Support coverage WTF



  • I don't run into many WTF's anymore since leaving the software engineering life, but this week I heard one that blew my mind.  Since it's slow here these days, I thought I'd share with you guys.

    I ran into one of our customer service reps in the kitchen the other day; actually two days before our expected snowfall here on the least coast.  She made an odd comment about checking into a hotel so I inquired further.  Since our customer-base is world-wide, we have to provide 24x7x365 customer support.  We were all expecting to have a work from home the day it snowed, but apparently the CS reps aren't allowed to do that.  She said they don't have the technology to forward calls or whatever it takes to do home-based phone support.  Well, kind of dumb.  But that's not all...

    Whoever the CS rep is that gets picked for doing support during WFH days has to temporarily check into a nearby hotel.  I think the theory is that they'll have to drive less to get into the office.  The issue in this case is that the rep I was talking to lives in the same town very close to the office that I do - about a 15 minute commute.  The hotel they put her up at?  The next town over where her commute would be about 15 minutes.  So no real advantage, just expense.  Dumb.  But that's not all...

    There is a Marriott across the street from our office.



  • That actually makes sense if they put all the customer service folks in the same hotel, and most of them live closer to the other hotel than they do to the office. Especially if the Marriot is significantly more expensive than the other options.

    I could also see it being a question of avoiding liability for injuries that occur in the office parking lot, if there's inadequate money in the budget for plowing and de-icing. They might be assuming that the hotel would be more likely to get that shit taken care of than they are.



  • @Snooder said:

    That actually makes sense if they put all the customer service folks in the same hotel, and most of them live closer to the other hotel than they do to the office. Especially if the Marriot is significantly more expensive than the other options.

    I could also see it being a question of avoiding liability for injuries that occur in the office parking lot, if there's inadequate money in the budget for plowing and de-icing. They might be assuming that the hotel would be more likely to get that shit taken care of than they are.

     

    I don't think you understood the post.  They didn't put up all the reps in the hotel, just the one lady.  It was her turn on the coverage rotation.  Also the conditions of the office parking lot have nothing to do with driving in from one location versus another one.  She wasn't providing phone support from the hotel, just staying there instead of home, and still driving into the office for work.

     



  • One rarely finds a legitimate opportunity to brag about shitty weather, but are you kidding me? Work from home because it snowed?? Once??! The first snowfall of the year!?!? It snows like.. every other day here, and does that for about 8 months, yet work we still manage to find a way to come into the office. Wtf is wrong with you people.



  • @aapis said:

    One rarely finds a legitimate opportunity to brag about shitty weather, but are you kidding me? Work from home because it snowed?? Once??! The first snowfall of the year!?!? It snows like.. every other day here, and does that for about 8 months, yet work we still manage to find a way to come into the office. Wtf is wrong with you people.

    That's because your public services are adapted to the snow, which they have to be because it snows for 2/3rds of the year. In places where it only snows a couple of days a year the local authority will not spend the money on skis or chains or whatever it is you do to adapt the snow. It's cheaper if people just work from home.

    You can brag about being adapted to your local weather if you like, but it's not much of a brag.



  • @Shoreline said:

    That's because your public services are adapted to the snow, which they have to be because it snows for 2/3rds of the year. In places where it only snows a couple of days a year the local authority will not spend the money on skis or chains or whatever it is you do to adapt the snow. It's cheaper if people just work from home.

    You can brag about being adapted to your local weather if you like, but it's not much of a brag.

     

    Around here we don't use skis or chains.  (Chains tear up the roads, and skis are just ridiculous.)  There's something called a "snowplow" to just push the snow off of the road.  And if you don't have machines dedicated to plowing, you can actually attach a plow to the front of a pickup if you want. Or a garbage truck, or an end loader, or whatever equipment your municipality happens to have.  Then you just recognize that if there's snow on the roads it's a bad idea to drive 70.

    The way I see it:  if the one support person can get in to work - from the next town over - then why can't everyone else also get in to work?  Either the roads are impassible or they are not. 

     



  • @ceasar said:

    @Shoreline said:

    That's because your public services are adapted to the snow, which they have to be because it snows for 2/3rds of the year. In places where it only snows a couple of days a year the local authority will not spend the money on skis or chains or whatever it is you do to adapt the snow. It's cheaper if people just work from home.

    You can brag about being adapted to your local weather if you like, but it's not much of a brag.

     

    Around here we don't use skis or chains.  (Chains tear up the roads, and skis are just ridiculous.)  There's something called a "snowplow" to just push the snow off of the road.  And if you don't have machines dedicated to plowing, you can actually attach a plow to the front of a pickup if you want. Or a garbage truck, or an end loader, or whatever equipment your municipality happens to have.  Then you just recognize that if there's snow on the roads it's a bad idea to drive 70.

    The way I see it:  if the one support person can get in to work - from the next town over - then why can't everyone else also get in to work?  Either the roads are impassible or they are not. 

     

    Which snow??
    It feels like autumn here with the storm here and too high temperatures which are not even close to winter...



  • Bad luck on your experience. Mine was the opposite: bought the 840 500GB drive, migrated the data to it, all worked well.

    I assume Magician is the latest version? See "Magician Info" on the bottom - it checks for updates



  • @ceasar said:

    The way I see it:  if the one support person can get in to work - from the next town over - then why can't everyone else also get in to work?  Either the roads are impassible or they are not. 

    We have pre-snow road treatment. We have snowplows.

    Snowplows don't always get side roads, and they definitely don't get them early. And then, in some cases, there are apartment complexes involved that can't be arsed to clear the steep incline at the exit of the parking lot. It's far from unlikely for someone not to be able to get to the roads that are clear enough to drive without volunteering themselves to shovel out a couple hundred feet of road or parking lot. (Although at least one such coworker in the apartment complex situation just got someone to pick him up at the side of the road.)

    And there are LOTS of people around here that we don't WANT on the road when it's snowy, even if the snow is driveable, because they don't know what the heck they're doing. Especially if they own a four-wheel-drive vehicle.



  • @ceasar said:

    There's something called a "snowplow" to just push the snow off of the road.

    Isn't that something that turns the snow over so it's ready for planting crops?




  • @ceasar said:

    @Shoreline said:

    That's because your public services are adapted to the snow, which they have to be because it snows for 2/3rds of the year. In places where it only snows a couple of days a year the local authority will not spend the money on skis or chains or whatever it is you do to adapt the snow. It's cheaper if people just work from home.

    You can brag about being adapted to your local weather if you like, but it's not much of a brag.

     

    Around here we don't use skis or chains.  (Chains tear up the roads, and skis are just ridiculous.)  There's something called a "snowplow" to just push the snow off of the road.  And if you don't have machines dedicated to plowing, you can actually attach a plow to the front of a pickup if you want. Or a garbage truck, or an end loader, or whatever equipment your municipality happens to have.  Then you just recognize that if there's snow on the roads it's a bad idea to drive 70. 



    Sure snowplows are great. Until you realize that the plow just shoved a 6 foot high bank of snow across the bottom of your driveway. Good luck shovelling that in a reasonable timeframe. Not to mention possibly having to dig your car out if you happen to be one of those poor sods who doesn't park in a garage.

     


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Snooder said:

    Sure snowplows are great. Until you realize that the plow just shoved a 6 foot high bank of snow across the bottom of your driveway. Good luck shovelling that in a reasonable timeframe. Not to mention possibly having to dig your car out if you happen to be one of those poor sods who doesn't park in a garage.
    If you're worried about that, you're living in the wrong climate.



  • @dkf said:

    @Snooder said:
    Sure snowplows are great. Until you realize that the plow just shoved a 6 foot high bank of snow across the bottom of your driveway. Good luck shovelling that in a reasonable timeframe. Not to mention possibly having to dig your car out if you happen to be one of those poor sods who doesn't park in a garage.
    If you're worried about that, you're living in the wrong climate.


    I'm not worried about that. Last time it snowed here, the "snow" lasted all of 5 hours. But I remember living in Northeast Indiana as a kid. We lived on a corner, so the snow from both streets would pile up right next to our driveway when the plows came by. Made for great snowforts when there's a ready built bank of snow taller than I was. I may have exaggerated slightly on the height though. It was probably more like 3 foot across the actual driveway.



  • @Snooder said:

    That actually makes sense if they put all the customer service folks in the same hotel, and most of them live closer to the other hotel than they do to the office. Especially if the Marriot is significantly more expensive than the other options.
    No. No, it does not. If the 24x7 support that you provide is so important that you'll put someone up in a hotel to guarantee your ability to provide it, then it makes ABSOLUTELY NO FUCKING SENSE to save a few bucks on a hotel room. Mariott isn't THAT expensive, and even if it was, you could easily justify the cost vs. the cost of having your only support rep stuck at a hotel fifteen minutes away when road conditions are impassable.


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