A Beautiful Example

I just heard through Ladder Shakers from an old friend I used to work with. This funny but shocking story is a fantastic example of how globalised silos cause utter chaos. Thanks Steve!

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I was sitting in the office one day and a colleague complained that the Wi-Fi was problematic in a corner of the office. Although I was not really responsible I was viewed as a “techie” and was asked to help so I called the helpdesk. This simple call resulted in weeks of heartache.

I reached someone in India and the call was logged. After a couple of days – nothing, so I called again. It would be escalated. After a week – still nothing. I called the helpdesk again. They told me that they had contacted the support company – in Mexico! I asked if I could call them and they said ok and gave me the number. I called and spoke to Jose. Yes, he had the details but did not know the status. Could I call back tomorrow? Next day I called and spoke to Jose again. He didn’t seem to know anything about it. Turns out it was a different Jose. The original Jose was off shift, but this Jose promised to get the other Jose to call me back. One more week passed, and nothing. I called again. This time someone else told me that they had passed the ticket on to another company who were actually responsible. “In London?”, I asked. “No, Texas!”. I got the number and called Texas. No answer.

The next week I was on holiday and when I returned to the office a colleague told me a guy had turned up looking for me when I was away. “Something about the network”. But as I wasn’t there he just left. I called the helpdesk in India again, and was told that the case had been closed with a status of “resolved”. I gave up at this point.

I remember reflecting that someone in this organisation must have put this arrangement in place and thought it was a good idea. How could that be possible? Why could we not have someone local responsible for the Wi-Fi? It was a pretty critical part of the infrastructure, after all.

I also wonder if that corner of the office still has Wi-Fi issues!

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This story is a beautiful example of the things I’m talking about on Ladder Shakers. Breaking up teams and outsourcing them to different companies around the world costs money rather than saving it.