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A lot of people are getting hung up on the situation and making assumptions as to whether the example could be a real problem or might not be... which was not my intention, that was just very quick and easy to understand example (whether a system fix should be made or not doesn't matter). My points are:
1. Employee B completely ignores most of Employee A's inquires.
- I believe Employee A deserves a response. if there is a reason a change can't be made they can obviously benefit from knowing the reason, otherwise they wouldn't ask in the first place.
2. If a system fix is justified, Employee B should work that out (if they are the person to do so) or escalate the issue to their manager or person who can do it do avoid the issue in the future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Florida2014
Unless it's an ongoing problem that happens a number of times, the department or company likely wouldn't find it worthwhile to allocate resources to fix a problem that isn't truly a problem.
Beyond that, the company is getting paid twice in this scenario.....hardly a "problem" at all!
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevinm
There is no issue here. Some of us INTEND to make ADDITIONAL payments along with the regular scheduled one. I have my credit card bill set up to automatically pay the minimum amount due so as to never incur a "late charge". I then pay in chunks when I feel like it.
The system should not be guessing your intent.
What if accepting the 2nd payment is a regulation violation? Maybe this is a utility billing company that's not allowed to keep payments for months where the utility has not even been used yet by the customer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moby Hick
I really can't think of any company where a customer service agent can order new programming.
I never said the customer service agent can order new programming. But their suggestions should be taken seriously and deserves a response. How do you think employee A feels if they get yelled at by a customer, and their attempts to fix issues go ignored all the time? I don't think employee A will keep putting forth suggestions if they are ignored.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lisa33441
I used to be in IT, let me tell you a little about Employee B...
He/She FIXED the problem, but you want them to fix the system that created the problem, which Employee B probably can not do without a work order, given by their boss, who has to get it authorized from THEIR boss, who is going to want it justified to them of WHY it needs to be fixed, I.E. Was it a system error, or a user error, ETC. Its not as easy as 1-2-3 sometimes.
My point is employee B should answer A. They should explain the work order can be opened to look into fixing and if approved it will be fixed. Or no work order is necessary because it's a user error, not a system error. I don't care if employee B has heard this a thousand times before, if they have, they should have a blurb ready to just copy/past an answer to their coworkers who obviously don't know why the issue can't be addressed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lisa33441
One last thing, as a manager, please take it from me, nothing good will come of this behavior.
I understand you want to give it 100% and try to take a proactive approach, but this is pestering another employee over an issue they probably can not resolve, and it might come back to bite you.
Sometimes i play their game and follow up with something like "Thanks you for that! Can you address my other points about preventing this issue in the future?" and then just keep following up and following up until they actually do something about it. I literally went back and forth with a person giving the bare minimum response 8 times over the course of a month on an extremely trivial issue when it should have only taken one initial request.
As someone on the other side, I'll just ignore your second part. It sure doesn't sound like you are the product or business owner/manager; I'd have to research the change in order to even give an estimate, and you have no idea how long that will take; you have no project/change order designation; and most importantly, just because you've found something that you don't think is right in your little piece of the puzzle, it doesn't mean you have the entire view of why and how the entire system works.
If you think it's an issue worth addressing, go through your manager and the proper channels.
I have never gotten in trouble for ignoring coworkers with an inflated sense of their position.
OP, I think from the responses you can see how many "employee B's" there are. Unfortunately many "employee B's" become "manager B's" and spread ineffectiveness throughout the business. Over the years I've experienced many jobs and many A's and B's. Places that are populated by A's are much more a joy to work at than places populated by B's.
I have never gotten in trouble for ignoring coworkers with an inflated sense of their position.
Yeah, I agree with you there. I have seen plenty of "Employee A" types not lasting too long at the job. It just builds resentment with your other co-workers. If enough "Employee B's" start ignoring his/her emails and requests, it will make his/her job a lot tougher.
Also, Employee A's emails and saying "playing the game" sounds very passive-aggressive. The response from Employee B is great. It shows they are tired of the emails and can't even be bothered anymore. No greeting and no closing name.
I never said the customer service agent can order new programming. But their suggestions should be taken seriously and deserves a response. How do you think employee A feels if they get yelled at by a customer, and their attempts to fix issues go ignored all the time? I don't think employee A will keep putting forth suggestions if they are ignored.
Get out of customer service if at all possible. If the company actually cared about doing well at it, Employee B would be getting orders to do that kind of stuff from management. Instead, Employee A is hired basically to get yelled at by the customer because it's cheaper to do that than fix things.
OP, I think from the responses you can see how many "employee B's" there are. Unfortunately many "employee B's" become "manager B's" and spread ineffectiveness throughout the business. Over the years I've experienced many jobs and many A's and B's. Places that are populated by A's are much more a joy to work at than places populated by B's.
I'm an employee B. I have a limited role. Everyone knows what it is. Still they think I'm there to do everything, when I'm really not. How many times do I need to explain that no, just because I'm the last step in a process doesn't mean I can go back and redo every other step in a process that was not done correctly. If I send it back for fixing, it gets sent back up the chain. I am not going to fix it myself because that is not my role. When someone who is not in my department makes demands or requests of me to do those things, how many times do I need to explain to the same 15 people what my role is?
I am sure it would be a lot more pleasant for employee A if I did the other tasks, but why does it has to be employee B's responsibility to find out about all the tasks just because she's farther down the chain than employee A? I'm pretty much at the end of a process, and the answer is that if I don't like something I need to do all the legwork to figure out what is wrong. Why is it only my time that's valuable? From management's perspective, the task is supposed to take 30 minutes, yet I might end up spending 4 to 8 hours because of these expectations.
Frankly, what you are saying (In part) is "The customer had a draft set up, but paid it accidently and since the customer is a stupid moron who can't remember they have a monthly draft of the account, can you somehow make it impossible for them to mess it up like they did?"
Is THAT what you're asking them to do?
Frankly I had the same thing happen with my bank. Didn't bother me that they have it set to do as I wanted them to do so. I just remembered NOT to pay it when I wanted, I let THEM do it.
At one dept in my old company, there was one employee A, and the rest were Bs. The Bs got their tasks done, and didn't cause problems, but it just felt so much better dealing with the one A in that group because he actually acted like he cared and was a human being- even via email.
Interestingly, when he decided to move across country for family reasons, the company offered to have him continue to work remotely. And that was something they only did for the very few As that ever came through that department. Over the course of five years, I think there were only two that they offered that to.
Yep, and I'll bet all those folks on here who are proud to be a B are also the ones who complain about servers, clerks in stores, at the Post Office, the bank, or anywhere they need help getting something done. Provide B service themselves but expect A service from others.
Yep, and I'll bet all those folks on here who are proud to be a B are also the ones who complain about servers, clerks in stores, at the Post Office, the bank, or anywhere they need help getting something done. Provide B service themselves but expect A service from others.
Thats quite the generalization!
It ever occur to you that maybe Employee Bs curt response is simply because they have actual WORK to do? And they dont have time to keep responding to an over-zealous CSR who is pestering them?
I dont know about you, but I go to work to do my job, if a supervisor asked me to fix a program error, made me aware through a work order or ticket, Id get on it, its my job, if some CSR who wants to re-invent the wheel kept pestering me over issues I can not fix, and expected me to keep replying to time-wasting emails UNTOP of having to do my other duties, Id immediately go to my supervisor, who will most likely go to the CSRs supervisor and have him/her knock it off.
I mean, just going by OPS post where he/she says they " play the game " and keep emailing them, thats enough to make anybody at work annoyed, and if done enough, its grounds for a write up, youre not Employee Bs boss, and youre stopping Employee Bs work flow to sate your need for an explanation!
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