One of the few drawbacks to telecommuting is that my cell phone is also my office phone.
It rang at 6 o’clock this morning.
This woke me up.
Then it beeped, to let me know I’d missed a call, and dinged, to let me know I had voicemail.
Of course I had to get up and see who it was.
It was a client, wondering how much we’d charged him for a job we’d done months ago. Apparently, he didn’t realize I was in an earlier time zone.
At 8 o’clock, it rang again. I was awake this time, but not in the mood. More voice mail. Another client, asking a question about a job I finished a few days ago.
8:30 AM. I logged in to work, to find an email from another client, wanting an update, and yet another client, wanting to add onto a job.
And one from my manager, wondering if I’d answered the client who wanted an update, quickly followed by another wondering if I’d started working on the add-on.
I emailed him back. I explained which emails I’d sent, and who I had to call. I noted that the cat had just puked in my office, and I’d had to clean that up. I suggested that I might just go back to bed and start over. He thought it was funny, about the cat.
Then I realized that the 6 AM phone call had been about a job someone else in my department had completed, and emailed my manager. He said he’d already dealt with it — the client had called everyone.
But the rest of the day was quiet, and for this, I am grateful.
