We never sleep

This pilot fish likes the vendor of his e-mail firewall system, he really does. "They're exceptionally good at following through on cases until they are resolved," says fish.

"However, their global support is based in Eastern Europe, and this has caused complications."

Case in point: Fish has a trouble ticket open with the vendor's support group. He's not surprised to get a follow-up e-mail asking about the status of the case.

But he's a little annoyed that it arrives at 4:53 a.m. -- and he's awakened and notified immediately, because he's on-call and has his smart phone next to his bed.

Later that day, he submits his case update, and thanks the support team for their careful follow-up. But he suggests that they consider the local time of the people they're supporting, pointing out that many customers have on-call responsibility and can't turn off e-mail at night.

"Apparently, my message got someone's attention," fish says. "The next day I received an eager response from the director of global support, apologizing twice for any inconvenience caused and promising that they would make sure follow-ups were not sent during night hours.

"Interested in giving a prompt follow-up myself, I immediately typed a reply from my phone: 'It is 3:45 a.m.'"

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