One day this week I went home at the normal time. However I got a call from my team lead about a problem. He said the customer was having all kinds of problems. So I called up the customer and had them check out a few things. I asked them to e-mail some more information, and I told them I would get on it first thing the next morning. Then I turned my cell phone off.The next morning I found out that other customers were having more pressing issues. Again I got called. But luckily my cell phone was off and I was not bothered. The disturbing part was that nobody else could figure these problems out. So the next morning the customer wanted an answer ASAP. Somehow I got on the hook for figuring these problems out as well.
It is not like I don’t enjoy solving problems. I just don’t like it when I get bothered every time there is a problem on our project. We have a 25 person staff to support this effort. These problems occurred in software that is being worked by other developers. However management wants us to look good in front of the customer. And when I get on a problem, our company looks good.
Perhaps I should count this as a blessing. In these tough economic times, you want to be the go to guy. But I feel a little cheated as there are all these other people who are on our project who don’t have to get the aggravation I get. It would be great if they could just drop one or two of the less useful people and pay me double. Yeah I know that is not going to happen as long as I work for the man.
There are a few smart people on our project who are subcontractors making some real green. They love getting calls at all hours of the night. That is because for every call they get, they get a little richer. I get paid the same no matter how many hours I work. Is this the same dilemma that all top developers face?
