What Are Words Worth?
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Sometimes in IT you have to work late, at night, or on a holiday. For the most part we've all been there one way or another. Sometimes you work because you want to finish up a few things with no interruptions. Sometimes you work to tinker. Sometimes you work because you are going to finish the job if it kills you. Sometimes you work to save the world.
Have you ever told someone you'd work a ticket for them over the weekend because that's when you had time? And once you agreed to do it, did you actually make the time to do it like you said you would? And if, for some reason, you were not able do to what you said you would, did you follow up with the person before they had a chance to ask you about it on Monday morning, or did you wait for them to contact you?
I know we manage chaos...plain and simple. But, communication is key to success when working with users.
So what's your word worth (or not worth), and how important is it to you to keep it?
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Oh, heck no! There's no way I'm dealing with tickets off-hours unless it's a major work-stoppage emergency. Emergencies happen, sure, put those fires out. Sometimes after-hours maintenance comes up, and sure, I'll do what's needed.
Except for timelines (which I try not go give), my word's spot-on.
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Just to share my experience in working with our production,Since we have a very short turn around time.
I never give a words, i always tried to do a Time in Motion before i give an estimated time to finish thier request.
Yes Working during weekend also is the best thing we can do specially if the other users are moving to other location.
Sometimes working during late night if theres an urgent request.
I learned to follow this simple guidelines since i started working here:1.) After the instruction or request I always told them to give me a time to figure out
if we can do better regarding their request.
2.) Within that day i conducted a time in motion, then i will give them the estimated time if how long we need to comply thier request.
3.) After that i will present the result of my Time in Motion.
4.) Then we will decide if the request should done during late night or weekend. -
@NetworkNerd said:
Have you ever told someone you'd work a ticket for them over the weekend because that's when you had time?
No, but I'll often tell them I'd ***try ***to work a ticket for them over the weekend. If I was unable to do to what I said I would (which happens regularly), I'll just let them know that something else came up and I didn't find the time. I never promise anything - either at home or at work. The best I'll say to a user is "if nothing else comes up then I will work on this at such and such a time". It's the same with my kids - instead of saying "I promise we'll go to the park this afternoon", I'll say "If we have time, we'll go to the park this afternoon". I never promise anything - life is too unpredictable.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@NetworkNerd said:
Have you ever told someone you'd work a ticket for them over the weekend because that's when you had time?
No, but I'll often tell them I'd ***try ***to work a ticket for them over the weekend. If I was unable to do to what I said I would (which happens regularly), I'll just let them know that something else came up and I didn't find the time. I never promise anything - either at home or at work. The best I'll say to a user is "if nothing else comes up then I will work on this at such and such a time". It's the same with my kids - instead of saying "I promise we'll go to the park this afternoon", I'll say "If we have time, we'll go to the park this afternoon". I never promise anything - life is too unpredictable.
As I was reading the OP, this is exactly what rang in my head - why on earth would you promise something to an end user that isn't your boss, and even then why do it? Best effort is the expectation that we should be trying to set, but not promises.
