Taking Charge

In the field of sales people are, for the most part, very positive. They will work hard and smile doing so. It is understood that goals are met only if you work for them and if you don't well you will still get what you have worked for.
In the information arena I have control, so I claim, over the network and computers of the people who occupy the sales force for the company I am currently employed by. Most of them are half my age, all of them are very bright and extremely energetic. The office is always buzzing with music and voices, people helping others and making a living doing so.

In my case, I make a living making sure that the computer systems are always up and working.
I often respond to requests by claiming to be on my way..."I'll be right there". My idea of " right there" is a little different than most. For example, if the user is seated on the other side of the office(no more than 40 - 50 feet away), I usually wait until 1. I have more than one reason to travel that far or, 2. I just happen to be in the vicinity and remember to stop and take a look at the problem they are experiencing.
Some users don't get it at all. Today I was sitting in a cubicle and on the other side of the partition two users were discussing the fact that the network is slow and that there have been a few problems with e-mail recently. I listened quietly for a moment, then to save them any further embarrassment, just after I heard one of them quote me and the other responded with "is that what he said is the problem" I spoke up and said...
"that is the problem"
it was real quiet for a moment and then I mentioned that "with all the people in the office using Instant Messenger and MySpace and YouTube running streaming audio and video well there is no bandwidth left over for the work to get done".
The recoil was visible yet not damaging the response was the entire array of thoughts from disbelief to reluctant agreement. One even offered to use less open windows to help the situation. I'm thinking that is real generous considering you are the one to benifiet if you increase your ablilty to perform. But as I have said before I really don't use scarcasim on others too often, I find it is pretty much a waste of good wit.
As the day now draws to an end, looking back at that moment, which was around 9:00AM, I have not done much else since then. I hope they don't mind that it will be Tuesday before I look into the email problem.
With a quarter hour to go, I finish this post and notice that the afternoon would be perfect to go to the golf range and kick the shit out of a bucket of little white balls.
There is bound to be more, so come on back and check it out.