Till the job's done

One of the tech guys from the client asked me today... "Buti nakakaya mong tumagal sa ganyan kagrabing banatan... kung ako yan ... *smirks* "
He was referring to my project of course, which is currently undergoing great tribulations under the support phase. And since it is such a big project and an important client, it has raised several eyebrows within the region and last week I heard the woes of despair have reached the client main office in NY. This morning, I just came out of another voice conference call between executives from US, Singapore, Melbourne, and Manila... and for the 2nd time, I found myself right smack in the middle of an international crisis.

Sometimes, I still cant help get over the fact that during these crucial meetings, critical issues are decided on with such decisiveness and fervor. I always catch myself silently screaming... "Holy shit! What if I didnt blurt out that suggestion... then we would have gone with the other option" and to think that decisions that are forged from these meetings will sometimes spell huge differences in additonal or less resources and schedule adjustments in dozens of man-hours. Of course, it feels really great to be proven right... but that's also why when something fucks up... you're gonna get it pretty darn hard where the sun don't shine. It almost feels like Jesus Christ walking up to Pilate... you know you're about to get crucified, but you walk into the meeting anyway.

So he asks.. "Pano mo nagagawa? Nasanay ka na lang?"

What else is there to say... "You stay till the job is done!" ... there's nothing really more to it. You walk and it's the last they remember, or you stay and you get to say... "Yeah, but we fixed it!" Because despite all of the rigid standards and the reviews that you follow, human error will always factor into the equation. We do our darnest to keep error margins to a minimum... but shit really happens. Sometimes it just oozes out, sometimes it hits the fan. When it does, you better be decent enough to clean up your own mess.