InformationWeek

Dear Mr. Lovelace:
On several occasions you've pointed out that you like to reward people based on what they contribute.

I've always been one of the highest-paid people in my job classification. Once, one of my co-workers somehow learned that I was making 25% more than she was and immediately complained to our manager that not only did I earn more, but I had taken a two-hour lunch that day.

The big guy, bless him, looked her in the eye and asked, "Where were you last Saturday?" She told him about taking her pre-schooler to a birthday party. Then he asked, "Where were you at 7 p.m. Tuesday?" She was playing in the park with her child and dog. Then he asked, "Where were you on the last paid holiday?" Her family had taken a weekend trip. He pointed out that I had been in the office at all those times. He then added that I had gotten in at 6 a.m. that very day and asked whether "a mere 25% raise" would motivate her to work weekends and holidays.

When my husband was transferred, I was working on deadline. The weekend before we moved, I put in 18-hour days on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and almost 12 hours on Monday. I refused to admit anything except that I had finished the project, on time. Since the big guy had seen me at 6 a.m. Saturday, he asked around and found out that I left around midnight. Although I never submitted any overtime paperwork for that weekend, when I received my final paycheck, I noticed a serious discrepancy: he had paid me $50 an hour for my work that weekend, well above time-and-a-half. He explained to me that I could have pushed the project off on someone else, saying that I needed to go home and pack that weekend, but I was a professional until the end.

Ever since, I've always gotten the first job I applied for, based on his reference.

Kate

Dear Kate:
Your boss was a lucky person to have such a loyal and hard-working individual on his team--and you were very fortunate to work for such a good leader. I have a feeling that he got a lot of loyalty out of his staff and that it was well-deserved.

Many people take their jobs very seriously and experience treatment that makes them question if good deeds are ever rewarded. It would be a good thing if more managers understood that if you treat your staff based on their contributions, instead of always insisting they slavishly follow company rules, they will do wonders for you.

Dear Mr. Lovelace:
I'm a sales rep for a multimedia computer training company, and I would like to know what a CIO wants to hear when it comes to training. I'm always being told that I need to schedule a meeting with the CIO, but I can never say the right thing to make it happen.

What is it that you want to hear as a CIO when it comes to training? What would make a CIO return my call? Please take into account that I've already left the CIO messages saying that we're working with their competition and that I can demonstrate my product for his company.

Jennifer

Dear Jennifer:
My guess is that it's your boss, not a CIO, who's telling you that you need to set up meetings with the CIO. Training is very important to the success of information technology activities, but CIOs aren't the primary or initial vendor contact for anything, training material/services included, in their organizations. Most likely, he or she has a set procedure in the company for screening outside suppliers.

My advice is to start with the individual or group in the IT department who's responsible for training and convince them of the importance of your wares. If you do, and your tools are viewed as valuable, you'll wind up meeting the CIO and making a pitch to her or him-or perhaps just to say hello as your contract gets signed.

Best of luck.

Dear Herbert:
I'm part of an IS re-engineering team that's about halfway through our project. I've suggested that we include service-level agreements in our future plans. Today, a fellow team member gave me a copy of an old article of yours, "If Only I Had An SLA." He told me, "I can't resist the chance to make you mad."

I want to tell you that I enjoyed the article very much. Your writing style is easy to read and your points well made. However, like all of us, I suspect that your viewpoint is determined by your background and experiences. I strongly suspect that your IS career wasn't based on the "services" side of IS (help desk, computer operations, network services, desktop services, etc.).

I have 31 years in IS services at Fortune 10 companies and smaller private companies. Also, I've been an analyst and technician, manager, and director. This is the background that colors my viewpoint.

I feel SLAs can play an important role in managing expectations. I've seen case after case where the services got "sucked in due to a creeping commitment" and neither they nor the client were satisfied with the results. A real life example from my own experience:

(User wants access to dial into work from his home PC to do "work at home."):

User: I want to be home more with my family and would like to dial into work using my home PC.

Network Services: We only support dialing into the system on company provided PCs using a standard modem and operating system.

User: My system works fine dialing into lots of sites. Surely this won't be a problem.

Network Services: Each modem is different and may not connect correctly to our modem pool. Also, our communications software will need to be loaded on you PC and could overlay other software you have on your PC.

User: I'm willing to take a chance. Just give me a copy of the software and let me try it.

Network Services: Please understand, if you have problems we have no staff here in the evening. We just aren't staffed to support you if there are any problems.

User: I understand. Let's just try it. If it works great. If it doesn't, I'll just forget it.

Network Services: Are you sure about this?

User: Yes. I just want an edge to work more and still be with my family.

(A week later)

CIO to Network Services Manager: "What the hell's going on? I just got a call from the CFO and we did something to screw up his account manager's home PC. You better send someone out to his house and take care of it. Oh, the CFO wants the same capability on six more of his managers' home PCs. What do they want and what do they expect from us?

In looking back at this situation, I think a simple SLA, putting in writing what the user could and couldn't expect, would have saved a great deal of pain for the support organization.

Thanks for listening,
John

Dear John:
If I had a dollar for every time something like that has happened to me, I'd be rich. You're absolutely correct about the problem of creeping commitment and the example that you use is right on the money. As you know, the next few sentences of the exchange go something like this:

Network Manager: But I was only doing a user a favor. I told him it was a one-time thing.

CIO: Who told you to do people favors that can blow up on us?

Network Manager: I can't win.

CIO: Welcome to the club. Go fix the mess you made.

Naturally, our way of avoiding such situations is shaped by our own experience. I've spent more than a few years in jobs (including some of the functions you mention) where I had to deal directly with internal users, and that's why I favor clear communication with them instead of formal written service-level agreements. My feeling is that negotiating SLAs is time-consuming and risks making an organization more bureaucratic (it's not in our SLA, so we can't do that!).

What worked best for me in situations such as you describe, is to follow up the initial request with a note stating what I planned to do and giving the limitations on the service-just to make sure that there's no confusion as to where the quick fix stops and a new project begins.

Hi "Herbert":
I totally agree with what you say about privacy in "Who's Monitoring My Crystal Ball." Since I use computers to gather and analyze information, I know how easy it is to gather information about people. As you say, marketers want the aggregate information (which I also want them to have--in aggregate) so they can offer better products and services, but who knows how it will be used in the long run.

For example, will the IRS be allowed to review your purchasing history to compare it with your stated income? Although personally I have nothing to hide, it just feels wrong that something like this could happen.

I agree with you that sorting out the balance between privacy and public welfare, consumer protection, and convenience is going to be a big issue in the years to come. However, most of the people I know aren't even aware of the questions, much less the answers, so I'm glad you wrote this article!

Best Regards,
Greg Brandeau

Dear Greg:
It seems to me that most people are becoming aware of the challenge we face in defining the boundaries of electronic privacy. In fact, I would be surprised if we don't see a national debate and some legislation in the next year.

The issues are large ones and often not obviously solved. For example, I recently was driving along in heavy traffic on a toll road, in a hurry, but pleased that the little electronic sensor box mounted on my windshield would keep me from waiting in a long line to pay the toll. Then it occurred to me that the highway authorities had, if they wanted, a very accurate record of my average speed for a trip. A reasonable safety check? An invasion of my privacy? You decide.