The grind had not yet gotten to Selben.
Arriving at work for the day, he cheerfully greeted the front desk employee as he continued to the IT area. Picking up a cup of coffee, he headed over to his cubicle. Sup2 gave a little wave hello while busy working on a project. Selben checked his voicemail as he powered up his machine. He started working on the T1 ticket queue. It wasn’t glamorous work, listening and transcribing voicemails, and requesting more info from users, but it was necessary.
After a couple hours, the first supervisor change of the day happened. Sup2 headed out and Sup1 took over. Selben wasn’t a huge fan of Sup1 as he was usually too busy bragging about his last “hot date” to be of any real help or use. Whenever a major issue arose he would often make himself scarce and unavailable, until it became the next supervisor’s problem.
Things were going well until Selben came across an email and matching voice mail. Both were vague and sounded like a user had lost a vehicle. Why would IT be involved in this? Selben opted to contact the branch’s manager, Gruntled, for more details.
The phone call was broken up and full of static, which made understanding Gruntled, the disgruntled user, even more difficult.
Gruntled: Gruntled!
Selben: Hello. This is Selben from the IT department. I’m calling about a voicemail and email you left. I need some more infor—.
Gruntled: Did you find it yet? Plate number 12345!
Selben: Uh, no, not yet. I wanted to clarify what you needed? Your message was a little vague.
Gruntled: My truck is missing! YOU PEOPLE NEED TO FIND IT!
Selben: Right. This is the IT department. I’m still not sure…?
Gruntled: OH NO, YOU DON’T! This is YOUR issue, not mine! We only have 2 weeks left, you better find it! Bye!
Selben sat trying to get the gears in his head to move again. He had been blindsided by the call and wasn’t sure how to proceed. It was times like this he missed Soda. He took what notes he had and approached Sup1’s office for guidance. He had his feet on the desk and was playing with his phone. He looked annoyed when he noticed Selben in his doorway.
Selben explained the issue, with the little information he had: The manager kept proclaiming that his truck was missing, and that it was IT’s responsibility to find it.
Sup1: And?
Selben: Could it be some GPS thing maybe that only we have access to on some vehicles?
Sup1 did not even look up from his phone.
Sup1: No. If it’s lost, report it to the police, and close the ticket.
Selben: I mean, could it be something…
Sup1 looked up for a moment.
Sup1: Just go do it!
Sup1 then returned to playing with his phone.
Under Sup1’s orders, Selben reported the company vehicle stolen to Gruntled’s local police department, updated his notes, and closed the ticket.
Within a couple days, Gruntled was pulled over by the police at gunpoint. Corporate headquarters was contacted, and it was quickly straightened out that the vehicle was, in fact, not stolen. At first Selben was reprimanded for calling the police until he showed his notes indicating that Sup1 had given him the directive to do so. Sup1 denied the claims and eventually the whole thing was dropped, since if Sup1 wasn’t at fault, then no one was at fault.
Gruntled had been trying to find his company vehicle in a spreadsheet for an annual audit. It was apparently ~~right in plain sight~~ hidden under the ‘Vehicles’ tab.