More Glimpses

Glimpses

(written by Harley Castleberry)

A Creatively Answered Prayer

Several years ago, while working in data processing, I was transferred to manage a customer service department that served one of our clients, XYZ Hospital Group.  This department took calls from the numerous hospital employees across the southwestern United States whose jobs entailed the use of computer terminals, printers, etc.  Our people would troubleshoot their problems and correct the difficulties remotely, from our facility, or give step-by-step instructions by phone to hospital employees in order that they could make hands-on corrections, when appropriate.  We provided assistance, on a 24 hour basis, to several thousands of this customer’s employees.

While it took a considerable amount of technical, as well as people skills, to work in this environment, it was always my practice to promote worthy employees to higher positions within the company.  Ron Gilbert had reported to me when I managed a tape area and tape library at this same location.  I had not been involved in the initial hiring of Ron, but he had proven to perform good work, and I had received many favorable comments from customers that he interfaced with across the nation.  I had no basis for concern when we accepted him into the health care department.  His accepting this new role necessitated learning a totally different set of technical information, and employees in this department experienced a fair amount of pressure when the phone lines were loaded and customers were impatient.  As in all departments that I was privileged to manage, for the most part, I had very good people.

One day, one of my people came to me and confided that Ron seemed to lack self confidence, and was not carrying his share of the load because he had been observed “rolling” calls.  Our software for the phone system allowed a certain amount of flexibility in order to meet some unique needs.  There was a feature, which is not uncommon, that will move a call down the chain of departmental phone numbers and ring the first available phone not currently in use.  When a customer service employee’s phone rang, he or she was expected to take the call, and strive for resolution within three minutes.  I made a mental note of the comments about Ron.  Within the next week or two, I had two or three other employees come to me about calls being rolled by Ron.  The description given was that, frequently when Ron’s phone rang, he would quickly manipulate a rocker switch on his desk, giving the initial appearance that he accepted the incoming call, when in reality he barely made the connection and immediately turned his phone off again.  This was not readily apparent to everyone because he would begin talking into his headset and typing a (fictitious) work order on his keyboard.  It was at this point that I knew I had to address the matter.  In the Answered Prayer Department I was given a means of handling this problem without embarrassment or breaking the employee’s spirit.  I called Ron into my office and said, “Ron, I need your help on a special assignment.  It seems that we have a phone problem in the help desk area and I need you to see if you can track down the problem for me.  Several people have indicated that some of the calls seem to “bounce” from one phone to another before they are answered.  We have to get this corrected.”

Ron looked very concerned about the department’s problem and appearing caught off guard, shook his head in agreement.

“There is no need to report to me on a daily basis.  Just keep a log of the problems and we will get together and review this every Friday until we get this resolved.”

By then Ron realized that I wasn’t going to shed his blood, right then anyway.  He seemed to have more of a relieved look on his face, and said that he would be glad to help me.  On Friday, he and I had a brief meeting.  Surprisingly, he did not have any recorded incidents of the problem to show me.  He reassured me that he was aware that the problem existed and that he would continue to monitor the situation.

A week passed, and the two of us met again.  I think that we were both pleased and relieved that the phone problem had somehow taken care of itself!  I never heard another negative thing about Ron or his performance.  If I don’t show it externally, I smile inwardly every time I think about this incident.  Ron never knew what hit him, and he can still look me in the eye without feeling embarrassed!

I’m extremely grateful to God for giving me insight into how to deal with a wide variety of people, and personality differences.  Many of His solutions were clearly the answer to prayers because I know that on my own, I am not anywhere near that creative.