My job responsibilities encompass supporting all Metromedia Steakhouses, Inc. (MSI) IMS computer systems (Sales, Marketing, Accounts Receivable), all Point-Of-Sale (POS) polled data, and the Steak & Ale Restaurant Corp. (S&A) Sales system. For a combined MSI/S&A function, I am also responsible for restaurant sales bank deposit transmissions, which can be valued up to $4,000,000 a day (during weekend catch-up processing). My previous manager, Bill Thurlow, has stated that the combined POS polling and bank deposit functions has made my support position the most important in the department.

Typical day narrative:

I am oncall for my supported systems 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I wear a company supplied pager. I received support calls both this Saturday and Sunday (4/4/98 and 4/5/98). Some involved clean-up of daylight savings time problems, some where job sequence and recovery problems.

My day typically starts around 4AM. This involves sleeping with one eye open, so that the phone will only ring once before I answer, hopefully not waking my wife. This is the first potential MSI POS polling error start time for MSI. When I first started with MRG, this occurred at least twice a day, but over my three year tenure, I have designed and put in place additional edits and processes make this a maybe twice a month occurrence.

Depending on whether I received any support calls, I arrive at work between 7:30AM and 8:30AM, after driving the 33 miles from my home in Euless, via LBJ, to our office. If support calls were involved, I resolve any issues or situations with the Computer Operations, and Remote Computing departments.

Twice a week, we have large group meetings at 8:30/9:00. A lot of times, I cannot make the meetings, because the S&A polled POS information jobs start executing in this time frame. They usually involve errors that occurred at the restaurant level. As with the MSI process, over the last three years I have put in additional edits and traps to find these problems early, which allows us to correct the error in only one place, rather than have to fix dozens of files when the user departments tell us there is a problem.

I give a lot of hand-holding attention to the POS polling situation. The IS department uses a rule of thumb estimate that it 'costs' $65.00 per missed-poll incident. This is spent on research, faxing of source documents, and clerks re-keying the data. With the processes I have put in place, polling reliability has increased, and I estimate that my direct efforts have 'saved' the company over $365,000 in not having to recover missed/unreliable polled data.

The last of these S&A POS polled processes finishes at around 11AM, which is when the MSI re-poll process starts. S&A does not have a repoll capability. Around 9:30AM, the S&A bank deposit process starts. This consists of 'actual' deposits, 'estimated' deposits (for when we don't poll the restaurant), and reconciling the Zero Balance Account (ZBA) units. ZBA processing is another process I instituted. As ZBA, the bank accumulates all balances and forwards the moneys to our consolidation bank (Provident). However, the accounts, units, and amounts have to be processed from each of the 3 ZBA banks. The ZBA activity must then be incorporated into the 'normal' bank deposit process for interfacing to GL and UAR. Anybody that has met with Don Chung comes away knowing that the performance of the UB, DPR, ZBA, and UAR portions of the bank deposit process affect on a daily basis the company's Financial Bridge. The stress involved here led to the 'FACTS bullet 2', where Bill Thurlow was out of town for the weekend, and the computer operator did not follow instructions, and I (wrongly, I didn't have the authority) threatened to have him fired.

On the 'average' day, I field three support calls before 11AM. At 1PM, the mirrored MSI bank deposit functions occur. We have this delay, because MSI has a re-poll capability, so we want to process as many actuals, and fewer estimates, as possible. Once the MSI bank deposit function is complete, our Computer Operations dials up Provident Bank, and transmits the MSI/S&A bank deposit information. Normally I am done for the day on this, but three times I have had to recreate the files because Provident 'lost' them. This has to occur before 3PM, otherwise the company does not receive the 'provisional credit' until the next business day.

So, I usually am involved in direct support problems, or must remain immediately available, until 1PM, the earliest I can go to lunch. I usually don't make it to lunch, because while all this goes on, I am also receiving ad-hoc requests from people on their own way to lunch. Recently, I received a request for a report that did not exist, but was needed 'immediately' outside our department. This is a commitment that I made, since when we transitioned from the XA to ESA operation environment, we did not renew the license on the ANSWER DB software, saving the company money. I committed to providing replacement reports for any requested ANSWER DB function.

I also receive requests from the MSI Sales Audit department to correct 'overlays'. This is a situation much like avoiding re-polls. If the Sales Audit department has to re-key Sales and Product Mix information..... Sales takes about one-half hour, but Product Mix has the potential of having to record the item sales of up to 1,600 items, which can take a complete day.

The 'overlay' issue arises when the POS operator has a procedural problem in closing out labor clock-ins, and performing the end-of-day functions multiple times, or changing the system date to keep from being closed out of a calendar sensitive function. The result is that POS information overlays good data with bad. Thus, either I recover the data, change the dates, and reapply, or Sales Audit rekeys. This overlay fix is one I devised when the company down-sized from 4 Sales Audit clerks to 2. Although it takes me up to 4 passes with the software to determine the correct data to reapply, it is still faster and more efficient for me to do it than the Sales Audit clerks.

This take me until around 3PM, which is about the time the 'inevitable mid-afternoon letdown' that Dr. Burrascano Jr. talks about in his managing Lymes Disease booklet. I have delivered two copies (one on two separate occasions) to Bill Thurlow. 3PM seems to be about the extent of my energy (11 hours straight since preparing myself for the day). Both Bill Thurlow and Keenan Wright have been quite flexible in allowing me to leave at 3:30PM on the days I am scheduled to see the doctor. Leaving my office at 3:30PM, driving to Bedford, arriving in the doctor's office by 4:30PM, and being seen before he closes at 5PM works quite well.

On the days I don't see the doctor, I usually work until 6PM (normal working hours are 8:30AM to 5:30PM, with an hour for lunch) to make up for 'lost' time. I must then make sure I am available from 7PM until 11PM, when the remaining MSI/S&A systems for which I am responsible, run. In the 3-6PM timeframes and not on my way to the doctor's office, I work on the Commissary to Edward Don conversion, ad-hoc DSS functions, answer e-mail and VMX, etc.

On a normal day, the stress of being available and oncall can be handled. I usually perform the support and new development functions handily. When we come across unusual situations, my reserves seem quite adequate. I recently spent 9-12 hour Saturday's on two occasions assisting the upgrade installation for a system for which I have no formal role. However, there are days that no amount of compensatory time can make up for the demands of being functional NOW, and dealing with other people under stress.

Seeing the deterioration of my wife (pain, cognition, etc.), who is 100% disabled for the same disease I have, fearing the same prospect for myself (pain, cognition, frustration), dealing with the frustration of not being able to handle everything I used to be able to do, and working for people who are more worried about somebody's feelings than getting on with the job, is just sometimes too much.

With the exception of the time I threatened to have somebody fired (I didn't have the authority), I have done nor said anything wrong. But the perception of what was said, not the actuality of what was said, hurt someone.

Something has to be done to keep me from hurting so many feelings.

It should be noted that all through this, my performance annual reviews have giving me the highest marks in every category, except people skills.