My coworkers greeted me when I walked into the office last week with the news that our computer system was down and that it would be down for quite some time. All of us had plenty of work to do and would not be able to get it done. Since deadlines are important in our work, this was not welcome news.
While I was frustrated, I decided to put into practice something I learned decades ago to make the best of the situation. During a school in-service when I was still teaching, the speaker told us: “When life gives you lemons, make chicken soup for the soul.” At least I think that was it, I wasn’t really paying attention at the time.
While I’m not much for straight lemonade or sappy clichés, I thought this just might be the time to see what I could do to take my mind off the whitespace that would surely grace our publications if I couldn’t get my work done. Plus, I haven’t been this unproductive at work since last year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Since the NCAA tournament is over a month away, I:
• Began a scan of my computer. Since my coworkers were doing the same thing, we decided to race to see whose scan would finish first. We even had a fun prize for whoever finished last. At least the other three of us thought it was fun.
• Talked cooking and food with my coworkers, one of whom had what sounded like a killer kielbasa, peppers and onions dinner recipe.
• Thought about how we don’t have an exit plan in our office in case of an internet outage. We have a brewery across the street that I have suggested we go to in case of severe weather since they have a basement and we don’t. And what better place to ride out a storm than a brewery? I think we should hit the brewery whenever our internet is down for an extended period of time, just to be safe.
• Scheduled a fitting for new golf clubs. At age 64, it’s always interesting to see how much distance I lose at the start of every year from the previous year. I’ve had my current set of clubs for 20 years and decided it’s time for an upgrade. Since my cell phone worked and my computer didn’t, I saw no time like the present to schedule the fitting. I doubt the new clubs will allow me to join a professional tour and quit the newspaper business. I’m just hoping to be able to continue playing in a way that keeps me competitive and enjoying the game.
• Chose not to involve the company’s IT folks in my club fitting appointment. I had to schedule my appointment online and had some trouble doing it on my phone. For a moment, I thought about calling IT to see if they could help me place my order, but thought better of that idea since they were still knee-deep in figuring out what went wrong with our system. Plus, I wasn’t sure where they were with the whole lemons and chicken soup thing at that particular moment.
If you are seeing this in print, you may surmise that the company’s IT staff rode in on their white horses and fixed the network problem. Once again, it’s a reminder of just how dependent so many of us are these days on the internet to complete our work. It makes me think I need to thank the folks in IT for what they do for us to keep us running — perhaps invite them over for dinner.
