It was the holiday season, and the one of the supervisors of BiggerCo had approved time off for almost everyone, including himself. This left Sup2, the remaining supervisor, in a sticky situation. He was an old acquaintance of Soda, and quickly hired him and Selben on for some super short-term temp work. The contract was for two weeks – not ideal, but it paid the bills!
Other than Sup2, there was only one other company tech in the office, so Soda and Selben were covering the phones and doing everything else that came up to the best of their abilities.
Selben was in his cubicle. The previous occupant of the desk was apparently a big snacker, as the keys in his keyboard frequently crunched. Repeated attempts to smack the keyboard against a trashcan had little effect in removing the chips and other crumbs. Selben’s phone began to ring.
Selben: Thank you for calling BiggerCo, this is Selben. How can I help you?
User: I can’t login to CompanySystem!
Selben: Okay, what error are you getting?
User: No Inter—Net—connection?
Selben: Can you check to see if you have internet?
User: I don’t, but I’ll try the Wi-Fi.
A few moments pass.
User: It’s working now. Thanks!
Selben: No problem?
Most of the calls were simple. A few reports had to be moved from an excel document into a special format for the company’s system, and Selben was tasked with those. Soda was happy to inform Sup2 of ALL the different things Selben was good at, but it felt more embarrassing than anything else for Selben. Soda worked the phones, pulling up his charm whenever someone was upset and generally just being Soda.
Near the end of the week, most of the employees had gone on vacation. The call queues finally died down, dropping to maybe one or two calls a day, which was a nice change.
Early next week, Selben entered the office. Soda popped out of the IT area and locked eyes with him. He felt that familiar panic. Something was wrong!
Soda: Come with me, we’ve got a level 5 ticket!
Selben: Level 5?! I thought it only went to 4?
Soda ran past. Selben spun around and followed him.
Soda: Sup2 said to take you with me. We’ve tried rebooting a critical piece of equipment but it’s completely dead. No power, nothing!
Selben: Did you try a different outlet?
Soda: Yep, it’s hopeless. Sup2 wants us to go get a replacement immediately! I’ll need your help to get it in the van.
They rushed out to one of the company vehicles. Selben slid across the hood and dove through the passenger side window. They got into the vehicle and started driving.
Soda continued explaining all the different steps they took to try to fix it the critical piece of equipment, but with no success. At a red light Soda pulled out his rapidly dinging phone. He had a flurry of texts from Sup2 updating him of the situation.
Soda: A quarter dozen tickets have already come in. We’ve gotta hurry!
They pulled into the parking lot of the vendor and headed in. Sup2 had already organized purchasing it over the phone, so they only had to sign some papers before loading it up. They rushed back to the office and carried it inside. One of the front desk admins held the door open for them.
DeskAdmin: Hurry!
They quickly went and pulled out the old piece of equipment and installed the replacement. Several users stood around and watched. They heard the slight hum of the machine starting up. A sigh of relief came across the room. One user walked up and gasped.
User: It’s not compatible!
He held up a critical component. Soda ran off and returned with a pair of scissors, and cut down the component to the new, smaller required size. The room stood in awe as he worked. He slowly installed it in the device and pressed the button to activate it. The burble and sizzle began. Everyone let out a cheer. Sup2 held up his mug.
Sup2: Good work, guys!
The office coffee maker had died, leaving the skeleton crew in the office caffeine-less. With not much else going on, Sup2 jokingly created a “Level 5″ ticket and sent Selben and Soda to get a replacement. It was a large piece of equipment, as it was an industrial grade coffee machine. After plugging it back in, they discovered a different sized filter was needed, so Soda cut down one of the old ones to get the coffee maker working.