The Syndicate

G-Man wrote:I don't believe in superstitions but if Friday the 13th really is bad luck, then it must have struck me early this time around.

Since it's the new year, I need 2017 payroll formulas to run payroll this week. To obtain 2017 payroll formulas I have to install an software update on my office computer. Before I can install a software update on my office computer I have to download and install and update on our server computer.

Last Friday I attempted to install the update on our server computer but got caught in an endless cycle of being prompted to restart the server. I called the software company's tech support around 5:00 pm and was told that they couldn't stay on the line long because they were in Georgia and were being sent home early due to the winter storm heading for them. The guy said all I had to do was uninstall the software and install it again.

Not being an IT savvy fellow, uninstalling the most important piece of software for my job without any technical support sounded like a bad idea, so I waited until today. Unfortunately that meant my office manager wasn't going to be able to do anything in the software until I was done updating the server and all our work stations. I was trying to avoid this by doing it last Friday but it seems no good deed goes unpunished.

I call tech support at 9:02 am (they open at 9:00) and I'm told that 'due to high call volumes, no one is available to take your call.' Awesome. I have a bank report deadline on Tuesday and a payroll deadline on Wednesday. Fortunately, I was able to leave a message. Three minutes later I get a call from a tech support guy based out of Oregon. In under 30 minutes he resolves the issue with the server and we end the call. I've updated our work stations through the server several times before with no hang ups. Until now.

My work station rejected the update because I was missing a data file. At 9:35, I call back in to tech support and leave another request for callback. An hour later, a woman from Georgia calls me back. She tries repairing the software on my computer and the server but can't make progress. She tells me that she needs to transfer me to tier 2 support. Upon being transferred, I am greeted by the auto-response 'due to high call volumes, no one is available to take your call.' Instead of having me leave another message for callback, it hangs up on me. It's now 11:20 am.

I call back the number that called me and get the tech center operator. She asks for the name or extension of the person I need to reach but all I have is a case number. She puts me into the tier 2 support line where I sit on hold for the next 90 minutes.

Around 12:50 pm I give in and start eating lunch. Three bites later, tier 2 tech support picks up. We spend the next hour bouncing between the three office computers that use the accounting software and the server. We install updates and double check to make sure everything works right. Finally, the process is finished.

At 2:00 pm I go back to eating lunch and curse my luck. The last two weeks were four-day weeks due to the holidays and crunching five days of work into four was mentally draining. Thanks to my train wreck of a day, I now had just over four days once again to get all my week's work completed.

The only silver lining to all this is that we made an offer to someone for our administrative assistant position and she accepted. She could start later this week if her current employer doesn't want her around to fulfill her two weeks notice.

Epignosis wrote:It's that time of year again for me...

"Mr. Brown...what can I do to bring up my grade?"

"BUILD A TIME MACHINE AND GO BACK TO THE DAY YOU WERE FUCKING AROUND."