A Rare Occurrence (hopefully)

I don't typically use this space to bitch about work, but I feel this is the most influencial thing going on in my life today, so I'll just jot down some thoughts.

It seems that there's some weird cycle of people trying to be excellent, then noticed, then appreciated, then they just don't care. At that point they become cynical, then jaded, then downright hostile, then poisonous. Then something happens where they go back to trying to be excellent...

I've tried my best to just keep an even keel. I get my stuff done when necessary, I don't try too hard and burn myself out. When an emergency comes up that I can handle/help with, I tuck my wings and divebomb all over it until the problem is resolved. Otherwise, I'm just another cook in the kitchen, and I may get in the way.

The problem is when these two ideas merge, and especially when they merge when everyone's in the poisonous part of the cycle.

When a VIP client asks for assistance, and the on-call guy doesn't drop everything and assist, it's a bad time. When the root cause of the issue is a certificate that expired days earlier but wasn't noticed, it's a badder time. And when everything gets dropped into my lap to correct, it's a really badder time.

But again, I don't try to over-extend, I just politely note the issue, find out that it was someone else's mistake that caused the cert to drop in the first place. I tell who needs to know what they need to do, and back out of it.

In years past, I would have flipped the fuck out, fixed all the things, then gone on a witch-hunt to fry those responsible. Now, it's not like I don't care, but I just don't care enough to get all finger-pointy. The cert is requested, other methods of hitting the servers are given out, and we're generally in an alright spot.

But this is just a sign of the times. Shit's about to get really bad if this is what it's gonna be like for the next few months.