Yesterday, I said "I do not suffer fools gladly". This is not to say I do not suffer them at all, when I'm forced to, they get to hear first hand how foolish they are.
I work in a corporate customer service setting. Earlier today, I called it a cubicle reserve. This company is not a fan of logic, or actual organization. They are very good at acquisition, terrible at integration, and a major change brings on full on Armageddon. Nepotism reigns supreme and once upon a time if you admitted you drank or smoked, they did not want you to work for them; though I think they've lightened up in that aspect.
So, when I tell you that they decided to up and change the system we all work out of in an effort to consolidate, imagine the issues this has caused. There has been yelling and screaming (literally, I was there for some of it), full blown temper-tantrums that would put the worst Toddler in a Tiara to shame, and the plan has changed so many times it's hard to tell what we're doing any more. That is, until IT gets it in their heads that they're going to "fix" a problem when in reality they took away an entire department's ability to bill out huge chunks of work. This is when I realize that this isn't a job, this is some big psychological experiment to see what it takes to destroy a person's soul.
IT's behavior doesn't surprise me, that is how they've always operated, after all they're a bunch of sub-contracted consultants. I had the privilege of being on the development team for this new system and more than once, it was I and my fellow customer service gurus that told the IT guys that something was a bad idea or that something wouldn't work from a customer service standpoint. Well, when things started to go to Hell in a hand basket (a poorly woven one at that), the first thing the Big Wigs did was take the customer service gurus and put them back on the floor. So now there is no one to tell the IT guys why something could have a negative impact.
It is the leaders of my department that have baffled me. When I opened my email this morning and saw this horrid change, I knew immediately the impact it would have on our day to day and I voiced my concern. This prompted my pseudo-bosses to read the email themselves and they too flipped their lid. They sent of an email almost faster than they could voice their frustration. All of this is good. It's when I asked them what the plan was for when IT inevitably refuses to change it back that I was filled with dismay. Their answer was to do nothing, keep moving forward as usual. A couple weeks from now, if IT hasn't budged, we will have a huge mess to clean up. Which kills me because we know the problem is there and we could have taken the steps to prevent catastrophe.
But alas, I work for ostriches and their sandbox is quite deep.
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