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Jul. 11th, 2008 08:24 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
jcaswell.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
techrecoveryToday was the worst day at work in a very long time. It all started on Monday in our team meeting when $boss said that we had to install some software in two rooms ready for exams today. Fair enough, that was Monday, today is Friday. We planned to install the software Monday / Tuesday, then do comprehensive testing yesterday to make sure everything was fine for today.
That was the plan. The reality was somewhat different. $boss spent Monday / Tuesday and Wednesday morning doing unimportant things like telling $colleague1 and I how to cook Chinese food healthily, and drawing $colleague2 pictures of tables in preparation for a job we're doing in the library next week. Then, on Wednesday lunchtime he had a call from the school's solicitor telling him he had to be at the constructive dismissal tribunal $former boss was bringing against the school yesterday and today. This meant that Wednesday afternoon was largely spent with me saying "what do we need to know about this software? Is it a straightforward install? Do we need to do anything specific to it?" The answer was "nope, it's all fine". Like an idiot I believed him.
First thing yesterday, $colleague2 and I go to install the software. Trouble was, it *wasn't* a straightforward install, and it *did* need us to do things to it. And he'd left us no clues as to what. So, I went to speak to $boss's boss for his advice. $boss's boss said to leave a message on $boss's voicemail asking for the information so he could let us know what we needed to so that we could sort the problem. He also said to contact the teachers who were running the exams and warn them that there might be a problem. I did all of the above and got on with the day.
At around lunchtime, $boss reappears in the office having heard my voicemail message ($former boss had dropped the case in the morning, so he wasn't needed in court). He then proceeds to tell me that "everything's under control" and download a new version of the software. I kept quiet, but it was clear to me that everything was NOT under control as we hadn't been warned that there was a new version needed, nor had we been given all the information we needed in order to get ready for the exam. Had he not come back into the office we'd have been up shit creek. We spent the afternoon installing the new software and went home safe in the knowledge that everything would be fine for this morning.
Or so we thought.
Got to work this morning, with my head pounding. In the old days, I'd have taken the day off, but I've got an attendance record to keep up! $boss asked if I wanted to be in the start of the exams as I'd done all the hard work yesterday. I said I'd rather not as moving was bloody painful, but would do so if necessary. He was fine with that, and he and $colleague2 toddled off to the classrooms for the start of the exams. Half an hour later they came back. Turns out when $boss had downloaded the software yesterday, he'd not downloaded the new version, but the same one that we already had that didn't work properly. The start of the exam had been postponed for half an hour and the four of us spent the next half hour uninstalling and reinstalling the software.
The kids came back and logged on to start the exam. But the questions were all screwed up, and no images were displaying. Eventually, we worked out that flash player also needed updating. After a lot of discussion, it was decided to pull the exam for today, re-register with the examining board (not an easy task in itself) and ask the kids to come back on Monday to do the exam then. By now, I was angrier than I've been for a long time, and far angrier than I have ever been at work. The whole situation was TOTALLY avoidable if he'd done his job earlier in the week as we'd discussed.
We - along with a maths teacher who happened to be there with us - then spent a while updating Flash on each of the machines concerned. $head's PA came down at one point and asked how it was going. I, er, think she regretted asking me that question as I was totally honest with her. I did apologise later as I realised I was totally unprofessional in the way I did it. Luckily, she's also a good mate, so she completely understood my frustrations.
Once that was all over, I had to go do some stuff in $deputy head's office, which kept me out of harm's way for an hour and a half. Just as well, I think if I'd been in the office with $boss I'd have said several things that I'd be regretting by now. By not being there for a while I managed to keep my cool when I saw him again.
Then, this afternoon, I had to return a laptop to one of the English teachers who's just back from maternity leave. It was all ready to go, it just needed packing up and taking down to her. I shut the laptop down, stood up...and then watched in horror as the power cable got caught in the wheels of my chair and the laptop was pulled off of my desk and bounced on the floor. Twice. I was so shocked I couldn't even swear. The laptop itself is fine (well, it was once I'd clipped the screen back together), but the hard drive is dead. First time I've ever actually managed to kill a hard drive like that. I went and explained (and apologised profusely!) to the teacher, came back to the office, replaced the hard drive, made sure that the laptop did at least boot now (it did) then emailed $boss and told him I was taking the hour I was owed for working late the other night and I'd see him Monday.
I don't ever want another day like that one, thank you very much.
That was the plan. The reality was somewhat different. $boss spent Monday / Tuesday and Wednesday morning doing unimportant things like telling $colleague1 and I how to cook Chinese food healthily, and drawing $colleague2 pictures of tables in preparation for a job we're doing in the library next week. Then, on Wednesday lunchtime he had a call from the school's solicitor telling him he had to be at the constructive dismissal tribunal $former boss was bringing against the school yesterday and today. This meant that Wednesday afternoon was largely spent with me saying "what do we need to know about this software? Is it a straightforward install? Do we need to do anything specific to it?" The answer was "nope, it's all fine". Like an idiot I believed him.
First thing yesterday, $colleague2 and I go to install the software. Trouble was, it *wasn't* a straightforward install, and it *did* need us to do things to it. And he'd left us no clues as to what. So, I went to speak to $boss's boss for his advice. $boss's boss said to leave a message on $boss's voicemail asking for the information so he could let us know what we needed to so that we could sort the problem. He also said to contact the teachers who were running the exams and warn them that there might be a problem. I did all of the above and got on with the day.
At around lunchtime, $boss reappears in the office having heard my voicemail message ($former boss had dropped the case in the morning, so he wasn't needed in court). He then proceeds to tell me that "everything's under control" and download a new version of the software. I kept quiet, but it was clear to me that everything was NOT under control as we hadn't been warned that there was a new version needed, nor had we been given all the information we needed in order to get ready for the exam. Had he not come back into the office we'd have been up shit creek. We spent the afternoon installing the new software and went home safe in the knowledge that everything would be fine for this morning.
Or so we thought.
Got to work this morning, with my head pounding. In the old days, I'd have taken the day off, but I've got an attendance record to keep up! $boss asked if I wanted to be in the start of the exams as I'd done all the hard work yesterday. I said I'd rather not as moving was bloody painful, but would do so if necessary. He was fine with that, and he and $colleague2 toddled off to the classrooms for the start of the exams. Half an hour later they came back. Turns out when $boss had downloaded the software yesterday, he'd not downloaded the new version, but the same one that we already had that didn't work properly. The start of the exam had been postponed for half an hour and the four of us spent the next half hour uninstalling and reinstalling the software.
The kids came back and logged on to start the exam. But the questions were all screwed up, and no images were displaying. Eventually, we worked out that flash player also needed updating. After a lot of discussion, it was decided to pull the exam for today, re-register with the examining board (not an easy task in itself) and ask the kids to come back on Monday to do the exam then. By now, I was angrier than I've been for a long time, and far angrier than I have ever been at work. The whole situation was TOTALLY avoidable if he'd done his job earlier in the week as we'd discussed.
We - along with a maths teacher who happened to be there with us - then spent a while updating Flash on each of the machines concerned. $head's PA came down at one point and asked how it was going. I, er, think she regretted asking me that question as I was totally honest with her. I did apologise later as I realised I was totally unprofessional in the way I did it. Luckily, she's also a good mate, so she completely understood my frustrations.
Once that was all over, I had to go do some stuff in $deputy head's office, which kept me out of harm's way for an hour and a half. Just as well, I think if I'd been in the office with $boss I'd have said several things that I'd be regretting by now. By not being there for a while I managed to keep my cool when I saw him again.
Then, this afternoon, I had to return a laptop to one of the English teachers who's just back from maternity leave. It was all ready to go, it just needed packing up and taking down to her. I shut the laptop down, stood up...and then watched in horror as the power cable got caught in the wheels of my chair and the laptop was pulled off of my desk and bounced on the floor. Twice. I was so shocked I couldn't even swear. The laptop itself is fine (well, it was once I'd clipped the screen back together), but the hard drive is dead. First time I've ever actually managed to kill a hard drive like that. I went and explained (and apologised profusely!) to the teacher, came back to the office, replaced the hard drive, made sure that the laptop did at least boot now (it did) then emailed $boss and told him I was taking the hour I was owed for working late the other night and I'd see him Monday.
I don't ever want another day like that one, thank you very much.
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Date: 2008-07-11 07:40 pm (UTC)--
"Memento Mori Ergo Carpe Diem"
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Date: 2008-07-11 07:50 pm (UTC)that suckifies!
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Date: 2008-07-11 08:09 pm (UTC)*offers strongly laced Irish Coffee and biscuits*
no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 09:02 pm (UTC)If it's what I think it is (should the new version have become available on Tuesday by any chance?) there have been issues with the update. An email went out along the lines of "don't run the update under any circumstances, if you already have, call the helpdesk". The new version became available some time Wednesday evening I think, but I wouldn't put it past them to have the old version on the downloads page when you log into the website and the update running after it's installed.
If my suspicions about the software are correct, it is definitely NOT something that works straight out of the box and it seems to be pretty hit and miss whether their support can give you the answer or not.
I had to stop an exam and update flash when a student pointed out that in a question "what's missing from the graph? a) the title, b) the x axis, c) the y axis" the answer was, in fact, the whole graph. Tech support said we needed version 8 or above of flash. We were on 9.something. Updated it to 9.something-else and it started working again. Version 8, huh?
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Date: 2008-07-11 09:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-11 10:33 pm (UTC)Still, could be worse. Apparently it doesn't go AT ALL well with Deep Freeze. If you're using Deep Freeze you have to ring up and get your authentication reset every time you start the 'server' app. I guess that's the flip side of using something like that though. You don't get the hassle of some of the crap we get, but you get other kinds of hassle. Pretty much every choice in life seems to be exchanging one set of complications for another...
I'm starting on the updates on Monday (5 physical sites, 6 centres, couple of hundred clients) - what say you of the chances of getting through unscathed?
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Date: 2008-07-12 07:25 am (UTC)Lets just say I think I'll stick with my 2 30-seat classrooms!
Good luck :)