This new project I am involved with at work brings a lot of excitement, expectation, and energy, and a whole lot of stress. All of this comes really as no surprise; I commented a few weeks ago that I had anticipated this, and I would even go so far as to say that I embrace it. True, I am still feeling a little out of practice with the overall pace of things. Additionally, getting comfortable with all of the communication and cultural styles is still very unfamiliar to me. For example, I had not counted on my customer expecting me to micromanage our repair partner, and I absolutely had not counted on my customer micromanaging me micromanaging the partner. This seems ludicrous to me.
As a result, I notice myself getting a little more wound up more frequently than I would like. And, when there is a brief break in the action, the fatigue hits and I tend to feel wiped out.
The other week during my visit to Budapest, my customer informed me that they were sending a representative to my German partner for 15 days. 15 DAYS!?!? Normally a supplier visit should last no longer than 2-3 days, so 15 days was about 2 1/2 weeks too long. Fortunately I was able to help the customer understand that maximum 4 days would be sufficient, on condition that the customer clearly indicate their agenda. The whole email exchange I had with the customer on this topic was exhausting enough; I could only wonder how the actual visit to the partner would be.
It was challenging enough to get the customer to provide their travel plans (which would then allow me to coordinate the visit with the partner), but on the 1st of October, I finally got my hotel booked in Flensburg. I would have to travel on a Sunday, then return the following Friday.
The first week of October includes a German public holiday, which this year fell on Thursday. I was relieved to have the 4 day work week, especially since I knew I would have the following weekend cut short. I did not intend to stay out so late on the night before the holiday, but it was one of those special nights when all the stars align. I kept bumping into friends I had not seen in awhile, and spent the whole evening really enjoying myself. When I did get to bed, I winced as I looked at the clock: 3:30am. But only slightly.
Fortunately, I had Thursday for a recovery day, then back to work on Friday. Friday evening, I met up with a couple of friends for dinner, and again, had an enjoyable evening.
Then, the anxiousness crept back in. I felt a little tense as I prepared for my week in Flensburg. I resented having to travel on a Sunday, but I pretended that it would be like a little holiday. This little jedi-mind trick worked for about 5 seconds until I remembered that there would a customer in tow for the entire week. But, I opened my mind and reminded myself to simply accept whatever would happen.
I caught a mid-day train from Frankfurt to Hamburg, which was really poor planning on my part. The train was full of Sunday travelers, and even more so because of the autumn school break. Lots of families were on board with younger travelers. Thus, no seat reservations were available, and I put all my hopes in grabbing a seat in the restaurant car of the train. Turns out, a lot of other people had this same idea, so I eventually found myself standing at the other end of restaurant car in the snack bar area, which only provides a few little places to stand at.
Of course I was slightly overdressed, as I was anticipating the weather in the north of Germany. In a crowded railway car, I started sweating, which did not help my mood.
30 minutes outside of the city, the conductor came on to the PA system and asked if any doctors on board could urgently come to car number 5 to help attend to a passenger who had fallen ill. I must say I was rather impressed to see about 4 people scurry through the snack area on their way to the other end of the train (car 5); I really appreciate witnessing people's willingness to help others in need.
Well, the ailing passenger did need additional treatment, so the train made an unscheduled stop at the next station. Here, we waited for about 40 minutes as the ambulance people collected the passenger and went to hospital. I have experienced many things in my years of traveling with Deutsche Bahn, but this was the first time for something like this.
We were scheduled to arrive in Hamburg around 17h, which would have been sufficient time for me to visit the lavatory and grab a snack before taking the regional train from Hamburg on to Flensburg, a further 2 hours to the north. With the delay we had experienced, we were now going to be pulling into Hamburg about 90 seconds before my connecting train would depart. This is one of the disadvantages to railway travel (or airplane travel, for that matter), but I am usually okay with the delay. I know from experience never to schedule any important event (or meeting) so close to my travel arrangement, preferring instead to create as big a buffer as possible. (Hence the reason I was traveling on a Sunday, so as to be able to meet with the customer on a Monday, AFTER a night's rest.)
What this particular delay meant, however, is that I would have to use the toilet on the train, and normally I tend to exclude the train lavatories from my list of safe havens. To be fair, the facilities on the ICE trains are quite superior to those on the regional trains, but there is one little point I always dread: the sliding door to the facility. Over the years, I have had the door mysteriously slide open during my activity, and I am rather helpless to do anything about it. My father has encountered the same situation multiple times during his visits to Germany, most recently on our trip to Vienna. (On that particular occasion he waited until we were eating dinner before telling me of his adventure earlier on the train when we were pulling into a particular station, where he ended up giving a show to all the passengers who were waiting to leave the train.)
So, I like to avoid these situations whenever possible. But, when you gotta go, you gotta go.
I cannot express how relieved I was to find that in this particular train, the sliding toilet door had a seemingly secure latch that would ensure that I could have an undisturbed moment. Despite the secure latch, I was still rather terrified that it would magically unlock itself and the door would slide open. (What's behind door number 3, Monty?)
Personal business seen to, I prepared myself for the train's arrival to Hamburg, and tried to calculate how many people I would have to hurdle when scurrying from platform 14 to 11, which requires one to go up a flight of stairs, cross the terminal to the appropriate track, then go back downstairs to the actual train platform.
The train itself finished service service in Hamburg, so everyone has to get off. Most of the time, everyone has to get a connecting train, so in short, everyone is in the same situation; pressed for time and in danger of missing their connection.
Anyone who has experienced the race through a train station or an airport to catch their connection knows that it is exhilarating only if you actually make the connection. Otherwise, it just sucks.
Sometimes I don't even make the effort to try to catch the connection, knowing that I can simply wait for a few minutes and catch the next train. However, the train from Hamburg to Flensburg runs every hour, and it's a two hour ride. I wanted to make this connection.
And I did. Barely.
With seconds to spare, I found myself at one end of the regional train in the car reserved for people with bicycles and other bulky things. Luckily, I did manage to find a jump seat that I could sit in. Again, the train was rather full of passengers, not a huge surprise as it was the local means for people who live outside of Hamburg to go back home after a day out in the city.
I closed my eyes for a moment to try and relax myself, then was startled awake as a group of what seemed to be one or two families crowded into the seats next to me. They had a few small children with them, which meant they had two bulky strollers, and because of the energy that kids have, it was not easy for them to get settled. Instead, the kids bounced around and excitedly ran around in the train car.
In total, the group amounted to about 10 people, which was confirmed when they presented their tickets to the conductor. Deutsche Bahn has something called the Happy Weekend Ticket, which enables a group of up to 5 people to travel on the regional train for a really really low price, something like 30 euro. It is very practical, and I have used such ticket myself. (For comparison purposes, my own ticket cost about the same as their ticket for a group of 5)
At any rate, I casually observed the group, who were chatting mostly in Arabic, but from time to time I heard a bit of German. The kids were energetic and cute. Due to the ages of the travelers, I could not quite figure out who was an older brother or sister, who was an uncle or aunt, or which kids belonged to which families. I like to people watch, so spent most of the journey being entertained by the two families. One group got off in a town about an hour outside of Hamburg, and the other family continued on with me to the final stop of Flensburg. I got to help out from time to time to collect the pacifier off the ground; one of the kids kept throwing it gleefully.
It was already 19h30 by the time we got to Flensburg, and I was really looking forward to getting to the hotel. One of the guys at my repair partner had booked me into a rather nice hotel that was reasonably priced. It also had an extremely nice restaurant that my colleague had raved about, so I was hoping for a good experience.
Well, the hotel was awesome. It's right on the waterfront of the harbor in Flensburg, and has sort of a maritime theme. For example, instead of having a check-in and check-out date, I had an embark and disembark date. The guy at the reception desk did not actually greet me with an "ahoy" but I could tell that he thought about it.
It had been a long day, particularly as I had stood for the 4 hour train journey to Hamburg, so I quickly unpacked, then went back downstairs to the restaurant, having noted that my hotel room was really really nice. The restaurant was also impressive, and I was treated to exceptional service from the young, professional waitstaff.
I had checked out the hotel website prior to my arrival so was already aware that the restaurant prices were going to be a little more expensive than my normal eating out experiences tend to be. I decided on a nice starter, then went with the chef's suggestion of a main dish, and I was duly satisfied with the experience. I enjoyed a nice after dinner espresso, then settled the bill against my room, then went upstairs to relax and fall asleep. The coming week was going to be intense.
Since Flensburg is right on the water, the weather tends to be a little interesting. The temperatures were certainly cooler than in Frankfurt, and I was glad that Sunday evening and Monday morning had no rain. I ate breakfast in the hotel, then did work from my room until midday, before heading over to visit the repair partner. We needed to strategize in advance of the arrival of our customer the following morning.
I was still feeling a little resentful because I had had to travel on a Sunday, so as to be ready for a Monday morning customer visit onsite at the partner. During the previous week at somewhat late notice, I discovered that the customer would in fact arrive Monday evening, to be on site from Tuesday through Friday. As I had already booked my hotel (noncancelable) for the Sunday evening, I had to travel the day earlier. Furthermore, I never like Monday morning visits, as it is unfair to a repair partner who needs sufficient time to get the working week started operationally. This is why I didn't try to get over to see them until the Monday afternoon.)
My afternoon visit was productive enough. At least we thought we would be ready for the customer to be on site with us the following morning. I did not stay any longer than necessary, so returned to my hotel shortly before 17h. I took a little walk around the water front, then headed back to the hotel restaurant for dinner.
I had already explored and was enjoying my accommodations. In fact, I was treating the whole experience as a little holiday for myself, albeit a working holiday. The hotel is rather new and has modern fixtures. Thus, it had one of those awesome rain shower shower heads, where you can stand there and just have lovely water come down on you. (I am never sure why we all love these rain shower heads in our bathrooms, but always hate to go outside when it is raining...)
The way our company handles the travel expenses is kind of the norm for German companies. You receive a daily food allowance that has no bearing on where you actually eat. I already knew that the daily allowance would not come close to covering the meals I would be enjoying in the hotel restaurant, but I did not care. I was on vacation.
Monday evening one of the waitstaff greeted me, recognizing that I had been a guest the previous evening. This time, I chose a different starter and entree. Again, I was really impressed. The restaurant was busy, but not full. Thus, I had time to sit with my book, relax, and eventually I found myself lost in thought. I was thinking about the next few days with the customer, but I also allowed my thoughts to wander freely.
Sometimes when I am traveling on my own, especially if I am eating alone in a restaurant, I imagine myself as a restaurant critic, perhaps an eccentric one. If the restaurant is particularly nice, like the one in the hotel, I pay closer attention to the presentation and the overall experience. So, that Monday evening I took extra interest in my entree of roast chicken breast with a beet medley. (the German translation is more eloquent). I counted about 5 different types of beet, which was surprising in its own right, based on my inexperience with the particular vegetable.
The food was really good, but I was also impressed by the waitstaff. Everyone was quite young, but always smiling and professional. Sure, there was a head waiter (or waitress) who seemed to help direct traffic, but overall I was amazed that the kids held their own, showing attentiveness and knowledge that was beyond their years. Earlier, I had been outside side in the courtyard on the rear of the hotel and had seen some of the staff arriving for the dinnertime service. They were dressed in hoodies and sneakers, and on any given day if you met any of them out and about, you would assume that they were on their way to (or coming from) a skate park.
I tend to try not to judge people too often, but like everyone, I may develop my own biases, based on my experiences. The folks that work in my local pub are of similar age, similar dress, but unfortunately several of them don't exhibit the same level of professional effort while on the job. I took a moment to reflect on my own experiences working as a teenager, back in 1988. I was just as much of a dipshit then as I am now, but there was always a certain amount of flair. And not least of all, I did take the job seriously, and this is what impressed me about the hotel restaurant staff. During their breaks or personal time, they might have been just as inclined to surf grocery carts in the parking lot (as I did with Whitman years ago on the way back inside to Albertson's) or do whatever, but still maintain their professional attitude.
A third beer was in order for the evening, and I continued to sit and reflect. I found myself reminiscing of other events from 1988, including a few interesting drives around the city in the Nugget, and countless hours spent at Bill's records and tapes. After all, allowing the mind to wander freely is a nice thing to do while on vacation.
Tuesday started with buckets of rain, typical for Flensburg. I got a taxi to the repair partner, and met our customer, a young woman who had been tasked by her boss to spend the next several days with us on site discussing the repair operations. As expected, the day was stressful and chaotic. I found myself feeling really frustrated with the customer, and noticed my colleague from the repair partner showing similar signs of strain. I think we were both rather pleased when the customer announced that she wanted to return to her hotel for the evening, thus relieving us from any obligation to do the "wining and dining" crap that sometimes happens on these kind of trips.
This effectively gave my colleague and me freedom to head off to a local favorite restaurant, where we focused on enjoying our beers and the chat more than anything else. I have know this particular repair partner for several years, but I needed some one on one time with my direct counterpart so as to get to know him better outside of work. We had a great evening, and were able to laugh together about the absurdities we were experiencing with a customer who was intent on micromanaging me and the repair partner.
The colleague and myself are similar in age, and we certainly have quite a bit more experience than our customer, but in these situations, we always have to respect that we have a customer. This means that we have to find ways to communicate and accommodate each other. Most people know that I do not subscribe to the "Customer is always right" philosophy, but I never forget that we have a customer.
This alone creates a shitload of stress, since I usually find myself having to work harder (and less efficiently) with customers who might have unreasonable requests. I often struggle in such situations, particularly when it seems that the customer is unwilling to look for any flexibility or compromise. A specific example happened during the course of the week with said customer, who seems hell bent on doing things manually, despite my best efforts to demonstrate why using the system to drive a solution that will result in a fewer opportunities for human error.
It's enough to drive you bat shit.
Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much repeats of our Tuesday work day. The days were long and frustrating, but I learned from the experience and made the most of things. I learned how I can better communicate with the customer, and also with my repair partner. Fortunately, I was able to take a nice shower in a rainstorm each morning, and enjoyed a couple more lovely meals in the hotel's restaurant. During the course of the week, the waitstaff got used to me spending a couple of hours each evening in the restaurant, graciously enjoying time to myself.
My head was full of some many thoughts, so even though my hotel room was cozy and comfortable, I did not sleep as restfully as I wanted. By Thursday, I was really looking forward to the journey back to Frankfurt, just in time for the weekend. Finally a chance to rest.
Each day was full of rain and sun, as seems to be the norm in Flensburg. Two days in a row I woke up with nice sunlight in my hotel room, and as I peered out the window to the rear courtyard, I kept thinking, "hey, that's really cool that they have a big fountain that makes it look like it is raining outside."
Then, when I actually looked more closely, I realized that it was raining heavily, even though the sun was shining brightly. I loved it.
That Thursday evening, after I had concluded the business trip with the partner and the customer, I taxied back to the harbor, then stopped off at a little shop to buy cigarettes and a couple of bottles of water; this had been my little routine during the week. As I paid for my items, I chatted with the shop lady, who asked where I came from. This prompted us to have a little discussion about the German language and my accent, partially influenced by where I live in a different region of Germany, and partially because I simply have an accent.
It made for an interesting conversation, and just added on to the experience of the week. A few days prior, I had been standing outside the hotel where another couple were having a chat. I couldn't help but overhear them, but quickly realized that I was not fully understanding what they were saying in German. I was not trying to deliberately follow the conversation, but found myself a little mystified that I couldn't fully understand the dialect.
When the penny dropped and I realized that they were actually speaking Danish, I figured it was time to head back home to Frankfurt.
The Friday morning, I elected to take a mid-morning train back to Hamburg, so enjoyed the breakfast buffet and a couple of espressos before checking out of the hotel. I was a little sorry to leave, as the hotel and meal experience had been so nice. That being said, I was exhausted from the intensity of the week, and was more than ready to go back home.
I found a seat on the regional train, which begins its run from Flensburg. This was particularly important because two stops later (10 stops between Flensburg and Hamburg), about 20 teenagers got on the train, all with overnight bags. The train had already filled up quickly, and regional trains don't have reservations. Sometimes the trains can be overflowing with passengers, and other times they can be almost empty. Having a seat is always a bonus.
We arrived to Hamburg on time, and once again I was reminded of just how chaotic that train station is. I had 45 minutes before my connecting high speed departed for Frankfurt, so, as always, I located the little boys room, but kind of wished I hadn't. Still, it was likely going to be better than the train facilities, even if the doors latched properly.
My Frankfurt train left promptly at 13h, and I luckily found a seat in the restaurant car. I got a little work done over the next four hours, and felt fairly relaxed. Another passenger and I had a little chitchat during the last hour of our journey, which made for a nice way to complete the travel.
Once we reached Frankfurt, I grabbed the next U-Bahn to my neighborhood, and by 17h30 was unpacking my suitcase and just feeling delighted to be home. The week had been long, stressful, but for the most part productive.
I managed to have a skype call with my father for 45 minutes, something I had missed during the week. We normally chat every couple of days, but with me being on the business trip, that was not possible.
By just past 19h, I walked into the pub, glad to be back in normal routine. I greeted some friends that I hadn't seen for the past week, and enjoyed the comforts that a Friday night in the pub always bring. The week was catching up with me, and I felt really tired, but stayed a little longer in the pub with a couple of friends before finally heading home to my own bed.
The chilly rainy weather (mixed with moments of sunshine) in Flensburg is in the past. Frankfurt has had mild temperatures through the weekend, and it is pleasant enough.
In fact, it's time to finish this post and get outside and enjoy the weather. Monday will come soon enough.
see you out there
bryan
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