A new beginning

It’s a new month. A new start. New stats to meet. Well th month started just fine, I was able to close 4 cases already and I was able to somehow meet my backlog size goal, which is 12. However, it ended 16 today cause there are lot of cases yesterday and today. Perhaps the reason is, its holiday. Tomorrow is a new start of schedule. But since its holiday in the US, I do hope that we have few cases to attend to.

i don’t what me stat for June yet. But I do hope that I would be able to pass the Red Engineer rank. I don’t want to stay or be stuck in that rank.

Wishing my new month a a good luck.

End of the month

Last day for the month of June. Last day for meeting the goals. I haven’t met my closed cases. I just got a low score. I think I’ll be staying in the red zone for this month. Well, better do some more efforts to close cases this July.

Good luck…

Bugs

After a series of packet drop cases and output errors. I am now bombarded with software bug cases. Isn’t that I so lucky. Well, at least software bug cases has workarounds and fixes. You can also contact the proper team or person for more information regarding a specific bug that the customer is hitting. I have 4 bug cases. I don’t know what’s with the month of June. Drops, bugs these are really wonderful cases. I just hope that I won’t have connectivity issues.

Packet drops, input errors, output drops

These are my shitty cases. These are my pending cases. I hate these kind of cases. Seriously, these kind of cases require a lot of information and a lot of troubleshooting procedures. It reuiqre a lot of time to troubleshoot and investigate the possible cause of those drops. I hate ping losses. Specially, if they are requesting what is the root cause. Ahhh.. it makes my head aches… I don’t even want to think of these cases. These cases are somewhat related to each other but identifying the root problem is definitely different.

Packet drops: A new case, just accepted today. Issue is that there is this HP server connected to the switch and there are ping losses when you try to ping the HP server from the switch, which is directly connected. Other devices that are connected to the same switch does not have this problem. Initial troubleshooting have been performed. These are moving the connection to a different port and changing the NIC. I have requested the show tech from the switch to check the current configuration as well as for any log messages. And I was so lucky, lucky enough to see that there are no logs from the switch and the configuration is basic. Just the switchport mode and that’s it. I haven’t fully reviewed the case as I was stucked on a high severity case. I will review it again tomorrow. A major headache.

Input Errors: I have this case in my backlog for a long time now. Customer is seeing input errors on a gig interface connection. Thing is, when we the connection to a different gig interface with the same configuration there are no input errors. Weird isn’t it. Yeah. Really weird. I have recreated the scenario and I haven’t noticed any input errors on the devices. I will have to dig deeper to this issue as I have to identify the cause of the input errors and where it is coming from. I don’t really know. 60 days old cases does have a lot of preasure as it is being monitored and requires immediate closure if possible. It’s being reviewed every now and then to see the progress of the case. Of course, being reprimanded if the case is not moving forward.

Output Drops: Third case that I hate the most. Network is stable but the customer needs to know where the output drops are coming and why do we have output drops. I don’t know where it is coming from but I have requested more information from the customer so we could somehow isolate the root cause of the issue. I have also suggested some tests so that we could verify if the issue is only happening on a specific port. I’m still waiting for the results of the tests that I have suggested.

The oldest case in my backlog is the link issue between a router and switch. It is 70 days old. And again, there is pressure on this case as I need to close this case as soon as possible. This case is being recreated on the lab. But unfortunately, the devices are not available so I am still waiting. But I have to push the lab administrator to have the devices ready as soon as possible as I have to close the case with resolution.

Well, other cases are just fine and I could still manage them. So… Good luck…

June

It’s the month of June and today is the start of a brand new month. I did pretty well last month but have to say that it’s not that good since I’ve got some low scores and dissats. Well, at least I can feel that I’m still normal and got those kinds of scores.

We’ll have to wait and see how well I’m going to do this month.

No questions asked

The last two days was a hit. There are few cases to work with. There are lots of time to update your backlog. Reasons, well it was Memorial day that’s why there were fewer cases. But, I am sure we will be flooded with cases these coming days.

Why is my title is just like that? You want to know? I will let you know, but I will only ’say’ it once. Cause I will need to tag that I’ve already answered your question. This is the new ‘rule’ implemented just today. You’re allowed to ask questions to your seniors. However, you need to remember what questions you’ve asked so you don’t need to ask it again. Funny twist with this is that the senior that you’ve asked that question of yours will list down that specific questions so he would know that you’ve already ask it.
You can’t ask it again, why cause you need to remember that and you need to grow. They can’t see the learning process. It seems that we’re stuck in just asking questions and not knowing the troubleshooting by heart. Wow. Isn’t that a good idea. One way that you will learn troubleshooting techniques, keywords and other stuff.

But there is a big but in here. For example, you’ve forgot this troubleshooting step as an honest mistake that you’d really forgotten it. You can no longer ask it to your senior, you can but, you’d be answered by “What? You’ve already asked that question! You should know the answer to that!” Or something in that manner. Isn’t that great! In TAC, you really need to learn the hard way. I don’t know but I don’t see the good side of this new thing. They always says we have behavior problem with regard to our job. That we’re not doing our best. That there are lot of opportunities on our cases that we should have noticed and should have focused on. They’re the one seeing it, why don’t they take the case? Why don’t they try to just take one high severity case and see how it feels to look on every details of the case.

They don’t even know how hard it is to identify the cause of the problem, how to isolate the issue, troubleshooting the issue. Root cause analysis. These are not easy cases that you can just find a quick template and send to the customer. It requires thinking, your knowledge, your ability to research and respond to the customer to provide them the resolution. They don’t know how it feels to be there with the customer.

I’m really starting to get frustrated over these new ideas and new things in TAC. I update my cases, I doing me best to close my backlog as fast as I can and I’m doing everything that they want us to do. But, the hell, they are requiring more. I don’t simply get it. I don’t simply get what they want from us. We don’t even get anything from it. I’m starting to loose hope on this job. I really do. At first, I said to myself that I’d be staying with TAC for possibly the longest time in my career. But it’s starting to fade slowly. I wish I could still see some hope that could prolong my stay cause I loved what I’m doing it’s just that I hate what they’re doing.

Don’t ask again….

A new start

A new start of the week but when I sat down in front of my computer, it doesn’t look like that I’m starting. I’ve seen my backlogs! 17 cases to be exact and I don’t know what to do with them. I’ve been thinking sometimes to quit TAC as I cannot handle the preasure that has been put to us as engineers. But I’ve come to realize that if I quit, then I loose. I guess that I don’t have any other options right now. I need to bear this preassure. I was told by SAM today, that I need to do my best in order to earn some incentive. I guess that she forgots or she doesn’t know or perhaps that she just don’t like to admit the fact that I once did my best and I was there at the top. Maybe, that truth is still unacceptable for her. Maybe she’s still thinking, how the hell did he got that score. What does he do on his cases? What magic is he doing? And then, it started, my backlogs are being policed. I don’t know if it is for my good or for their good.

As of the today, I was able to close 42 cases. I’ve met the goal. But with the surverys that I’ve received, I don’t have the chance to be on the top for the next few months. I have to score higher that the top engineers. I don’t know why I like to be the top1 of all. Maybe this is just to prove to them that I’m doing my best, it’s just that they don’t noticed and wouldn’t like to accept it.

Boss, SRM, Logistics, Low Score …

What a week. One of our boss from came to visit our TAC center here to open the communication line and check how the engineers and the production. We were informed that one reason for his visit is to talk to us engineers so that he would know what we our sentiments are and what are the things that can be done to improve the quality of work in TAC. I don’t know but it seems nothing to me, it seems that he’s just here to see us and how we work that’s it. I don’t know if he will push through all the directives that he pointed out. I hope so, cause that would be of great help to us. Nothing to worry much about him.

SRM, I hate it! I really hate it! I hate the process that they have implemented on our cases. That the senior engineers would have to monitor our cases and review them everyday. It’s good because your case would be reviewed and you would be given by the seniors suggestions on how to easily resolve the problem. But what I don’t like with it is the time when they are doing the review. I got this case that I accepted during the morning so of course, I gathered data and more information from the customer, so I put the case in customer pending status. Of course, that’s not the only case that I would accept that day. I even got three cases that day. And of course, that’s not the only thing that I will do for that day. So to make is short, I wasn’t able to noticed that the customer already replied to my email with all the information that I have requested. It was automatically attached to the case notes since I have ccied the attach email address. Then after case taking hours, about 45 minutes after, I received an email that the case has been reviewed already and it’s in improper case status. I was like, what!!! That’s my case for today, I haven’t even read the email that the customer send to me and then you’ve already reviewed and put there that the status is incorrect and it should be in ce pending. My point is, she could have atleast ping me and said ‘hey, you idiot, your customer replied already, change the case status. I have 18 backlogs, can I have those cases be updated in a single click of  a mouse!? I don’t think so!!!! Damn that SRM review.

Logistics, I hate their controlled part process. I have this customer that has a 4-hour contract for replacement. I was lucky enough that the customer agreed for NFO shipment since the part is ‘not available’ in the depot. So here I am with a happy customer on the other line, created the RMA and informed him of the details. Then, all of a sudden, I got an update that the RMA has been put to hold due to controlled part process. I processed the RMA May 15 and it got delivered May 21. WoW! What happened to their contract. I just read on the notes that they need some information from the customer before they process the RMA. Now, what if the customer got pissed off due to delay on the RMA? Will the logistics got the low score and what if the service request got surveryed, will the logistics be the one to have a score of 1. I don’t think so. Is it my fault, of course not. But the score is still counted to me and to the team score. Luckily, the customer did not get pissed with that process. But what if others wouldn’t be able to understand that. Damn, welcome low bingo!

Crash… I hate crashes. I got a low score because of a crash case.  Customer sentiments is that I didn’t resolve his issue due to lack of response to his email. He also noted that he went to vacation and when he returned the case was automatically closed. The thing is, he is just don’t like to accept the fact that I have decoded the crash info but didn’t find anything that caused the switch to crash. He pointed out that the issue happened twice already. Well, he’s not reading my email. I already told him that the crash info files are different and it was collected with different software versions. So, it only means that the first crash is not related to the second crash and vice versa. With regard to his sentimens in closing the case without his permission because he went to a vacation, well it’s not my fault, since I haven’t received any notification from him. Well, I’ve kinda expected that low score already after knowing that the crash info didn’t contain anything or that his switch is not being infected by any bug. I can say that I have faults on the case as well. But, what can I do, I really can’t get anything from his crashinfo files.

So, that’s my week. Brilliant isn’t it. That’s life in TAC!

Getting worse

I hate to admit it but somehow its getting worse everyday. I love my job and the people in it. But I hate what they’re doing to us engineers. We’re not robots that can handle multiple processes at the same time. I don’t even have a machine brain to function like a CPU! Even switches crashed due to high CPU utilization, what else is my brain. Damn, I hate it when they are nagging everyday to update your damn backlogs! Why don’t they try to take cases, assist customers, call them, email them, research for a bug, lab recreate and then update your damn 20 backlogs! Just try to those in one day and let them how it feels to be a TAC engineer. I know its my responsibilities to those cause I’m being paid. But, there’s a big but there, it’s not human to have us do all those things and keep it the way they wanted to.

Sample scenario: I have a case wherein the customer is requesting an RMA. The device is indeed faulty. The customer has a 4 hour contract, of course I need to verify the availability of the part. I was informed that it’s not available for 4 hour delivery and can be processed on a next flight out shipping. I of course informed this to the customer who understands the situation and agree. I processed the RMA and the next thing happened was, the Logistics put the RMA on hold due to the fact the part being replaced is a controlled part (whatever that means). They require certain information from the customer before sending out the part. I processed the RMA on May 15 and it was just delivered today (May 21). Now, is it still acceptable for the customers part? I don’t think so. Will the customer give me a high score for this job well done? I don’t think so. Is it my fault? I don’t think so. Will it be invalidated out of my scores. Nah. That wouldn’t happen! Then they will say to you that you should have at least comforted the customer for the inconvenience that this have caused them. What the hell, I did my job but it wasn’t even my fault and still I have to carry the burden of a low score. Lucky!

Sentiments

Sentiments: [n.: "feeling"] The faculty of sensing; … affection. … This word is also used in a new way and comes close to meaning affection [a positive, favorable feeling for someone or something]. …

I’m starting to hate that word! Customer sentiments, be sensitive with their comments, know when they need an update and most of all UPDATE your damn cases. An everyday reminder! What can you do if you can’t update your cases. I know that its our responsibilities as engineers to keep them updated. But I guess, your backlog should be manageable. A backlog of 10-17 is manageable and healthy. But a more than that, its nightmare and take note, we’re still taking at least 3-4 cases a day!

It was suggested, go over time! Duh!!! I don’t need money to go overtime! Taking cases is already stressful and I wouldn’t think of doing it for the rest of the night! I need to rest and I don’t want to think of my damn cases after working hours! I have the right to ignore cases that reply after case taking hours! That’s the reason why we have notification on our email of our shift hours so they could request for the next available engineer! I really hate it when they say that we must go above and beyond! What do I get in return for that! Imagine how many cases have I handled and almost of them are good cases and still I haven’t earn from it!

I’m starting to feel uneasy with my job. I’m starting to hate it! I don’t know until when will I be able to cope with it. Maybe time will tell!