Jean
She worked in office services. There were 4 other women working in the office with her. All four of the other women were rather attractive, in their late 20s, pleasant and friendly. But then there was Jean. She was (or at least needed to be) nearing retirement. She was grumpy and very unfriendly. She expected everything to work flawlessly regardless of the fact that she didn’t bother to learn the proper way to use it. She was chosen to be the key-operator of the office fax machine in the days when the fax machine was a high-tech marvel of the state-of-the art office environment.
Jean had a reputation for upsetting the dispatchers in our communication center to the point that they very often broke into tears. Enter the Director of Field Operations, whose office was just outside the communications center. Larry would hear the commotion or sobbing if it had come to that. He’d tell all the girls in the office that he wanted to speak to me when I called in. Or, if he were so inclined, he’d have his secretary hunt me down. You see maintaining our equipment at Jean’s site was MY job. Invariably Larry’s comments would go something like, “Frank, we just got call from that &$#@* Jean and you have got to deal with it right now. She’s got all the Comm. Center girls crying. Just fix it Frank.” Oh yeah, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Among the ongoing issues at this location was the fact that the power that was shared by her desk equipment and the fax machine had a defective ground. The major issue was that every time Jean turned her typewriter on, the fax machine started up. Since Jean had used that typewriter for years without a problem it obviously had to be something wrong with that fax. Granted, no one had touched the fax machine but the defect had to be the fax!
I entered the office, said hello to Jean. Then I listened to her explanation of the problem. That was followed by a tirade about, “If you can’t have this thing fixed in 30 minutes I want it out of here.” I excused myself to go to my car for parts, took the opportunity to call Larry. Explained to him what I was going to do. He accepted my action plan with the comment, “OK if you’re sure this will work.”
I returned to the office with everything I would need. First, I drained the liquid toner out of the unit. I taped all the moving parts on the exterior down. Then I began to push the 350 pound washing-machine sized unit toward the door. Jean went crazy! “What are you doing? Plug that back in we need the fax! Coolly and calmly, with all five of the women looking on I simply said, “But Jean, you said if I couldn’t get it fixed in 30 minutes get it out of here. It will probably take me two hours so I drained and taped the unit for removal.”
Jean’s response, “I was just trying to make a point.”
Mine, “I made one!”
Personally I never had another problem with Jean. But the next post will address the follies of Jean, Morris and the four other women in the office. You’ll love it.
Jean had a reputation for upsetting the dispatchers in our communication center to the point that they very often broke into tears. Enter the Director of Field Operations, whose office was just outside the communications center. Larry would hear the commotion or sobbing if it had come to that. He’d tell all the girls in the office that he wanted to speak to me when I called in. Or, if he were so inclined, he’d have his secretary hunt me down. You see maintaining our equipment at Jean’s site was MY job. Invariably Larry’s comments would go something like, “Frank, we just got call from that &$#@* Jean and you have got to deal with it right now. She’s got all the Comm. Center girls crying. Just fix it Frank.” Oh yeah, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Among the ongoing issues at this location was the fact that the power that was shared by her desk equipment and the fax machine had a defective ground. The major issue was that every time Jean turned her typewriter on, the fax machine started up. Since Jean had used that typewriter for years without a problem it obviously had to be something wrong with that fax. Granted, no one had touched the fax machine but the defect had to be the fax!
I entered the office, said hello to Jean. Then I listened to her explanation of the problem. That was followed by a tirade about, “If you can’t have this thing fixed in 30 minutes I want it out of here.” I excused myself to go to my car for parts, took the opportunity to call Larry. Explained to him what I was going to do. He accepted my action plan with the comment, “OK if you’re sure this will work.”
I returned to the office with everything I would need. First, I drained the liquid toner out of the unit. I taped all the moving parts on the exterior down. Then I began to push the 350 pound washing-machine sized unit toward the door. Jean went crazy! “What are you doing? Plug that back in we need the fax! Coolly and calmly, with all five of the women looking on I simply said, “But Jean, you said if I couldn’t get it fixed in 30 minutes get it out of here. It will probably take me two hours so I drained and taped the unit for removal.”
Jean’s response, “I was just trying to make a point.”
Mine, “I made one!”
Personally I never had another problem with Jean. But the next post will address the follies of Jean, Morris and the four other women in the office. You’ll love it.
posted by Frank at 3:22 PM
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