Life as the CEO
—  by the CEO

I’m the CEO.  Yup, you heard it right.  I’m the CEO, Chief Email Officer.

I work from a corner in the Computer Centre building.  Life was pretty mundane.  Every day, I make sure that all the emails you send are delivered correctly and promptly to the recipients.  Day in, day out, I just check and make sure that all your emails are sent properly.

Then came 2003.  Something bad happened...something really, really bad.  Due to some issues, the servers crashed!  All of us were left stranded without emails for several hours.  For quite a lot of you, all your old emails were not accessible for days.  I started getting complaints, things about deadline or urgent matters that needed to be sent via email, etc.  There were some who sympathized, offering words of comfort, saying “Never mind lah! These things happen”.  And  there were others who were appreciative and, in their own words, told me, “I was quite grateful for the down time, at least I can clear up some other work without email distraction.”

Suddenly, work has a new meaning to me.  Being the CEO wasn’t that bad after all!  If the President wants to tell you via email that you are getting a raise, I’m there to deliver the good news to you.  If Provost wants to tell all of us to take our temperature, I make sure that I get that message through to you, too.

Now, I’m still working in that corner of Computer Centre, but hey, I’m responsible for all the business decisions that get carried out electronically.  I’m also making sure that all your decisions about where to have lunch is communicated timely through the email.  Wow! I’m an important person in this whole eco-system.

And, if that person wants another few hours' break, I can arrange for another down time...Eh, just kidding about the last part.

[Author’s Note: After I wrote this, something dreadful happened again!  I'm really upset with the incident and will be working hard in my corner to ensure that all your emails are delivered.]