Small win: my runbook survived a 2am incident without a single Teams message to me

Ellie · Datacentre technician · 1 July 2026 illustrative example

The generator transfer runbook I rewrote - diagram first, one action per step, 'you are done when' checklist at the end - got used in anger for the first time last night. Overnight engineer I've never met ran the whole thing solo.

Zero messages. Zero calls. I found out it happened from the morning report.

I've spent my whole career being told my 'communication needs work'. Turns out my communication is fine - it just works best when it's built for 2am brains. Which, it turns out, is all brains at 2am.

✓ helpful to 5 people

4 replies

Kez · NOC shift lead · 2 July 2026 illustrative example
'Built for 2am brains, which is all brains at 2am' - this is the accessibility argument in one line. Congratulations, genuinely.
✓ helpful to 4 people
Richard · Senior infrastructure engineer · 2 July 2026 illustrative example
This is going in the resources section if you'll let me - the template AND the story. This is exactly the proof this site exists to collect.
✓ helpful to 2 people
- Ellie · Datacentre technician · 3 July 2026 illustrative example
  Go for it. If it saves one more person from prose-runbook purgatory it was worth typing.
Dan · Junior network tech · 3 July 2026 illustrative example
Saving this thread for my next review when 'documentation' comes up as a development area. Exhibit A: it's not the writer, it's the format.
✓ helpful to 1 person