Note: Given the 24 hour between posts limit over at TFTS, I'll post stories here first (if they're ready in time).

Recap: A very angry man blew his lid over metal mesh width. Oh, and pissed my boss off. Hurray.

Part 1

$BT – Me.

$OPM – Operations Manager for the [Data Center].

$NST – Fellow night shift technician. Secret Mormon Korean speaker.

$DIR – Non-Executive Director for the site.

$TC – [Name 1]. Caliper wielder.

$HR – Human Resources for the [Data Center].

$TVEEP – TC’s VP of Operations from [Big Company] (the customer).

When we last left off, $TC had stormed off after we refused to immediately rebuild the cage that used the mesh his company provided. Not long after, my boss called, pissed as all hell and wondering why I treated a customer, “so poorly.”

$OPM – Do you understand what you’ve done?

$BT – I haven’t actually done anything.

$OPM – You’ve jeopardized a multi-million dollar cage build. They’re threatening legal action against us for refusing to honor our SLA.

This was the third time in a row, that we had this conversation. Over and over he repeated himself, as if somehow that would change what had happened. I figured a different approach was necessary.

$BT – So, the customer provided us the cage mesh. $HULK (see Part 1) installed it. Customer shows up and pitches a fit about the gauge size of the mesh they provided us, and I’m supposed to magically fix it?

$OPM – You’re supposed to do what the customer asks of you.

$BT - Where was I supposed to get the new mesh?

I stopped there. The pause allowed him time to reflect on his words and mine.

Side note: Cage mesh wasn’t something we stocked large amounts of, as once built, cages tend to not need their mesh replaced. On the rare occasion that they do, we have some extra, but of the type the customer was using, we didn’t have any. Like I said before, it was custom and provided by them.

$OPM – From our storage on the [Nth] floor.

$BT – Are you near your laptop, sir?

$OPM – What does that have to do with anything?

$BT – Everything we have is asset tagged, even the stuff customers provide. So by rights, you should be able to see what we have in stock and able to be utilized.

$OPM – You know what, let’s take a look.

He thought he had me.

I could hear him steadily typing away on his keyboard.

$OPM – Uh-huh. Weird.

The talking, typing, and mumbling went on for several minutes, before $OPM finally broke the silence.

$OPM – Doesn’t look like we have any of the [customer specified] gauge in stock…

I stayed silent. I wasn’t giving him any ammo to use to derail the conversation’s topic.

$OPM – I guess there wasn’t anything you could do.

$BT – Correct, sir.

$OPM – Well, next time try to be nicer to the customer.

-Click-

Good evening to you as well, sir.

I sat there for a few minutes pondering my next move.

$BT – Hey $NST, do you remember what other sites [Big Company] is at?

$NST – I think so, why?

Cut to a week later.

$DIR – So, $BT, do you know why I’ve called you into my office today?

$Internal BT – A promotion and raise for not being a jagoff?

$BT – No, sir. I don’t. Why am I here?

$DIR – Well, you're here because your presence has been requested by our $HR department and $TVEEP.

He said this while motioning to the two other people in the room.

On one side sat a man in his early forties, salt and pepper hair, in what looked to be a tailored suit. Near him sat a woman I had seen many times floating around our site. Her trademark bun pulled so tight, the skin on her forehead looked ready to break.

$BT – That’s interesting. I wasn’t aware I was so well liked by [Big Company].

$TVEEP – Actually, I’m here because I’ve received a complaint from one of my most trusted employees about your extremely rude behavior towards him.

$BT – Really? That’s strange.

For the next few minutes, $TVEEP proceeded to regale me with a story about how I was pushy, rude, and downright condescending towards one of his employees who was only trying to do his job. It was a complete flip from what actually happened.

I sat there listening to him, thinking back to lessons from my days in the military, as I tapped the manila envelope I had brought with me and placed on the edge of $DIR’s desk.

As $TVEEP finished his story, $HR leaned forward.

$HR – This is extremely concerning behavior to hear about, from one of our biggest customers.

She let her words linger in the air, hoping I would fall into it like a fly into a spider’s web.

I smiled, and let the awkward silence permeate the room for a few seconds.

$BT – You’re right, it is very concerning behavior.

I reached into my manila envelope and began pulling out the neatly stapled copies I had assembled.

$BT – I didn’t know how many people would be at this meeting, and I certainly didn’t expect the VP of another company to be here, but I think I have enough for one set each.

I began passing around the packets, giving them time to begin reading.

$BT – You see, after my encounter with $TC, I realized that someone who acts like him doesn’t just behave that way one time. So I decided to spend the past week reaching out to every site that [Big Company] has cages at. And wouldn’t you know?

I paused for another moment, letting my words sink in.

$BT – Nearly every single one of them had stories about $TC.

I looked at $TVEEP for a moment.

$BT – Apparently, you like to use your, “most trusted employee,” quite a bit.

With a page flip I continued.

BT - Here’s one from [neighboring city] talking about how he, “became angry at the lack of hazelnut coffee in our company break room.”

I flipped the page again.

$BT - Here’s another from [southern city] where he, “continued to scream for several minutes about the screw sizes,” we used for elevated floor.

I smiled.

$BT – In fact, you’ll find five such accounts from people who emailed me back. And those are just the ones that actually took the time to respond. I bet that if I were to actually call them, I could find even more.

$TVEEP looked at me, a look of shock in his eyes.

I ignored him, and turned my focus to the people who could actually harm me.

$BT – $DIR, I’ve also placed a written statement from $NST and I in there, regarding what we experienced. So are you going to believe the technicians involved in six separate incidents across the United States or one customer?

I wanted to go farther, but I knew that the threat of what I could do was large enough for me to win.

$DIR – Well that’s certainly different.

He seemed engrossed in the packet of emails. However, the longer he read them, the angrier he became.

It was the result I had hoped for.

$DIR hated to have his time wasted. And incidents like these were giant time black holes.

$DIR - $BT, would you please step outside.

By now I was grinning ear-to-ear.

$BT – Sure thing, sir. Let me know if you need anything else.

As the door slammed shut behind me, I could hear the three of them begin to argue.

Once back at my desk, I saw $NST was relaxing and bouncing a rubber ball off of his own.

$NST – So, how’d it go?

$BT – Swimmingly.

Epilogue: When it was all said and done, (as is life) some things worked themselves out, others didn’t.

$TVEEP actually ended up having to apologize to our management staff for falsely accusing their employee of misconduct. The downside of this was that the apology was what allowed $TC to come back and work in our facility (instead of him being outright banned).

I know. It’s fucking bullshit.

$TC ended up being a lot quieter after that. Typically, when he visited, he came in during the day, so I didn’t have to deal with him much. When we were there at the same time, he ended up dealing with $NST or someone else. Last I heard he was still with [Big Company] and still showing up every couple months to do maintenance and repairs.

$NST ended up leaving shortly after the incident, to work in a place that allowed him to spend more time with his family. Whether or not he actually was a Mormon missionary, I’ll never know. It’s none of my business.

Don’t worry.

There are plenty more tales to tell.