I give a few talks on career topics, and one of these is Branding Yourself for a Dream Job. In the talk, I sometimes tell a story in the volunteering section. I wanted to summarize that here, as a way to get you to think how you can do more at work and grow your brand substantially.
A Young Worker
I was a newly hired worker on a network team at a power plant. We supported everything from the computer network to servers to desktops to sensor devices. There were hundreds of people, over 1000 nodes, and just 5 of us. Needless to say we were busy, we had to think on our feet, and we built a lot of protocols to help us.
We were the help desk and fielded a lot of calls from people, handling everything from password resets to reinstalling Windows to helping people work with various applications. I created a bunch of simple utilities (exes and batch scripts) that we kept on a share to help us solve common problems quickly. That was very helpful because we had a lot of repeated work.
There was one person, I’ll call her Sarah, that called us regularly. She was an assistant in another department dealing with supplies of some sort. She had a lot of basic questions on using WordPerfect (remember this? ) and Lotus 1-2-3, often moving information to and from places and producing reports for her boss.
We got the same questions over and over again, at least weekly if not daily. It got to the point where my entire team was so annoyed that we’d dodge her calls. This was 1991 and we had caller ID on the internal system. When she called, we’d pick up the call and immediately hand the phone to a coworker to deal with.
This wasn’t the only person that created stress for our team, but this was the worst one. We were annoyed, and she was annoyed with us. Our feelings showed through and we gave her the minimum level of service, as slow as we could.
Making a Difference
I was as annoyed as everyone, but like with my utilities, I was looking for a way to make our team work more smoothly.
At the time Windows was new and many people were intimidated with it. We had plenty of software that actually ran in a command window, like WordPerfect, while others ran as real windows (Lotus 1-2-3).
I decided to try and fix things. I walked over to a remote building where Sarah worked. I’ve been there before to help with something, and likely my annoyance showed as she wasn’t thrilled to have me at her desk unannounced.
I told her that I wanted to try and help her with some of the challenges with her position. I emphasized that a lot of people were struggling with these applications and I was trying to find ways to help them. I offered to bring her lunch and work through some things. At the time we were a remote station, and there was a Subway franchise that came in each day to do lunch. I said I’d buy sandwiches for a week.
She agreed and I took her order. That simple empathy helped disarm her anger at the computer and my group.
I bought lunch the next day and went over to Sarah’s desk. I watched her work, saw struggles, and then worked out some things to help her, created some notes she could keep around, and helped educate her.
It took a week or two, but at the end of the time, she could self-service a lot of her issues without calling us.
The Outcome
First, I reduced the workload on my group. Everyone appreciated less work, and more importantly, less annoying work.
Second, I empowered Sarah. She was able to get more work done, more quickly and felt more capable in her position. Her boss was happier with her, and I felt great.
Lastly, because she controlled supplies, I was able to get floppy disks and other small things easily when I called her. My boss couldn’t because she was annoyed with the way he and others had treated her.
The Investment
This was an investment for both of us. We both invested time, giving up our lunch hours. I think this was a week or two, but not longer. I also invested a bit of money, perhaps $5-6 a day back then, to provide lunch. Not nothing, but not a lot.
However, the investment payed off. I kept a note of this and reminded my boss at my review. I got a raise that year, not solely on this, but since I was competing with others for money, this was something that helped me stand out.
This also got me a good review from Sarah’s boss, which the overall manager of the station heard. That opened up opportunities for me as a developer position in the corporate headquarters opened up and I got recommendations from all three managers.
Look for Opportunities
These days many of us work remotely part of the time. We may not see our coworkers, and perhaps lunch isn’t easy, but we could invest time to solve something or train someone. Either online, written, or in person. A little investment to make your job (or others’) easier can pay off for the company.
It can also pay off for your personally if you document this and bring it up with your boss. It’s also a great story for interviews.
This is extra work. This is unpaid work. However, many people in many fields invest in their learning and advancement. From mechanics to doctors, people give up some of their time to grow their careers. You can do this as well.
Voice of the DBA 