This Diwali, while most were enjoying the festive cheer, one techie found their holiday spirit dimmed by a critical AWS outage. The user took to Reddit to share their unfortunate experience, recounting how they were on call during the festival, despite earlier assurances that it wouldn’t be necessary.
In a post titled “Told them not to put me oncall for Diwali..see the mayhem now,” the individual detailed how their manager had dismissed concerns about being on call during the festival, promising a peaceful holiday. However, the situation took a dramatic turn as AWS services experienced a significant outage, leading to a cascade of alerts and demands. “Teams are blowing up. Pager won’t stop ringing,” the user described, humorously noting that their family now believes they work for the government due to the perceived emergency.
The techie lamented, “I haven’t even lit a single patakha yet, but my whole screen’s glowing red. Happy Diwali, I guess.” The post resonated with many on the platform, drawing numerous sympathetic comments. Users expressed understanding for the predicament, with one remarking that the outage’s scale meant little could be done unless the company had robust, non-AWS-dependent disaster recovery systems. Others shared similar sentiments about the awkwardness of working during holidays while family expects festive participation.
The experience highlighted the common, often humorous, struggles of IT professionals who must balance festive occasions with the critical demands of keeping services operational.