaxed, put the brain to sleep. At this moment, he was updated with the rights in the corporate network, and he went to restore order. I saw some “left” user and deleted him to hell. By evening it turned out that it was the financial director. From the same opera, the engineer did not hear well the customer from a distant city, whose appeal was not received in the court’s information system. I didn’t understand anything, I wrote it off for the New Year, but I set a ticket. The letter fell on everyone with the theme: "The client does not undergo hair removal." It was a shame before the court.

We have few women among field engineersbut on the support of non-critical systems (especially among remote workers) the engineer girl feels quite well. So, the end of December, preparation for the holiday, the end of the working day. Now the bus will arrive and take everyone to the corporate party. One beautiful mamzel makes styling for about an hour, puts on an evening gown, everything so beautiful comes out ... And - right! Urgent call. Of course, there is no time to change clothes. In the end - the whole party to hell. And then it turns out that two more engineer guys are quietly sitting downstairs with a can of juice: they just waited for her for several hours. They fed Ira a chocolate bar from a machine gun and drove together through half a city.

Yes, finally, about that epochal date from the very beginning . Bovados, who now runs the EMC Solution Center, was once part of the X-Team. On the 31st he met a girl. Since he is on duty, and the next day he needs to sleep, we set a date for January 2. Vadim, as expected, took a laptop, phone, cable to the phone and drove off. And then a server went to one large bank, and the vendor support needed our communications engineer. The date, they say, turned out to be unforgettable.

And this year that same girl became his wife.

PS And did you have New Year's stories?