Our servers at Hetzner have gone down, which means I am not getting my usual 40 emails to deal with each hour. It does mean, however, that I will be getting an influx when they get everything up and running again. But for now I may as well use the time to practice my soft hr skills and annoy the team whilst they try and get on with their work.

Our discussion has turned to the subject of annual leave. I believe no-one should have annual leave and should rather be grateful for the job they have, whilst also pretending they enjoy their job. I mean, everyone gets weekends off, what more do you need?

However, Paul (our teaboy) is getting married this year which means the whole team is traveling up to Pietermaritzburg for the wedding and seem to be combining it with a surf trip/week away. So everyone wants leave. Unfortunately my wife (Nicola – the person that really runs this office) is getting all soppy and starry eyed (weddings do that to her) and seems to be happy to hand out free days off for everyone. I’m not sure this is the greatest policy in a recession but I’m too scared to argue.

Server still not up…

…I need a new phone, so I’m asking around the office and everyone is now starting to get a little annoyed with me floating around. I think they prefer me stressing out with too much work to do. That way they can tell me to *&3$ off and leave them to work. But because I’m asking nicely they feel they have to respond – this soft approach seems to work well in getting information- maybe I should try it with useful stuff??

Anyway, my phone. I want an iPhone but have been told to wait until the start of August when Vodacom will be launching the 3Gs. I can’t wait that long so have phoned Vodacom (I was able to get onto their site) but they tell me I can’t get it any earlier and must just be patient. I’m not patient. So I go to MTN’s site but the search doesn’t work so now I’m frustrated and bored of the whole phone thing.

Server still not up….
Call Hetzner – I’m told ringing every 5 minutes is not helpful. I spoke to Peter who also re-assured me to wait till August for the iPhone.

Okay I’ll chat a little more to the staff…
Everyone seems to be working really hard. That never seems to be the case normally. I think they think if they keep their heads down I’ll stop bothering them.

I’ve decided to talk about surfing. That normally gets them chatting and forgetting about work for a wile. Turns out the swell isn’t really coming through now until Sunday afternoon and the West Coast will be the best place. Now they are all depressed as they realise they are going to have to wait 5 days until their next possible surf. Not such good soft hr skills.

I call Heztner again. Server is still down. I get Peter again and tell him I’ve decided to wait for my iPhone.

Forgot to ask about the server…

I call Hetzner again. Still no news…

Going to bother the programming team..wait,servers up, awesome! Back to work and only 25 emails to deal with