J.J. Robinson

And why an oft-forgotten topic can be so important

Picture this.

A new hire walks in to the office. They are smiling all around with a pep in their step eager to tackle their first problem of the day. A coworker mentions that there is a new ticket in the help desk from the infamous business manager (we all know one).

The new hire sees this as a perfect opportunity to show their technical chops to everyone and get on the good side of the business manager. They offer to pick the ticket up to see what the issue is and whether they can assist.

The ticket identifies that the issue at hand is not necessarily an issue by the technical department’s definition. However, by the definition of the business manager’s it is. An all too common case of not being on the same page.

The business manager believes there is a massive issue that is affecting one of their clients who is a person — not a corporate client. The issue is not only one that affects a very personal aspect of the client’s life, but is also a repeat issue from earlier. The new hire scours the previously opened tickets and finds one that is assigned to a vendor to be resolved — an estimate of about 2 weeks as it was identified as a minor impact since it only affects one client.

“This seems like an unacceptable timeframe…” the new hire says to themselves.

Odd. From the perspective of the client this issue created a situation that they may feel threatens their livelihood. Yet, all of the support personnel assigned and available chalked it up as a minor issue that could wait.

---

This is likely the part of the article where seasoned veterans in the business or even information technology industries say “hold the phone” and point out that this is not a case of “not giving a damn”, but rather prioritization and clear expectations. Rules are rules and that like everyone, T’s have to be crossed and I’s have to be dotted.

I’ll play devil’s advocate here, though, and say that sure, the core problem described above probably can be traced back to some slip ups in procedures by the business manager — or even the technical department.But, the perspective that most professionals whose organization at some point in their offerings sometimes miss is thehuman factor.

If we all take a moment and step back from our egos we can see that each and every one of us are humans. Requests can be made without trying to game the system to achieve priority attention. Shit happens. Mistakes are a part of being human.

Us technical folks usually have a layer or two, or three, that shelter us from the public. This shielding can turn us into skeptical folks as our exposure to the raw emotions of dealing with people rather than corporate users is limited.

At the end of the day, though, we need to approach requests with the angle that it was made in good faith. Taking that extra step forward in understanding the issue at hand and the user’s perspective can go a long way in helping everyone involved.

People as a whole are not inherently bad — rather the opposite.