Working in IT I've had my share of dealing with execs. They've ranged from being pretty cool to being impatient. This last week I found one to top my avoidance list.
My supervisor had given me a Surface Book to set up for them (the $2700 variety). I had it set up in an hour or so and handed it off to our security master to make sure it was encrypted and slap an asset tag on it. In the meantime I had someone IM me asking if it was done yet, and my supervisor had several emails asking for a status on it. The usual turn around time on a new machine is at least 24 hours. We have to get them encrypted, software installed, and it has to sit on the network long enough for our systems to figure out it exists and get entered into our asset tracking system. Since this guy was one of the big wigs he had an army of folks asking if it was done every 15 minutes or so. I sent the guy that messaged me to the security master who's desk it was on. He's a busy guy and doesn't just sit at his desk waiting for us lowly hardware guys to give him something to tag. I'm sure he got a pile of requests to push it through "ASAP" as everyone likes things done. Being the big wig's machine I'm sure that leverage sped things up a bit and next thing I knew the machine was back on my desk about an hour before I was done for the day. Since my supervisor was the one that handed it to me I figured he could take it to the exec in the morning. About 15 minutes before I was going to leave I got a phone call from the security master asking if I'd taken the laptop over to the exec yet. I told him I hadn't but I could. He said I'd better because he was asking for it. I assume he was probably getting bombarded with the execs private army asking when it would be done.
So I hauled it over to the building across the street and stayed an hour after I was supposed to go home helping get everything transferred from the old Surface Pro 4 with the cracked screen to the new and groovy Surface Book. The exec was very impatient and demanded to know why it was "so slow" I've never considered 15 seconds from boot to login "slow" but this exec was already proving to be in a league of their own with impatience. I fiddled around and got email set up and One Note notebooks moved over. I moved everything over that was asked for. I asked several times if they had everything they needed. When the display port adapter designed to fit the Surface Pro 4 didn't fit the Surface Book adapter the exec didn't hesitate to whip out some scissors and start carving off plastic bits until it was able to be forced to fit. I asked several more times if there was anything else that was needed. After confirming several times that they were good I left for the day
The next day the security master slapped the laptop back on my desk and told me they needed the VPN software installed. I told them that it was already installed, but I could put a shortcut on the desktop to satisfy the exec.
A week later my supervisor was over at the building across the street and ran into a pleased exec... is what I'd like to say, but he started ragging on him about how our group sucks and should sit down and help get everything moved over to the new machine. The mac guy across the street had to move his favorites from Google Chrome over to his new machine. Did I mention how many times I asked him if he needed anything else? What a schmuck.
Being a jerk to the person that is trying to help you isn't going to help your situation any. Whether it's someone over the phone in a call center or a waiter serving you at a restaurant it makes no sense to be a jerk to them. They are there to help you and if you make their life difficult more than likely they have the power to make yours more difficult as well. It's about as effective as burning down your house to get rid of a rat.
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