Update on Work Craziness

We're now 20 days out from the merger, which essentially means that I have no life other than work. No, really -- in addition to working lots of hours, I pretty much don't know whether I'm working a particular night or weekend until a few hours right beforehand.

Fun Example Number 1
For example, this past weekend, I cleared the calendar because I was supposed to edit a massive new user manual. We're expecting the editing to take 20-30 hours, so I wanted to get going on it as soon as possible. That means that I didn't leave the house all weekend and that I checked e-mail about every 60 minutes, waiting for the guide to arrive. At 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, I finally got an e-mail saying that the manual isn't in good enough shape for editing yet, but would I mind taking a look at the content to see whether everything relevant has been captured? Then, once the manual is in better shape, I should be prepared to do actual editing. So that was lovely.

Fun Example Number 2
But even worse is how messed up some key technology things are. For example, one of our "technology partners" (read: a vendor, but it's not okay to say that because in theory, they're more important than "just a vendor") is trying to make us hurry up and get all our users to set up and change their new passwords. Why? Because they're worried about how much strain will be put on their new system if users wait until the launch date to do it then.

The only problem is that the application that actually does the password set-up belongs to the vendor -- and it's broken. I got an e-mail about it this morning: "[Name of vendor rep] has requested a fix, but has no ETA." About ten minutes later, I saw an e-mail from one of our help desks, saying that the vendor is really worried about launch-date strain on their systems and wants us to hurry up in getting all our users set up -- for which we need their broken application.

So let's see: They have no idea when they can set up users because their app is broken -- but still, they want us to hurry up so they can see the number of users who aren't set up decrease. I give up.

And both of these fun scenarios are just from the last 24 hours. Ask me about the last four years of this project and I could make your head spin.

Oddly enough, the fact that this project is horrible doesn't really mean I hate my current gig. On the contrary, my boss is amazing, I'm contributing a lot and they're compensating me nicely. Plus, it looks like some great opportunities are waiting for me on the other side of this. As weird as it sounds, I hate this project but love my job and colleagues.

However, when I'm riding home in the carpool and recognizing exactly how much energy gets sapped out of me on a daily basis, my hatred of the project is clearly winning. There's only so much that liking your colleagues will help when you see crazy mistakes being made left and right.

Looking ahead, it just gets uglier. I'm stationed in the Command Center for the whole thing once we launch on March 3, and we're expected to be working nights and days there for three to eight weeks, which takes things out until the end of April. And these last 20 days until we launch? I just don't get to have a life during that time. I suppose that works out well: I'm alternately exhausted and furious, which doesn't leave much energy for social interactions even if I did have time.

I'll post here when I can (and who knows? maybe I'll be sitting around waiting for a manual and have all kinds of time on my hands), but in general, I'm probably more or less in hibernation for up to two months.

The good news?

• Mom sent me the time-share Wii so that I can blow off steam after work with Guitar Hero. (Thanks, Mom! You have no idea how much that has helped.)
• As I referenced above, I've got some really grateful people looking at all the work I've done and putting together possible future options for me.
• And, when this whole thing is finally over, it may actually be time to start the gardening season. :)