Without getting into too much detail, there’s a new program at work we’ve been supporting that has essentially cost me one of my staff for six months now. To complicate the issue, people are calling our vendor for support, but sometimes us for support, generating different answers for questions depending on who they talk to, or who we talk to, or who anyone talks to. Did you follow all that? We all don’t seem to follow it well at all.
Supporting this product has become impossible with everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They call me when they feel like it, call someone else when they feel like it, demand instant response for crises at the last possible minute, and then wonder why they can’t get cohesive answers.
Yes, I’m simplifying things a bit. Good people who just want to get their jobs done right are caught in this mess, too. It’s a shame they’re caught in the crossfire of incompetence.
Now I’ve actually heard that this product is a “power thing for Dave and the tech guys.” Wow. That’s amazing.
I called for a meeting tomorrow. The most “powerful” card you have to play in any situation is to walk away, right? I plan to pull my department fully out of this project. I will put the lie to the “power rumor.” We never supported the old product to this degree, and we certainly have more than enough to do with our current workload. My people are killing themselves for nothing. Let the vendor earn the thirty-five thousand bucks we pay for support each year like they used to–the only point I’ve been striving to make for six months.
Um, if you even got this far, wow. Thanks for reading. I feel better, anyway.
When we worked at Denny’s in City Line, people used to ask us how we coped. We joked back “We just learn to drink. Heavily.” Um, I think that’s good advice again, right? (Yes, I’m just joking. At 40, I can’t hold liquor like I could at 20 anyway)