I don't even know where to begin with work.
We have routine requests to back up data from our live databases, move it to one of our non-live areas (Staging, Testing, or Developing), restore it, then perform a data scrub to remove any sensitive data, then restore that cleaned data to an area where our vendor can get to it.
I manage this process, meaning I do a fair amount of the work, but we also have 24/7 offshore resources who do some of it.
We've been doing this for a year. It's a straightforward process, and it's time-consuming - start to finish is about four business days. Also, each time we do this, I have to fill out official request forms for our offshore folks. They won't take a shit without a form, and those forms have to go through an approval process which takes three days. It's well-defined.
Because of that, I submit these forms a couple of weeks in advance. No biggie.
So, I had one of these in motion, and the guy I was doing it for (not IT guy) asked me for a status Friday morning.
I sent him a very thorough email, detailing every inch of the process and exactly how long each step would take. The process is pretty stable, so it's easy to get it within a half-day.
I ended by saying, "...so that means best-case is late Wednesday afternoon, or sometime Thursday before lunch." I even mentioned that the process is very predictable, as most of it is copying files and running a scrubbing utility and it's easy to gauge the time.
That was Friday morning.
Friday afternoon..."Hey, is my stuff ready yet?"
I'm a nice guy, I resent him the email, with a summary saying, "See my comments below, no earlier than late Wednesday, no later than early Thursday, and I'll let you know when it's available."
Monday morning, before my email is even fully loaded...I get an IM..."Hey, any chance that finished over the weekend?"
No, none.
I told him a third time. Wednesday or Thursday.
Monday afternoon, he sent his assistant guy over to my desk to ask. Again. I very pointedly said I'd already told him when this crap would be done, that copying goes at its own pace, that the scrubbing utility is as fast as it is, and to kindly quit bugging me about.
Tuesday...I get logged in about 9:30AM. First email I see is from 7:30AM - "Can I get a status update?"
Another email from 8:30AM - "Are you in today? I really need a status update." - never mind if I'm not in, how would I answer that...
Before I could answer those, the little pecker IM'd me!
I reiterated that there was absolutely no need to keep checking. It would be done late Wed/early Thu and I would let him know.
"Gotcha, thanks!"
11:30AM - another email, followed by one at 12:45PM, and 1:30PM. I ignored those.
At that point, I forwarded everything to his manager and my manager, and asked his manager to kindly kick his ass up over his head. She said she'd deal with it, that he could be a little intense and she'd tell him to dial it back.
Great, problem fixed, right?
Wrong!!!
I was online Tuesday night for some emergency work, and he freaking IM'd me! At 7:30PM!
I didn't even respond, and this morning, I talked to his manager again, face-to-face, and she said she'd tell him he was to stop asking me, and that she'd put another person on it as well, and that person is a lot more laid back.
Great!
What happened 20 minutes later?
I got an email from the new person, "Hey, Stace says I'm supposed to track this now. Can you get me caught up and give me an ETA on this?"
And the email he sent me...was my original email with all the details.
I work with idiots.