Tuesday, January 10, 2006

You can't say that.

Even though we are now fully staffed, we have apparently not been meeting our metrics for the month. This means that Team Lead D**** has been sending out this message every day:

To: O=HelpDesk.Users
From: EvilScientist.Users
Sent: 01/10/2006 9:09:07 AM
Subject:

*** EVERYONE ***

I understand that each of you want to resolve issues.... and that's a good thing. However, when we're in our SWAT hours, we really don't have the luxury of time....With that being said, I recommend a problem ticket for 2nd level support.

Our primary focus should be clearing the queue between the hours of 07:00 and 11:00...the only caveat is that you can't say that to the user....you need to find a creative yet effective method to do this.

Thank you for your compliance.
My first problem with this is the signature. The message utility we use defaults to the system's computername for the From: field and we are required to change it to include our login ids and names. Except that D**** has chosen to define his name as EvilScientist. Not only has he gotten away with something that the rest of us can't, when someone else sends out a message and has neglected to change the field, he calls them on it. Just another shining example of the double standard extant.

I particularly like the directive that we focus on clearing the queue, cutting calls as short as possible. Of course, that's without letting the users in on that.

I have never really paid attention to these sorts of things. If I can solve a problem, I'm going to take the time necessary to solve it. The occasional 20 minute call that I take is more than balanced by the number of calls that I can clear out in 45 seconds or so. In the end, MY average stats are in the green. If managers want me to cut calls that I could otherwise solve then they can come to my cube and hang up on the user themselves. I refuse to treat them like that.

Opening a ticket for issues that we can solve means that the ticket will go to a second level support and they will just send it back to us saying that we should do it ourselves. Of course, in the hour or so that it takes for them to do that the user is doing nothing. And sometimes they are calling back wondering why they haven't been taken care of. My logic is that it's better to take the time to solve the problem than to have the user calling back into the queue.

Thirdly, I like the "Thank you for your compliance" line. Obey.

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