From: Roger.Tan@GlobalStratum.com
To: Support@GlobalStratum.com
Re: Status Report
Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2014, 11:01 AM

Marketing is now asking me to breathe down your necks – why has all job orders either turned down or pushed to next month?  And I’ve been hearing rumors about tickets doubling from last week.  Tickets don’t double miraculously over night; somebody must not be doing their work.  Can someone down there explain to me what is happening?

---

From: Mark.Jarder@GlobalStratum.com
To: Roger.Tan@GlobalStratum.com
CC: Support@GlobalStratum.com
Re: Re: Status Report
Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2014, 11:14 AM

Good day Sir!

This is Mark, lead of the Support Group.  We are currently experiencing minor setbacks that lead to the following problems:

1. All servers are running at a slower pace than usual
2. Login server refuses account verification (logout is ok, login is not)
3. Few accounts may have been deleted
4. Database, particularly the corpora, are growing in size unexpectedly

At the moment, we have no idea what is causing this but we are working day and night to figure it out. If I may suggest the best course of action here, it’s just as I said last time: I think we need an emergency server maintenance.  Only for a week, maybe less.  This way, we will be able to track the problem sooner and we don’t have to deal with inconsistencies in real-time.

Please let me know what you think.

---

From: Roger.Tan@GlobalStratum.com
To: Mark.Jarder@GlobalStratum.com
Re: Re: Re: Status Report
Date: Wednesday, October 8, 2014, 1:32 PM

Any updates?

By the way, I know who is in-charge there, but what I don’t know if he is still doing his job.  I said this once, and I will say it again: we haven’t had a server maintenance since we have gone live – that is our promise and we will live that.  You and I both know that users hate being disrupted, and doing a week’s worth of disruption will kill us all.

I don’t have to explain myself to you.  I will remove the job orders from your shoulders and push them to R&D, and you know how R&D will react to this.  In the meantime, work this out without a server maintenance or I will have to look for someone who will.

---

From: Mark.Jarder@GlobalStratum.com
To: Roger.Tan@GlobalStratum.com
Re: Re: Re: Re: Status Report
Date: Wednesday, October 8, 2014, 1:46 PM

With all due respect sir, we are doing our best to get to the bottom of this.  But frankly, without halting database updates we can verify very little things about what is really happening. So far, these are our leads to the possible cause:

1. Memory leakage (takes months before the server takes its toll)
2. Users tampering with packets (we have security for this, but needs investigation)
3. Network or database bug (we are requesting the full specs from R&D)
4. Trojan + Worm? (only theoretical, we have no evidence pointing to this)

I don’t want to do quick fixing and have this problem haunting us every few months.  I know how bad it gets when we do maintenance like in the old days, but I don’t see any other way out of this.  Maybe we can just double the content flow once we are back up, but for now please reconsider.

---

From: Roger.Tan@GlobalStratum.com
To: Mark.Jarder@GlobalStratum.com
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Status Report – Don’t Reply
Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014, 5:39 PM

I was just on the phone with Benedict, from Content Dev.  He says it can be done in less than a week and he’d be happy to help.  I have to be honest with you, I have no idea what’s the difference between you and him, but if he says so then I will have to take his word for it.  The company spent millions developing this.  If this fails, the company closes down.  And I don’t want to go down in history as the guy who let this happen.  I hope you understand where I am coming from.

We live in a fast world, Mark.  People with talent gets fast-tracked, while the rest gets left behind.  We must learn to embrace change.  He is starting tomorrow.  Please help him get up to speed with the rest of the team.  And when you’re done turning over, I guess I should expect your resignation on my desk by then.  I am truly sorry for this.  As much as I hate losing a veteran, I can’t keep you there because you might spark a power struggle.

P.S. Content might be in need of a hand since I took 1 from them.  I’m pushing a recommendation for you since I’m friends with the manager.  He said he just needs to work out some papers and you can start as early as Wednesday next week.

---

I kept these logs before I left for good, just so I can remind myself of what it means to be powerful: To have people at your every beck and call; to have lives to juggle like they were balls you play with your 10 year old son.  But I know a different kind of power – the kind that was theirs for more than 3 years; the kind that should have been cleaning up their mess.  But they screwed it up, and now that same power will tear them apart.  Piece by piece.  If I will not be forgiven for what’s coming, then this world truly knows no justice.