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Aaand, we have an epic entry under "Not My Job"

  • Jan. 19th, 2008 at 3:43 PM
Kitty_sad, Savage!, sar_gaming Brigade, sar_gaming horror hero playtest, Zot_hairmunch, sar_gaming Star Wars, Window, sar_gaming space empire, Cat_Captors, sar_gaming h2, sar_gaming Bus, illustrated self with ponytails, sar_gaming Kansas City, sar_gaming Detectives, yin-yang, Percy_fear, Monique_blech, orly, newspeak, Monique_pout, sar_gaming City With No Name, sar_gaming Meridian, S_bold, Monique_couch, sar_gaming Star Hero, Formidable!, sar_gaming Emergent Justice, Me In a Mask, cat, monique, Monique_mental, lady on couch, feminism, Me in facepaint, whupass, sar_gaming Apocalypse, sar_gaming Chicago, sinfest lildevil trolling, fish, bicycle, Monique_lean, Monique_quiet, sar_gaming bad eris, pet_rock, iwishiwereaman_name, Girl With Glasses, Monique_cafe, sar_gaming NJ Templars

I just got this email to one of my personal email addresses (which I emphatically do not give out to customers):

[info]sarudy,

I apologize for contacting you at your personal email address. On the weekend, no less! But I am having a problem with the [product] that you helped me launch. And this can't wait until Monday.

[Two paragraphs explaining problem in detail.]

I've already left voicemail and have sent email correspondence to [the department that actually does handle such issues], but no one has replied. Can you escalate this for me? Someone must be on call during the weekend for emergencies. They can contact me at ...

Thanks in advance for your help.

--[Customer]

I have to assume that the customer did a Google search on my name, found my resume, and used the email contact on that. I'll grant that he would not have recieved a response from the regular channels until Tuesday (we're closed Monday, which I am sure he did not know), and that it was conceivably a revenue-affecting issue, but that really doesn't make contacting me personally any less creepy.

I considered just ignoring it, but the kindness of my heart kicked in. I sent him a quick note apologizing that I have no access to work systems from home... and blind copied my boss's work email. I happen to know that my boss checks his work email on weekends (he has a blackberry/leash) and he also supervises the people who do fix problems like the one in question. Lo!, my boss replied to the customer and said he'd look into it.

I feel conflicted. One the one hand, tracking me down like that distinctly crosses a boundary, and I don't want to encourage that sort of thing. On the other hand, it feels wrong to be able to help someone and just not do it out of orneryness. We'll see how things played out when I go into work on Tuesday...

  • Mood: irritated

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[info]shiningmoon wrote:
Jan. 19th, 2008 09:03 pm (UTC)
Wow. That is creepy, and I'm sure I'd be leaning more towards creeped out than desirous to help in your shoes. This is exactly why I hate giving my last name to customers, and wish my direct email didn't have my last name on it, 'cause it's not like my last name is common. I'd be fairly easy to find.
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[info]shiningmoon wrote:
Jan. 19th, 2008 09:04 pm (UTC)
Damn not being able to edit
"if I were in your shoes"
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[info]raisinbottom wrote:
Jan. 19th, 2008 09:44 pm (UTC)
Why would you have your resume available on the web? Especially when you are employed? I go out of my way to avoid any mixing of my home and internet life from my work presence. The most recent thing about me on the internet is my membership at WorldCon 2008, everything else is from ten years ago when I didn't know better.
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[info]stori_lundi wrote:
Jan. 20th, 2008 01:50 am (UTC)
You'd be surprised at what information you can find out on the web. Someone found my name, address, phone number and AGE listed on a site like whitepages.com. Neither my phone number nor my address are listed in the regular white pages. Needless to say, I asked to have my listing REMOVED.

Contacting you at home is WAY, WAY, WAY out of bounds. I don't care how innocent it is or that it is through e-mail. I would have sent the mail directly to my boss and let him handle it, hopefully with a stern talking to with the client about contacting people through non-work channels. Or I would have at least sent a polite, yet firm e-mail about personal communications and given him your regular help desk contact info. Definitely don't encourage it and if it happens again, forward the message straight on. Otherwise you will have no privacy and clients will expect to be able to contact you willy-nilly. Egads.
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[info]asanders wrote:
Jan. 20th, 2008 07:21 am (UTC)
I carry a work phone that I tend to forget or I have it but turned it off because I was at the movies. The one I like the best is the battery died.

All my work emails clearly state to call our hotline and if they can't help they will contact the on call. If I'm not oncall I tend not to answer my phone unless it's from one of the team.

My boss works 24/7. I don't, I have a life.
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[info]windtear wrote:
Jan. 20th, 2008 12:00 pm (UTC)
I know what you mean, about the I-should-help-really-but-really-I-shouldn't thing. The thing is, now you've made yourself available as a line for going around the official channels when they're not fast enough for this customer. That on its own is a reason to be uneasy. Not to mention the crossing of the unofficial line between work and home. Some people work 24 hrs a day. You may or may not be one of those people, but if you're not, you have the right not to be impressed into service by one of those who are.

Either way, if this person tries it again - and I have the sinking feeling that s/he will try it again - you need to slam down on it hard, because you can't keep allowing them to go outside your organisation's procedures just for their convenience. They're there for a reason!
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[info]fazia wrote:
Jan. 20th, 2008 08:17 pm (UTC)
They were very lucky. You were much nicer than I'd be. Hopefully that karma will come back to you in a good way.

To be honest, I would have simply ignored them. My free time is my own. It's already allocated to myself and others, and they ain't paying me.

Truly, I don't get paid enough to be on call 24/7. Literally. Much of my free time has to go to the kind of things I can't afford to pay someone else to do for me, so unless I'm going to be well compensated for giving up that precious free time, I simply won't do it. (Besides, how do they know that I haven't left my Internet connection behind for the weekend and gone off to a movie, a park, the beach etc.?)
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[info]the_malum wrote:
Jan. 21st, 2008 03:24 pm (UTC)
Time to change the email. Let me know the new one, please!
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[info]sarudy wrote:
Jan. 21st, 2008 04:52 pm (UTC)
It was my old hotmail one that I mostly use for forum signups these days. The one you have should be fine.
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[info]wyvernfree wrote:
Jan. 22nd, 2008 03:08 am (UTC)
On the other hand, it feels wrong to be able to help someone and just not do it out of orneryness

I struggle with this dilemma all. the frickin'. time.

But the couple of times that people have decided to play Internetz Detective and call me on the phone, I've shut them down so frostily you could combat global warming with it. I go back and forth on the "Do I withold help that would be easy to give just because a person is rude and inappropriate," but I definitely draw the line on intruding into my personal space.
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