We all know that working in IT has its challenges. There's a pretty big lack of respect from some people when you walk by their desk, like you're a lowly peasant who toils away at an unseemly task, and those types of people tend to ignore you. That is, unless something of theirs breaks. In that case, they run over to your work area and demand that you drop everything else to work exclusively on their 'critical issue.' I can't tell you how many times the 'critical issue' has turned out to be their own fault. Really, aren't we all supposed to be technologically aware enough to know that every pop up window is out to do something nasty to you? Anyway, that's the life we choose to live here in the land of computer support. They hate technology, but they have to use it, so they take their frustrations out on the messenger.
Luckily, I have a great boss. She runs interference for us all the time by redirecting the people coming to our desks and giving us the time to actually fix the problem. When she gets a complaint about our service to the rest of the company, she comes to us first and gets our side of the story. Recently, a vice-president from head office came tearing into our area, aimed right at me. She was red in the face and ready to bellow at the first nerd she could reach, and unfortunately, that was me. This terribly angry lady with the cloud of perfume around her managed to get half of an incoherent sentence out of her mouth before my manager swept in between us and gently guided the VP away from my desk and into her office.
Ten minutes later, my manager and I talk about the blowup. The VP was furious at the poor quality of the conference phone line. I look up at my manager, nod wisely and say 'why don't we switch to voice over IP?' My manager asks how long it would take to deploy, and I tell her 'give me a weekend I'll have it working.' Long story short, we throw together a business plan for business VOIP solution, the VP signs off on it immediately, and we get it up and running before the end of the month. The next time the VP has a conference call; she comes over afterwards to my desk and thanks all of us for the great work. A raise would have been appreciated, but my manager took us out for burgers and beer after work, and that was a nice reward.
About the Author:
Ron Horn is a junior systems administrator who specializes in great suggestions and avoiding blame. He is now the 'business voip solution expert' at work, and he is busily working with the Business voip providers in his area to learn as much as possible so that he can start consulting for other businesses.