Nice short article thanks...
I am sure lots of shops that are retail dependent and 4th quarter is their bread and butter get hit with all sorts of things like this.
...and not just programmers, but systems buckling under load not considered, or end users that do something unexpected and create minor havoc.
In one of my former gigs, we had UPS manifest, where we generated UPS labels in bulk and send UPS the list at the end of the day. This was for fulfillment and in one unique accident due to substantial system load, every package was getting a copy of one individual shipping address. Packages shipped and this poor lady called us in a panic with all these packages sitting in isles in her apartment up to the ceiling. In any case, we went into damage control and shipped these packages from her apartment until all got to the right people/locations.
We sent her gifts and she was known as our 'Texas office' for a time. We would be like, "Call Texas, she probably has the package". She would pull out the packing list and we shipped her a label printer and she printed new labels from her couch!
She wasn't mad about it and we were not either. Some companies and management would go on a witch hunt, but seriously when is it 90 miles an hour day in and day out for three months, you really try work from an energy and emotion conservation perspective.
We got the problem solved after about two or three incidents and off we went back to normal operation.