Dear Manny,
I don’t think people take pride in their work anymore. I work at a large facility in Pennsylvania. We have five guys that work on imaging equipment. My coworkers seem to have lost pride in what they do. They have no problem picking up the phone to call in the vendor. I feel like I have failed when I have to call in the vendor. It is not uncommon to see two or three vendors a week coming in to do their job. I have even talked to my manager about this. I told him I would be willing to look at any problems they can’t/don’t want to fix, before they place a call for service. He liked the idea, but he does not want to upset the other guys. How do you get your team to take pride in their job? There is no incentive for them to change. At the end of the year, we all get the same bump in pay. Luckily, I work by myself at another location and don’t have to deal with this every day.
Dear Pride,
So, when should you call for help? I searched my brain and found that I do indeed have an opinion about this.
I have been in the management and service training business for over 30 years. The question of when to call for additional help always comes up in discussions. I, of course, have the answer. The answer is: It Depends.
For this discussion, assume that it is your job function to work on a particular piece of down equipment. You are trained on the equipment and actually know how it works when it is not broken. You have all the requisite documentation and test equipment. You probably should work on it for at least an hour before you decide that this “Bug” is beyond your capabilities. Do not be discouraged since there are always “bugs” that one individual cannot find and another individual will find very quickly.
Now assume that your training and knowledge are a little more limited, now work on it for a cautious hour before calling for assistance. A good way to tell if you should call for help is when you begin to repeat the same checks. A quote from Basic Text of Narcotics Anonymous: “Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.”
Who to call is determined by the support system that you have established. Oh, you haven’t established one? Well then, get to it. Find at last one other individual that you can call for assistance, use the forums, use 1TechNation.com. Discuss possible assistance programs with local independents and vendors ahead of time. Who else in your organization has knowledge and experience that you can count on.
When you do call for assistance, make sure that, if it is at-site, you follow along with the provider so you can learn from the experience. This also ensures that the individual is not a “response person” – the only available and maybe inexperienced individual.
Now, what about those who don’t even make an attempt to effect repairs before calling in at-site assistance? You know who you are. If you are hired and trained to perform the service, given the requisite tools and documentation, and compensated for your efforts, you are doing a disservice. There is no other way to say it that will not get me punched.
Post your comments below, and let me know what you want me to Moan about next.
Got a burning question for Manny? Please send your questions to mannysmoans@mdpublishing.com.
