The Human Piñata

So, weekend time... time to relax, get things done the way that you meant to do during the week, but for which you just didn't have the time or energy.

Friday was going well at work... calm, measured customers, I hired someone, and we had a wine and cheese social.  Pretty good end to the week.  Then, all hell breaks loose with one of our customers.  So, I get home, and at around 8, the following call ensues:

<phone rings>
Me: Hello?
Caller: Hey, It's [name redacted].  Can you get on a call tomorrow morning with some of the guys to talk through a response to customer x?
Me: Sure.
Caller: At 5am?
Me: Ummm... Really?

<caller explains reasoning for early call>

Me: Ok.

So, I crash at 9:30 on friday night.  Yep, I'm lame.

I wake at 5am and start a pot of coffee, joining the call in progress.

Long story short, I end up on the phone for nearly 8 hours, finishing up around 1:30pm with a call to the customer.  All is quiet on the western front.  In the process, I've missed my planned 7 mile run, and meeting up with a friend to check out a festival in downtown Mountain View.  Thank god I didn't miss the haircut.

What the hell is a human piñata, you ask?



The name of the post is how I explain my job to many people who don't either work in the technology industry.  I sometimes just say "I take shit for a living", but came up with a better descriptor: the human piñata.  I mean, really - think about it: as the director of a customer service organization, my job is invariably to:

1. Keep my customers happy
2. Make sure my team has what it needs in order to accomplish (1)
3. Ensure that our processes are defensible
4. Track statistics on the efforts associated with (1)
5. When customers aren't happy, to stand in front of my team - and company - and take the browbeating that frustrated attorneys, consultants and paralegals need to vent... being a voice of reason, full of compromise and helping my customer feel better about things**.

Aka: Human Piñata

Note: I stole this image from the toys R us website; It's a monkey piñata but it's a funny image.  It's got a pull string for some reason.  Buy it here.

So anyhow, this morning I woke up early and did my 7 miles.  Now I'm watching the 49ers hopefully pummel the Seahawks into submission.  Big eyes on Alex Smith today.  Now that he's got some decent receivers, what can he do?  So, sloth time, stretching and rolling.

Oh, and I'm making stew.  I love Sundays.

later.

**And yes, those of you who knew me in the bad old days realize that this is a little bit of irony.  There were a lot of days when I really needed a calming voice of reason.  How life does change as we mature.