I "officially" take over my watch at 10:00 AM my time. From that point on, I am responsible to answer the bat phone in case our customer calls and needs something escalated. I am responsible for global issues only. Regional issues are for the local esc mgr to deal with.
At 10:05, I get a call from some European whose name is familiar, but I cannot place. He speaks to me in a rapid fire, matter-of-fact tone that befuddles my coffee deprived brain (just for the record, I am still sleepy...no kidding). He states that there is an issue that has "stalled", meaning that it is not being actively worked on and he insists that I call him back when I can set up a meeting (Ack... why does everyone want to have a MEETING all the time?) to discuss correcting this problem. I ask him if this is a local or global issue and he says global. He offers to e-mail me the info (thank you...had I just written it down I would still be sorting this out) and he hangs up. I get the e-mail a few seconds later and I read it. I investigate the issue and find out that it is a regional issue, only affecting one shop in Finland. I e-mail the European back and tell him this is not Global and the regional esc mgr will be handling it.
A few seconds later I get another e-mail stating that the regional esc mgr has already been called and he is on his way home and that since we utilize "follow the sun", any issue after 10:00 AM my time is mine, local or not and ge demands that I take ownership of the issue. Word to the wise, never demand anything from me when I am deprived of coffee.
I look up the regional esc mgr for that area and ring his mobile phone. He answers and I give him the scoop. I tell him that regional issues are the responsibility of the EM for that region 24x7. He asks about follow the sun and I tell him that we only use FTS for global issues. I then explain that Europe has three EM's and effectively three times the issues. If they were all handed to me at 10:00, then that would be a bit unfair, no? The light bulb goes on over his head and he agrees to look into it. We disconnect.
I send back another e-mail to the European person who makes demands of coffee deprived Yankees informing him that I had made contact with the EM and he would be handling the issue.
To be honest, I could have handled the issue, but it is not fair that 1) I was thrown into this job and I hate it. 2) Europe has three EM's for their markets and we have only me for North and South America, 3) If a call comes in at 2 AM from Brazil and needs escalating...I get the call, not Europe. Brazil is on my watch, and 4) WHY does Europe always wait until the end of their day to escalate something? The issue had the same impact at 5 PM (their time) as it did at 3 PM and the teams working on it were on site. This happens far too often.
At worst I was as matter-of-fact as the European was to me...at best, I made sure a regional issue that is not my concern was taken care of. Sometimes this job does not make me feel very Christian. I was not rude, but I was right to the point.
On a high note, being coffee deprived and sleepy has made me very creative. I spent a lot of time in between issues and during lunch working on stories.
Go me.
1 comment:
On the work front, congrats on growing a pair. You'll find it very empowering to use the word "NO" when it's appropriate. As long as you allow folks to walk all over you, that's exactly what they'll do. Stay strong and build from this work victory. Oh, get some sleep, too :-)
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