Your day to day
The day something is down
What you can carry on doing, what to postpone, and what NOT to do.
One day something will not work: the system, your connection, a third party's email. The difference between a lost morning and a nuisance is having decided beforehand what to do and, above all, what not to do.
The first three minutes
- 1
Check whether it is yours or general
Have someone else try from another connection. It saves half the calls.
- 2
Check the status page
If it is general, they already know and there is little to add.
- 3
And tell whoever was expecting something today
A two-line notice prevents five calls and a bad impression.
Important
The third point is what the other side values most. A deadline that slips with notice is manageable; the same deadline unannounced becomes a trust problem lasting far longer than the incident.
What you can carry on doing
| Yes | Better not |
|---|---|
| Taking photos and preparing them to upload later | Going back to paper "just for today" |
| Calling whoever has something outstanding | Sending the same thing several times |
| Drafting and leaving things ready | Redoing work that may already be saved |
| And noting what happens, with times | Writing off what was in progress |
Watch out
The second row on the right consumes most and causes the most mess afterwards: retrying a send that did go through leaves the recipient with three identical emails and you with three charged actions. Check the status before repeating anything.
Getting back to normal
That last point is not bureaucracy: if a deadline was missed because of an outage, being able to say when it started and when it was resolved changes the conversation entirely.
Worth knowing
The fourth row on the left — noting with times — is what lets you explain it afterwards. Reconstructing three days later exactly when something stopped working is impossible and sounds like an excuse.
›Is what I was writing lost?
What was saved is there; what never saved is not. When unsure, check before redoing.
›Who do I tell if it is general?
Whoever was expecting something from you. The technical incident is already being handled.
›What if it is just slow?
Work on what does not depend on uploading large files and leave those for later.
A real case
The situation
A team loses a morning retrying sends during an incident.
What you do
- Checks whether it is general and warns clients expecting delivery that day
- Prepares photos and drafts to upload later
What you get
The afternoon is fully recovered and no recipient gets duplicate sends.
The situation
Something is not working and the team sits idle for half a morning.
What you do
- Checks whether it affects others or just one person
- Carries on the alternative way while it is fixed
- Reports with the time, the screen and the error code
What you get
Work does not stop and support starts with a diagnosis rather than a question.
The situation
«It does not work» is reported with no detail.
What you do
- Describes what was expected and what happened
What you get
The first reply is already useful.
The situation
Five people report the same thing separately.
What you do
- Checks whether a case is already open
What you get
The problem is worked once.
The situation
People wait for a fix without telling the suppliers.
What you do
- Warns whoever is waiting on something
What you get
Nobody outside is left without an explanation.
The situation
It is resolved and no record remains of what happened.
What you do
- Records the incident and its resolution
What you get
Next time it is resolved in minutes.
This article answers
- the platform is slow what do i do
- cannot work today system down
- carrying on when the system fails
- plan b when something is not working