Moments of Terror

A very interesting 2 days these have been with the general theme being the gasp of terror and the release of triumph.

Wednesday, I am training a new Jr. account manager on reporting. It typically takes me an hour and a half to get these reports from raw data to client ready. Were slightly under the gun, so I schedule a generous 4 hour block of time to accomplish this task. I felt the large block of time was necessary in order to answer all questions as fully as possible. Also she was not the most Excel proficient person.

We are doing well, finishing up the report, we have a full hour to complete our task. We took our time, I fully answered all questions and then it happens. A moment of terror, her foot slips as it had been laying idly on the top of her pc. The power chord is pulled from the computer. I, in all my professional wisdom, had failed to enforce the cardinal rule, “always save your work.”

So now it is show time. The report can not be late the client often treads a razor thin wire between adoration and panic. So I roll up the sleeves, kick the trainee off her terminal and bust out the entire slew of reports in 47 minutes definitely eclipsing my past personal record.

The headline for today, part of my routine web maintenance is to update the content that is dynamically created in .pdf form on a clients web site. These claims are also used to send to our data processing center in order for them to accurately validate claiming and correctly pay out end- users. I get word from my boss that the processing center is saying that they never received updated claim forms since last February. A moment of terror begins.

Not having updated claim forms holds a number of repercussions. Financially, it means that claimants were possibly not paid out correct sums. Correction of this error would require a large mount of man hours for validation as well as cost of under funded claims. Secondly there are legal ramifications, if end users had been denied falsely using outdated terms and conditions we would be liable to pay any fees in small claims court. All of these fees would come directly out of my profit and loss statement, and my past client would likely get hits on the almighty Better Business Bureau report. Which if you do any work in retail and distributor channel management taking a BBB hit is equal to blasphemy to a Christian.

So you can see why the walk back to my desk was a shaky experience. My brain immediately begins to work on how to spin the situation into a viable means of holding my employment. However there is no option. It is a black and white issue, were documents sent or not sent?

Vindication comes in the form of a sweet sweet email sent in the appropriate time. I forward it and run to my bosses desk and am greeted with a thumbs up as she is already on the horn to let our processing center know that it is time to reach deep and get their accounts in order.

Finally, I went in for a series of test on my heart yesterday. I had held a fairly casual demeanor in regards to the entire experience up until I am lying topless on a doctor bed with 4 electrodes painfully stuck to my torso. The moment of terror bursts its way through the doorway of my at times over anxious imagination. A thousand panic scenarios burst its way into my head.

Tests taken and I am still here. In fact I hit the driving range that same day and smacked a monster shot a distance of 200 yards in the air. I get test results next week and God willing we can complete these moments of terror trio with a final and greatest of all moment of triumph.