The Futility of Panic

[mapsedge]

I don't know how Data Guy does it.  He lives his life in a near-constant state of panic over client expectations.  Indeed, he freely admits doing so.  Much of it is related to failing to manage the clients and taking on too much work and saying "yes, we'll get that for you right away" too often.  We, as a company, reach crisis point after crisis point. 

(I'm trying to take a more active role in managing the clients, and by and large when I do the results are good.  My largest issue is changing gears between code-slinging and customer service and back.  I suck at that transition.)

Never have I worked a sixteen hour (or more) weekend to hit a do-or-die Monday deadline to have a customer say, "Right on time, boys, well done!"  Every time - in six years! - Monday rolls around and the customer blows off the work as "Wow, you sure got that done fast but we don't need it till next week..."  Or issues change orders that negate the weekend's work.  Or decides they don't like what they asked for.

So, I don't do weekends much anymore, a few hours here and there on easy projects or bits of projects. 

And I don't panic. 

I've come to a realization in my work life, and it's quite liberating:

Today's crisis is tomorrow's hazy memory. 

You know that expression, "Someday we'll all look back on this and laugh"?  Around here, "someday" is one to five days from today.