We have three middle management types that cover our project. McFly (Goodall's manager), Outside Voice (Dudette's and my manager), and the newest manager that we don't have a witty name for yet (Dozen's manager).
While McFly and the newest manager are both rather skilled, Outside Voice merits discussion.
Outside Voice is called that due to the nature in which she speaks. That is to say, loudly. Lets say she is approached about an issue by upper management. Now, she has a few choices on how to get the word out. Email makes sense but many of the phone agents don't check it often enough. A memo would work but there's quite a bit of clerical work there. What solution does she use?
She stands up and proceeds to yell down the aisles to inform everyone.
"IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED YOUR MANDATORY PASSWORD RESET BY 3PM TODAY YOU'RE GOING TO BE LOCKED OUT OF YOUR COMPUTER TOMORROW!"
Ears bleed, eyes water, stomachs churn. This is nothing new. It happens everyday. Sometimes it's across the floor, sometimes it's RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR HEAD. This doesn't make her a bad manager, no. There are other things that make her a bad manager. This just makes her a bit obnoxious. Overall, OV is a pleasant if somewhat dim individual. She cares about her team but doesn't always understand how to help them. Case in point. When the network went down and crippled our call floor she wanted us to continue to log the calls.
"JUST USE THE TOOL AND CHECK THEM AGAINST THE DATABASE."
"I can't. The network is down. I can't SEE the database," I informed her.
"THE DATABASE IS LOCAL, IT'S NOT OUT ON THE INTERNET."
I remember feeling a headache coming on at this point, "I know that. We're cut off from even the local network. We can't see the database, the access server, or any part of our network for that matter. Not even the gateway. Nothing can be pinged, seen or reached!"
"THE DATABASE IS CONNECTED TO THESE SYSTEMS. IT'S PART OF OUR NETWORK."
This goes on for a bit of time. Let me remind you that we're a consulting group for IT solutions. I talk to people on a daily basis about firewalls, routers, switches, servers, VoIP solutions, etc. Outside Voice has been a manager for this call floor for YEARS. She knows what a router is/does, she knows what a firewall is/does, she knows what a server is. Somehow this still doesn't seem to register with her.
Sadly, I was warned of this at the beginning of my time with the company. An old agent of hers told me, "Outside Voice is like a loud, angry bull. She's confused and thinks she may have an answer. The easiest thing to do is get out of her way and she'll forget about the issue."
Truer words were never spoken. It has been best practice that when she says to you, "I NEED YOU TO DO THIS IN THIS MANNER THAT NO LOGICAL PERSON WOULD DO IT," that you simply say, "Ok, Outside Voice," and go back to what you were doing.
As she is a bit dim, you would assume that she's a decent manager. How else could she maintain her position for so long? Yeah... she's not so hot at that either. Planning, teaching, and organizing are not her strong points.
"FIELDTRIP, I NEED YOU TO GO TO THE MEETING ABOUT NEW SECURITY TECHNOLOGY TODAY AT 5."
"Um... I can't. There's a meeting about the new quality forms that I'm supposed to go to at 4."
"THE QUALITY MEETING IS AT 2"
"And at noon and at 4. I'm already slated for 4. YOU were the one that put me there because Dudette and 2 others are set to go to the other one. I assume you don't want to empty out the phones while the meetings happen."
"WE'LL HAVE SOME PEOPLE AT THE QUALITY MEETING AT 4 AND SOME PEOPLE AT THE SECURITY MEETING AT 5."
"With how long these meetings take, that still means that you'll have almost EVERYONE at a meeting at the same time, doesn't it?"
"NOT EVERYONE WILL BE AT THE QUALITY MEETING. SOME WILL BE AT THE SECURITY MEETING."
"Ok, Outside Voice, I'll go to the security meeting at 5."
"GOOD."
A period of about 30 minutes pass.
"I JUST LOOKED AT THE EMAIL ABOUT THE MEETINGS, IF YOU GO TO THE SECURITY MEETING AT 5 WE WON'T HAVE ENOUGH PEOPLE ON THE PHONES AFTER THE 4 O'CLOCK QUALITY MEETING. I NEED YOU TO ONLY GO TO THE 4 O'CLOCK MEETING."
"Ok"
I spent the rest of the afternoon sobbing in frustration. Even in the meeting.
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