Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

There are times when a customer calls for a technical solution to one of their problems. They may, however, have a management problem instead.

I work for a technology company. When our customers call, we deliver technical solutions to their problems.

Sometimes, however, the customer comes with a fuzzy problem. We investigate to learn that they don’t have a technical problem – they have a management problem. This takes the form of:

One manager dislikes another manager and manipulates the system to make the other manager look bad.

Requests for technical services sit in someone’s in box for weeks.

Programmers are bored with servicing customers, so they ignore requests the first couple of times they arrive.

Someone is ill for a long period of time, so nothing is done.

Now we, a provider of technical solutions, have to walk in and tell the customer that they don’t need us. They “just” have to straighten out their own silly problems. There is always the chance that they will hire us for management help, but that is outside our specialty and is often too politically damaging for them.