I think I learned a lesson today...
... but first, my day.
Almost everyone was there. CEO, Goofy Salesguy, Wannabe Salesgirl, NewSupervisor, OldSupervisor, both service technicians, new Project Manager, and HomeOfficeProjectManager. The only one missing was WelcomeBackProjectManager. She was smart enough to create her own deal in order to return. She wouldn't have to follow any of the established policies and she wouldn't have to come to the office very often. Oh, and they gave her a raise to return and paid for her to move back down here from New York. Oh, yeah, she got a deal.
Anyway, since my campadre in the South Florida office hasn't returned to work yet, and the Home Office campadre was off on Thursday and Friday of last week, I was completely unable to do any of my site-specific work. All emails were auto-forwarded to me, as well as any phone calls. Since I am ALWAYS willing to take one for the team, I accepted those responsibilities for those two days. Unfortunately, they forgot to un-forward the emails and phone calls today, when things were supposed to back to normal.
And then there was the whole IT-Orlando thing. I joke that I AM: I.T.-Orlando, because the I.T. department calls me to be their fingers in the office, mostly because I am usually the only one in the office everyday. But today it was, "Mikell, so that I don't have to deal with the language barrier with a Puerto Rican employee, can you wander over to Juan's (not his real name) desk and program his phone? Just do this, type this, blah blah blah, and you will be done."
Oh, if it were ever that easy.
What he told me to do took down the entire phone system for our office. In order to correct it, he said, "is there anyone there with a cell phone?" My answer, of course, was that "everyone in the office today has a company provided cell phone, except me. I'll call you back from one of them in a minute."
The irony is lost.
This went on, until the phone system was up, except mine and one other. The IP's were conflicting. I was unable to do my job. I could get calls and people one the other end could hear me, but I couldn't understand a thing they were saying. Another call to I.T. He was too busy to help me, natch.
He finally called me back when I was eating lunch. I told him he'd have to wait, as I don't get paid during my lunch time. So he sent me an email wondering when my lunch was over. This pissed me off, so I replied:
"Well, I technically take lunch at noon, but since so far today (it's 12:20) I've been interrupted by GoofySalesGuy once, by the UPS delivery guy twice, by the FedEx delivery guy once, and you twice, it might be a bit longer that 10 more minutes."
The reply I got back? "Who pissed in your wheaties today?"
Uhm... you, and just about everyone else.
Then there was this: ServiceTechnician Two asked me "What do you want me to do with this piece of equipment, that needs to be shipped back to the manufacturer because it doesn't work?"
Before I could tell him to stick it up his ass, he asked for an answer that WASN'T sarcastic. I guess he has figured me out...
So the lesson I learned today, way too late, is not to say (early in your employment) "I'll take care of that for you..."
Once you do, it becomes part of YOUR job, not theirs.
Almost everyone was there. CEO, Goofy Salesguy, Wannabe Salesgirl, NewSupervisor, OldSupervisor, both service technicians, new Project Manager, and HomeOfficeProjectManager. The only one missing was WelcomeBackProjectManager. She was smart enough to create her own deal in order to return. She wouldn't have to follow any of the established policies and she wouldn't have to come to the office very often. Oh, and they gave her a raise to return and paid for her to move back down here from New York. Oh, yeah, she got a deal.
Anyway, since my campadre in the South Florida office hasn't returned to work yet, and the Home Office campadre was off on Thursday and Friday of last week, I was completely unable to do any of my site-specific work. All emails were auto-forwarded to me, as well as any phone calls. Since I am ALWAYS willing to take one for the team, I accepted those responsibilities for those two days. Unfortunately, they forgot to un-forward the emails and phone calls today, when things were supposed to back to normal.
And then there was the whole IT-Orlando thing. I joke that I AM: I.T.-Orlando, because the I.T. department calls me to be their fingers in the office, mostly because I am usually the only one in the office everyday. But today it was, "Mikell, so that I don't have to deal with the language barrier with a Puerto Rican employee, can you wander over to Juan's (not his real name) desk and program his phone? Just do this, type this, blah blah blah, and you will be done."
Oh, if it were ever that easy.
What he told me to do took down the entire phone system for our office. In order to correct it, he said, "is there anyone there with a cell phone?" My answer, of course, was that "everyone in the office today has a company provided cell phone, except me. I'll call you back from one of them in a minute."
The irony is lost.
This went on, until the phone system was up, except mine and one other. The IP's were conflicting. I was unable to do my job. I could get calls and people one the other end could hear me, but I couldn't understand a thing they were saying. Another call to I.T. He was too busy to help me, natch.
He finally called me back when I was eating lunch. I told him he'd have to wait, as I don't get paid during my lunch time. So he sent me an email wondering when my lunch was over. This pissed me off, so I replied:
"Well, I technically take lunch at noon, but since so far today (it's 12:20) I've been interrupted by GoofySalesGuy once, by the UPS delivery guy twice, by the FedEx delivery guy once, and you twice, it might be a bit longer that 10 more minutes."
The reply I got back? "Who pissed in your wheaties today?"
Uhm... you, and just about everyone else.
Then there was this: ServiceTechnician Two asked me "What do you want me to do with this piece of equipment, that needs to be shipped back to the manufacturer because it doesn't work?"
Before I could tell him to stick it up his ass, he asked for an answer that WASN'T sarcastic. I guess he has figured me out...
So the lesson I learned today, way too late, is not to say (early in your employment) "I'll take care of that for you..."
Once you do, it becomes part of YOUR job, not theirs.
posted by Mike at 8/07/2006 08:30:00 PM
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