Today was a good day – I managed to hit one of my work goals, and when I did I made sure I gave credit those that helped me.

My current role is a mix of support and development. For the last year and a bit it has been mostly support because a) I was the only person who knew the technical-side of the application, b) documentation was lacking (so I was learning as I went along) and c) the application had a very large user base spread across the globe. Support queues were general pretty busy – 30 or so open issues was common, and with only myself able to work on things there was seemingly no end in sight. Further developments and bug-fixes were always being pushed back because I just couldn’t find the time away from support. I resolved that I would get things under control; one day, the incident queue would read zero.

Today, 10 months or so after making it, I hit my goal. I literally did a little jig of excitement in the office (thankfully very few people were able to see me) when I closed out that last support ticket.

It’s important to celebrate life’s little successes, and it would be a good highlight to give the client, so I decided to write an email to my manager about the milestone. It’s also important to give credit where it is due, so I wrote the email first and foremost to the two offshore colleagues I had been working with recently, thanking them for their hard work, copying in their line manager so they could get the recognition they deserved. To be honest, I’m not sure what I felt better about – to reach my goal, or to give someone the recognition for helping me.