Bobs Adventures in Business: ugh
Before I got into bed I wanted to check my mail for the tail end of some correspondence I was expecting from a coworker. My immediate boss (here renamed to Alice) is so stunningly lacking in human managerial skills it's astounding. Check it out in some email to my coworker "Bill":
So, Bill sends out an email message to the group asking for help.
He's getting overwhelmed and is in over his head on a few things.
Some of this is his fault (total lack of motivation and focus) but
it's a perfectly reasonable request as he's never touched a mac let
alone and iphone before. He sends the following:
>Subject: RE: Email :(
>1) There is a discrepancy between what she has on her client mail
>program (entourage) and what I see on the exchange server.
>2) She is getting a 3253 error (in Entourage I think).
>3) Her iPhone (which nobody supports) is having problems sending
>emails.
>4) She is kinda flipping shit about emails (or the lack there of)
>coming and going (especially with attachments).
>I think she got sick of me trying to politely skate around it and told
>me to have a nice weekend.
>And while I was on the phone with her, CEO is harassing me
>about the new guy starting on Monday, which I need to set up the
phone >and what nots.
>Thanks,
>Bill
What I glean from that is really a cry for help. He's not getting a
lot of support from within the group so he's appealing up the
chain. To which Alice responds:
>Please get the phone set up before you leave. I requested that
>everything for this guy (includinghis laptop) get done prior to
his >start on Monday morning. Make sure that happens.
>Thank you,
>Alice
I'm honestly floored by that response. It's just so... lacking in
compassion. And compassion is what we're supposed to have! We're
not some faceless automatons filling orders for tech support, we're
the companies' home grown solution, we should care, at least a
little bit, about helping people. Coworker Steve has told me he thinks we're
on a quickly sinking ship and I tend to believe him. Apparently
there are some details which I am not privy to quite yet, I can
only hope they decide to fire me.
The technical challenge and appeal of tech support has really left me entirely, it doesn't really excite me at all any more. The only thing that keeps me able to stay relatively motivated to work on this crap is my sense of empathy for the users. I've had my computer break in a way I couldn't fix before and it really frustrated me. I can understand where they're coming from and some part of me, deep down, wants to help them. So that's what keeps me going.
If you're ever in a position to manage someone, please for the love of God, don't send an email like the above. Especially don't address it to the group. You don't have to mollycoddle (I think of mollicita every time I use that word) but bedside manner is important.
So, Bill sends out an email message to the group asking for help.
He's getting overwhelmed and is in over his head on a few things.
Some of this is his fault (total lack of motivation and focus) but
it's a perfectly reasonable request as he's never touched a mac let
alone and iphone before. He sends the following:
>Subject: RE: Email :(
>1) There is a discrepancy between what she has on her client mail
>program (entourage) and what I see on the exchange server.
>2) She is getting a 3253 error (in Entourage I think).
>3) Her iPhone (which nobody supports) is having problems sending
>emails.
>4) She is kinda flipping shit about emails (or the lack there of)
>coming and going (especially with attachments).
>I think she got sick of me trying to politely skate around it and told
>me to have a nice weekend.
>And while I was on the phone with her, CEO is harassing me
>about the new guy starting on Monday, which I need to set up the
phone >and what nots.
>Thanks,
>Bill
What I glean from that is really a cry for help. He's not getting a
lot of support from within the group so he's appealing up the
chain. To which Alice responds:
>Please get the phone set up before you leave. I requested that
>everything for this guy (includinghis laptop) get done prior to
his >start on Monday morning. Make sure that happens.
>Thank you,
>Alice
I'm honestly floored by that response. It's just so... lacking in
compassion. And compassion is what we're supposed to have! We're
not some faceless automatons filling orders for tech support, we're
the companies' home grown solution, we should care, at least a
little bit, about helping people. Coworker Steve has told me he thinks we're
on a quickly sinking ship and I tend to believe him. Apparently
there are some details which I am not privy to quite yet, I can
only hope they decide to fire me.
The technical challenge and appeal of tech support has really left me entirely, it doesn't really excite me at all any more. The only thing that keeps me able to stay relatively motivated to work on this crap is my sense of empathy for the users. I've had my computer break in a way I couldn't fix before and it really frustrated me. I can understand where they're coming from and some part of me, deep down, wants to help them. So that's what keeps me going.
If you're ever in a position to manage someone, please for the love of God, don't send an email like the above. Especially don't address it to the group. You don't have to mollycoddle (I think of mollicita every time I use that word) but bedside manner is important.