Good news, I'm not fired yet

The state's new system was scheduled to go live tomorrow morning, making today the last day of programming and preparation before the big day. However, due to hurricane Katrina, the date was postponed. So, we're expecting to have the date moved back a day or so.

This marks the second time the deadline has been moved. The first being a move from August 8th to some point a few weeks later, which soon materialized into August 30th. Now, August 30th has turned into the 31st at the earliest.

We're running a bit behind in beta testing and in having a few working solutions to some of the complexities of managing a real-time data transmission system. These issues of course mean that my job is in jeopardy. The boss has made it abundantly clear that we can't fail on this project, and we won't. On the other hand, the job won't be done perfectly, and will take a bit of work after the deadline to perfect our synchronization with the state's system.

I'm paranoid about losing ye old jobby job, and so is Kristina, but we're making it. I can't imagine getting fired over something that was pretty much out of my hands, as far as timing goes... especially since I've put in as much time as I can to push this thing through recently.

The biggest regret I have is that I waited too long to let the boss man know that I was running out of time and didn't have all the answers I needed to complete the project a month before I did. I waited until two weeks before the deadline and told him my problems. He created a crisis situation in the office because he thought I was telling him that we weren't going to make it... which wasn't the case at all. He assigned more people to help us, which was necessary, and finally got another programmer to help me test the software (the biggest help so far).

If I'd been wise, I would've admitted that I was beginning to struggle (even with putting in extra time) and that I needed him to allocate more resources to getting this project completed on time. I imagined that going into his office and telling him I needed help would be admitting defeat. However, after seeing the effects of waiting to notify him, both on my image in his eyes, and on the project itself, I know I should have said something weeks before I did.

Now, I just hope that I've proven that I'll do what it takes to get the project done... commitment, I suppose... and my ability. For a first job out of college, this was a rough project. If I haven't done that, then chances are I'll be tossed out here in about a month. I'm not fired yet, though, and I'll be doing my best to show that I'm a valuable asset to the company.