I Stole My Own Resource

I was trying to do two things at once, hold a meeting and conduct a client audit. Everyone else was doing two (or more) things at the same time too. My Lead Desktop engineer was literally everywhere. Client audits can be stressful. There are about a hundred different things they check. And it seems like 95 of those things need a desktop engineer to verify them.

He had worked 24 hours out of the past 36. He was part of our team as we made our way around the site. The worst part of our preparation for the audit was that we hadn’t managed to get all of our computers built. We might pass the audit, but I still had to get the computers built. The issue was there had been problems with the build. We’d worked on it, mostly the desktop engineers, but all of us.

I decided it was time to escalate and get some more help. I sent a couple of quick emails just before the audit started. They went to the senior IT leadership.

And then I went off to work through the audit. . .along with my desktop engineer. . .because I needed him.

The audit went well. We took the auditors all over the sprawling site. We looked at generators. We looked at camera coverage, and we looked at a lot of computers.

And somewhere someone was reading my email from earlier. And that someone called another someone to ask why the site wasn’t set up yet. And that second someone called another someone and told them that the site would need to be done by the end of the day, no matter what. And that someone called his guy to tell him to “Get it fixed! Right now

Rodney, I need to drop from the tour. I’ve been given a very high priority task.

Okay. What is it.

I’ve been told that I must have the computers setup by today, no matter what.

Well,go do what you need to do. We’ll be fine.

And that’s how I coopted and ended up stealing my own resource.

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.

Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com

(c) 2019 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved