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Hilarious workplace anecdote #874
A funny (for corporate and educational purposes) thing happened a couple of weeks ago, and it occurred to me that it might usefully chew up a minute or two of "Communication Risks" airtime as a variation on the theme that technical humour is dangerous. I received permission from the relevant colleague to share (he was the one attempting humour), so I'll see if I can thrash it out in text here first before I start to rehearse the tightened verbal version. You have to be able to look your audience in the eye when telling anecdotes, and not read off a script. I'm too tired tonight to tighten it up (am in fact falling alseep now) but hope to capture the essence of the comfail.
I've been working on a data remediation guide for System X. Without integration and synchronisation to Human Resources (HR) systems, the HR data in System X can become out of date, corrupted, and inaccurate. (That's where the zombies and evil twins came in, but I probably won't mention them. Or maybe I will.) So I was working on this document about how to match records and correct errors and so on when I became concerned that this document wasn't really pitched for the kind of users we're currently targetting. The audience and purpose were leaning towards introductory training material for new consultants. Enough to give them a solid grounding in the background, procedures and consequences of various actions, but with a distinct lack of how-to, because the how-to would be how to write custom scripts and macros to handle each unique situation.
I was working offsite at the time so the following exchange was through e-mail.
Althought I'd been instructed to write this up, I felt I was spending too much time on this when there were other priorities. My colleague agreed that it had become an internal training document and that I should wrap it up soon with minimal polish. It wouldn't be shown to customers just yet.
"I'm glad," I said, "it's a bit rough to go out." But then my colleague suggested that perhaps it *should* be sent to customers who have not yet integrated System X with their HR Systems. The horrible prospect of seeing what the future might hold might be enough to encourage them to set up their data synchronisation program sooner rather than later.
He wanted to use an incomplete, unpolished, internal high level potential training resource as a threat to customers to frighten them into integration?
Yes. Yes he did.
"You must be joking? Surely?" I was alarmed. I thought he was serious (within the bounds of his personal quirkiness), but I really didn't think that was the way to win customer hearts and minds.
He was joking. He had in fact trusted me to not take it seriously, but he was wrong. I took it seriously but with suspicion
It was a joke, but it was written with all seriousness by a colleague who can't for the life of him keep a straight face, but he can type like a completely different person. Fortunately the joke didn't go any further, but this is one example of how bad things happen.
I've been working on a data remediation guide for System X. Without integration and synchronisation to Human Resources (HR) systems, the HR data in System X can become out of date, corrupted, and inaccurate. (That's where the zombies and evil twins came in, but I probably won't mention them. Or maybe I will.) So I was working on this document about how to match records and correct errors and so on when I became concerned that this document wasn't really pitched for the kind of users we're currently targetting. The audience and purpose were leaning towards introductory training material for new consultants. Enough to give them a solid grounding in the background, procedures and consequences of various actions, but with a distinct lack of how-to, because the how-to would be how to write custom scripts and macros to handle each unique situation.
I was working offsite at the time so the following exchange was through e-mail.
Althought I'd been instructed to write this up, I felt I was spending too much time on this when there were other priorities. My colleague agreed that it had become an internal training document and that I should wrap it up soon with minimal polish. It wouldn't be shown to customers just yet.
"I'm glad," I said, "it's a bit rough to go out." But then my colleague suggested that perhaps it *should* be sent to customers who have not yet integrated System X with their HR Systems. The horrible prospect of seeing what the future might hold might be enough to encourage them to set up their data synchronisation program sooner rather than later.
He wanted to use an incomplete, unpolished, internal high level potential training resource as a threat to customers to frighten them into integration?
Yes. Yes he did.
"You must be joking? Surely?" I was alarmed. I thought he was serious (within the bounds of his personal quirkiness), but I really didn't think that was the way to win customer hearts and minds.
He was joking. He had in fact trusted me to not take it seriously, but he was wrong. I took it seriously but with suspicion
It was a joke, but it was written with all seriousness by a colleague who can't for the life of him keep a straight face, but he can type like a completely different person. Fortunately the joke didn't go any further, but this is one example of how bad things happen.