Nobody’s Perfect and You Can’t Fix Stupid

One morning as I was getting settled at my desk at work, my phone started ringing, the caller ID said US Government.  Now, it is true that I was a Federal Contractor, but the caller ID usually had the agency name, not just US Government.  It kind of freaked me out, the call went to voice mail before I could answer, but an hour later, the phone rang again and I answered it.  It was our client and he was upset.  One of our administrators had made an error on one of the government servers and they needed to have it rebooted, so Jeffrey called him and asked him to reboot it.  However, our process required me or Keith to sign off before the server could be rebooted.  So, the client asked if I had signed off on the reboot.  I guess that is when this got ugly.  Jeffrey yelled at the client and told him that I was nobody but a figure head and that he was the Network Manager and he needed to do what he was

told.  I told him that I was sorry that this had happened to him.  I also told him that Keith was in his office and that he would have no problem giving approval for the reboot.  I told him, that I would ask for Keith’s approval.  After I hung up the phone I talked with Jeffrey.  I told him that the client had just called me.  I also asked him why he yelled at the client.  He then reminded me who he was and stated that he shouldn't have to get permission from me.  And, the client was just a System Admin.  Plus, I had not arrived at work yet, he responded, “What was I supposed to do, call you at home?”  I told him that he could have, or he could have asked Keith to sign off on it.  Keith was in his office by 7 am.  I tried to explain to him, that he had upset the client and who knows who else he is going to tell about this issue.  Jeffrey did not like my response.  He went to his desk and sent and email to me and the client stating that it was inappropriate for the Network Manager to obtain permission to reboot a server from a non-technical figurehead.  My response to the email was that I was the Change Control Co-Chair, and that requesting approval from the Change Control Chair or Co-Chair for emergencies was part of the process that was created by our department.  I also reminded him that I was assigned the Co-Chair position by Keith, and if he did not like the process or did not want to obtain approval from me, he could go to Keith’s office and get his approval.  The email finally made it to Keith’s office.  Keith had no problem giving approval, but of course he wanted to know what happened and why, which was really what Jeffery was trying to avoid. 

Keith also told him that I was right.  Keith also explain that the government's organization was different than ours.  And that Jeffrey needed to understand how the government worked, their organization was top down and ours was cross-functional, and they don’t necessarily understand how ours work.  The client didn't mean any harm when he asked for Cara’s approval; he was just following our process.  And, in his world, her signature, equals an approval.  And she has that responsibility because I asked her to take it.  After that, everyone seemed to be OK.  Jeffrey was less angry, but the issue seemed to be resolved. 

Later in the afternoon, another manager stopped me outside of our department.  He asked me if I was alright.  I told him that I was fine.  He told me that the client had called him because he was still upset about what had happened that morning and he had sent him a copy of the email that Jeffrey sent.  I told him that I was fine, and that Keith had handled the situation.  Everything was fine.  Are you sure, he asked.  I responded “Yes”.

After that, the week went by pretty fast.  I got in fairly early on Friday and Keith was all dressed up.  He said that he was going downtown.  He also said that usually when the government requests you to come to downtown DC on a Friday, it usually isn't good.  I didn't think much of it. I was going to get my work done and take an hour lunch, which was something that I rarely did. 

Well, later that afternoon, I was walking down the hallway on my way to lunch.  And I heard this booming voice “Freeze!! Where are you going?"  It was Keith.  I was going to lunch I replied.  He told me that I was not going to lunch, I was going to my desk, and we were having a meeting as soon as he gathered the rest of the staff.  So I went back to my desk and waited.

When the meeting started Keith was angry.  He stated that he was asked to come to the Deputy Commissioner’s office, and when he sat down, Jeffrey’s email was put in his lap.  Then he was asked, “Is this the way your people treat their employees?”  He didn't elaborate on the rest of the meeting.  I rolled my head back, I couldn't believe that this had gone this far.  I had seen things happen like this before, but I thought that the issue was over.  Keith was still yelling.  “I realize that this is not a perfect team, and we have issues, but we need to keep are disagreements to ourselves.  The client does not need to know it.  Also, our disagreements should take place on our network and on our email not on theirs.”  Jeffrey asked how the government got the email, Keith told him, that it didn't matter, the conversation occurred in their environment and it was their property.  Keith did ask them how they got the email and they refused to say. 

The fallout was ugly.  It was assumed that I sent the government the email, even though it was never really said to my face.  I guess that maybe it was thought that I wanted revenge or wanted to teach Jeffrey a lesson.  However, to be honest I saw no benefit in getting any type of revenge.  Also, years had passed by then and I thought that the managers that I worked with including Jeffrey were not teachable, at least not by me.  Nor did I think that it was my responsibility to teach them anything.