It's pilot fish's turn to do after-hours support, and as usual, nothing happens. He gets no calls all night.

But the next day a co-worker messages him to find out why he hadn't answered the phone when he called the night before. Fish checks his phone for notifications of missed calls; nothing. They wrangle over this for a bit. Did you call or text? "I called," says co-worker, "and I got your voicemail — although it was a woman's voice on the greeting. But, you know, the default greeting is quite often with a woman's voice, and it was 3 a.m., so I might not have been as clear-headed as normal."

OK, but I don't use the default greeting on my phone, says fish. Are you sure you called my number? And fish recites his digits.

Uh, no, says co-worker; I called another number, and he recites 10 different digits. A quick check of the office phone list tells fish that the co-worker in need called a different co-worker — one who's out on maternity leave.

Says fish, "I'm just glad she had the good sense to turn her phone off. With a newborn, she's already getting by on little sleep."

Sharky will take your true tales of IT life at any hour. Send them to me at sharky@computerworld.com. You can also subscribe to the Daily Shark Newsletter.