When The Other Shoe Doesn’t Drop

Today was a holiday in the United States. Labor Day traditionally marks the end of Summer. It’s a day for BBQs, picnics, family gatherings and Honey-Do lists.

We took our kids to the park. We enjoyed some family meals. And I worked through my Honey-Do list. In fact, I wrapped up several lingering projects.

• Changed the oil on my 1995 Toyota Corolla
• Changed the oil on my 2004 Yukon
• Polished the headlights on the Corolla
• Fixed my sprinkler systems
• Fixed a leaning mailbox
• Replaced a bedroom screen
• Weeded the garden
• Installed weatherstripping on my garage door
• Replaced an exterior garage light

There’s one thing I didn’t do today. I didn’t take a work call. I didn’t spend hours on my computer working on an outage.

But, I might have. I could have. In fact, my phone rang several times today. Often I was elbow deep in engine oil. As I lay underneath my car and listened to my phone ring through, I waited for the distinct omminous tone indicating the caller had left a voicemail.

When work calls, they always leave voicemail.

Most of my callers today didn’t leave voicemail. The ones that did told me that my screen was repaired, or that my son was ready to be picked up from football practice.

As I worked through my projects list, I knew in the back of my mind that at any moment it could be interrupted. Since we take calls 24×7, at any moment I could be presented with an outage request that would require me to drop everything and hunker down in my office to work through a issue affecting people 2000 miles away.

It didn’t happen. But, it might have. Just like every day it might. Just like Saturday morning from 8:00am to 2:00pm I was on a work call.

But, not today. Today, ironically, Labor Day, I didn’t get a random work call. And it was amazingly productive. It’s amazing how much work I can get done if work doesn’t interrupt.

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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