Support newbie figured out how to avoid all-nighters, and his colleagues hated him for it

This week's installment of On Call brings you the tale of Lionel, a tech support analyst from the 1990s who worked for a company operating IBM computer centers. Lionel's primary responsibilities included developing new or improved processes to support business change, as well as overseeing overnight support for batch processing jobs.

His first week on the job, he found himself on the support roster, a role that quickly became an unwelcome nightly duty. Each night, he was called out to fix a common issue: input data needing reformatting. Lionel, who possessed a file editor, solved the problem efficiently, yet the slow connection and late hours took a toll on his personal life.

In search of a better solution, Lionel devised a pre-process program, tested it, and implemented it in the overnight batch flow. He believed he had solved the company's problem and put an end to his disrupted sleep. However, his colleagues were not as pleased. One of them, who relied on overtime payments, expressed his displeasure with Lionel's new approach.

Lionel, undeterred, continued to seek permanent solutions to other overnight issues. If your good deeds and tech support cleverness have earned you anger instead of appreciation, On Call invites you to share your story for a chance to be featured in a future Friday column.