First One in the Office

The support schedule for the FEDs (Front End Developers) is a little different around this time of year. Given that Black Friday is such a huge deal for retailers, there are teams of folks across the company that ensure we have folks availble to support and troubleshoot our sites, should the need arise.

During this last week, our team was split into four different groups. Mostly, each group was “on call” for a given period of time during the day, from about 7AM – 10PM (after which, our offshore teams take over). This amounts to us havig our laptops nearby, and our phones set to alert us with any messages… should someone within the company contact us directly for help.

But starting Thanksgiving night (10PM), our support coverage shifts to “on duty,” meaning we are actively sitting in front of a computer screen – monitoring email and Skype, ready to respond.

There are several shifts, with the first going from 10PM – 3AM. Then the next team takes over from 3AM – 7AM. The shift after that (the one I’m on) is from 7AM – 2PM.

For the late night shifts, folks are working from home. I did this last year, and while the hours weren’t great… I was pretty comfortable, since it was all at home (though Liz was having a pretty rough night there).

This year, with my 7AM slot… the team I’m on needed to be physically at the office, on site. There’s really not a huge need for us to actually be here at the office, but it does help should we all need to pull together in a meeting room to troubleshoot. But that’s a pretty rare scenario.

The photo above is actually a lot brighter than what it was like here, earlier this AM. I got in around 6:30 AM, and most of the lights were off. Right at about 6:40 AM, I heard this digital tinkling music, and then all the lights flickered on. It was very odd – but I guessed it was the automated process for turning things on.

In a way, I was tickled to have been here to experience that – as that actually completes the circle of me being here when the lights kick off.

It’s been an odd day so far. Around 10AM, it felt like noon. And all day today, I’ve been thinking it’s Monday when it is, in fact, Friday. I’m all off.

Related:
Hello, Black Friday Shoppers…
Late Night Work Nights