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It is hard being on the road over 200 nights a year...away from your family, isolated in many ways. It definitely isn't for everyone. This blogs represents the thoughts of just one such person. Read along and find out if the road is for you.
This is my new blogchalk:
United States, Georgia, Gainesville, Unity of Gainesville, English, John, Male, reading, RE Investing. :)
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Thursday, February 06, 2003
2/1/2003
Cavama (it is not so bad…)
Inwardly, I think I should feel really upset. But I don’t.
Financially and billing wise, this week turned into a mini-bust. Why, you ask?
Well, I had 5 days of premium billing scheduled in Chicago. As luck would have it, one of our biggest clients was in the process of converting the rest of their branches to our system and needed consultants who had previously worked with them to change their schedule, work Friday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. We would have the Sunday off. Since I was going to the Montreal branch, I was excited to have it in a great metropolitan city. At least that was the plan.
So, instead of the five days of premium billing, I had 3 discounted days in Charlotte, followed by this trip. My monthly billing was looking decent at least. I take care of a bunch of customer issues on Thursday and fly into Montreal Thursday evening. So far, so good.
At least that is what I thought. Upon arriving, I find out that the client doesn’t want us after all on Friday, but on Sunday. “They aren’t quite ready for us yet.” On top of that, the rate for Sunday was going to be discounted. And, oh by the way, they did want me to spend an “hour” with them on Friday. At this point, I am less than happy, but not to the point of crankiness.
I arrive leisurely at the client at 10 AM. And from there, it just went downhill. Not just for me. But for Da Company, the client, the other consultants, and myself. Seems there was a problem converting the data correctly. I could go into excrutiating detail, but why? Since I was at the main branch, I tried to keep Lori and the project manager informed of what was happening on my end. They both insisted the issues were minor (I thought otherwise, or why would I call them??) Maybe, because I could hear the whisperings going on when there weren’t conference calls going on, I had a better insight of what was happening on this end.
At 6 that evening, the word that I had called Lori and the project manager about earlier came to fruition. This was going to be rescheduled. Something this large takes a bit of coordination and will definitely increase the cost of the upgrade for the client. And at this point, I am not sure, who if anyone from Da Company will be back when they try this again in a week.
So, instead of heading home on Tuesday evening, I am on a first class flight back to Atlanta on Saturday morning.
Am I upset? A little. The billing would have been good and would have definitely helped my monthly bonus. Now, my schedule is beginning to look like swiss cheese and if they juggle it to accommodate this client next week, well, let’s just say it will be interesting.
On the other hand, being home for a few days is a good thing. I put an offer in on a rental property on Thursday night and it will be easier to deal with if I am home. And I just might have the time to take a course that is being held on Tuesday/Wednesday that will help get my business started.
So, as I had begun to learn some basic French terms during my last visit, the one that comes to mind is: Cavama (it is not so bad…)
Blog on!
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