The Stupidest Person At My Company (And The Most Important)

I could hear the phone ring all the way across the basketball court.

Hey, Walter! You’re in for me.

I headed to the sidelines and dug my phone out of my gym bag. It was 6:15am. We generally play twice a week. I’d missed several weeks because of work and was really looking forward to finally getting back on the court and running up a sweat.

I made it downcourt one time before the phone call.

Hi, this is Rodney.

Yeah, we recieved reports about an issue from your agents in Rockport. Could you check and see if you have an issue?

Normally when my phone rings, it means at least an hour long call. I might actually escape this call in time to rejoin the game. I picked the number from my frequent contacts list. 

Rockport Mission Control desk. How may I help you?

This is Rodney. Are y’all getting any reports of agents with password problems?

Hang on. Let me check.

The games are to 21 points. A regular basket counts for one point and a “3-pointer” counts for two. I watched the teams move up and down the court as the score slowly climbed into the low teens.

Hey, Rodney? Thanks for holding. We haven’t had any reports of problems.

I’m gonna get back in the game!

Thanks. If something comes up let me know.

I called the client back and told them that none of our agents were having a problem. The game score was 18-12 as the team wearing white started to pull away.

I subbed back into the game and chased the teams to the other end of the court.

Ten minutes later, my phone rang again.

David! You’re in for me.

Hi this is Rodney.

Yeah, this Rockport Mission Control. Apparently the agents hadn’t actually tried to open the tool you asked about earlier. Now they are telling me that they can’t get into it.

I’m not getting back into this game.

Okay, go ahead and open a trouble ticket. Get a phone bridge set up. I’ll inform the client and I’ll see you on the bridge

I unlaced my shoes as I dialed the client back to start our outage bridge. As I made my way out of the church building, snow was starting to fall on the parking lot. I thought,

I’m either the most important person at my company, and they can’t live without me, or the stupidest one for always giving up my personal time for my job.

The truth is probably somewhere in between.

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren. 

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