Techie known as out to buyer ASAP, then: Do nothing

On Name Welcome as soon as once more to On Name, The Register‘s weekly reader-contributed tales of futile and furtive tech assist chores.

This week, meet a reader we’ll Regomize as “Paul” who shared a narrative concerning the time his telephone rang and he was requested if he might journey to supply tech assist on a buyer’s website – which was about an hour away by street – inside an hour.

Paul mentioned he might. Simply. If the deities of driving cleared a path.

He then inquired concerning the nature of the job, however was informed that info can be divulged by a colleague upon his arrival.

Which is uncommon as a result of whereas Paul is nearly definitely terribly intelligent, it is customary to guarantee that the particular person despatched to supply assist has the talents wanted to do the job. Shoppers, in spite of everything, are typically a bit upset when the unsuitable particular person exhibits up.

Paul nonetheless hit the street and the mystic masters of the motorway labored their magic, that means he arrived inside an hour. He duly signed in and awaited directions.

“Stand there and contact nothing,” was the response from his dispatcher.

Paul did as he was informed. Nothing. An hour later, a senior engineer arrived, declared the job completed, defined that Paul’s work had been signed off, and informed him he was free to go.

Paul had actually performed nothing, apart from develop into inquisitive about what had simply occurred. Naturally, he requested what was occurring.

It turned out Paul’s employer had a contract with the client that specified a tech would present up inside two hours when assist was required. The price of having Paul journey to the location and do nothing was tiny, when in comparison with the penalties the client was owed below the contract if no person appeared on time.

Paul had due to this fact been summoned merely to be seen to have verifiably arrived on time – no matter whether or not he was the proper particular person to sort out the difficulty, or did something to repair the issue.

The story will get even weirder. Paul informed On-Name he “did a whole lot of these items” as a result of he lived nearer to shoppers than colleagues who labored in his employer’s bigger workplaces.

Whether or not the client ever realized it was being fooled is misplaced to historical past.

Has taking no motion in any way ever been essentially the most wise plan of action in your job? If that’s the case, click on right here to e-mail us your tales of candy nothings and we’ll attempt to provide you with a run on a future Friday. ®