This story of looking back is way overdue (since February 7th) but since the events surrounding my backfill went on for several months, led to a key friendship, my inevitable transfer to the group I remain with and some painful lessons; it remains relevant enough to blather on about.
So I was nearing my first year with Apple as an official employee. Thanks to the over-reaction to the Y2K computer problem, Apple had a tremendous Christmas with the iMac (bigger than 1995). How great it was is probably peanuts compared to what it is today courtesy of the iPod, iPhone, iTunes Store and all the combined lines of computers. Regardless, the entire AppleCare (support) organization was undergoing a major growth spurt. When I returned to Austin in late 1998, you almost knew everyone on a first name basis in the building. By 2000, Apple had ramped up to include a new sister site in Sacramento, and Austin now incorporated support for the entire gauntlet of products. This also meant the need for more managers to lead and/or oversee the additional teams. I leapt at the opportunity because I had acquired a taste for greater responsibility through PowerComputing while working with Kris and Rob. Being involved with quality control was more my forte yet management seemed to be a good lateral move either for the interim or permanently.
I received my chance in late January after a conversation with a guy named John who was in charge of the decision at the time; he shortly left Apple to get involved in one of Austin’s numerous DotCom companies that I’m sure went bust in a year. Mind you this wasn’t permanent, it was temporary or a backfill in Jargonese. In English it means I was only keeping the seat warm until someone was hired for the gig. Usually the advantage goes to the person acting in the role (like an incumbent) but it is never a guarantee which I accepted and wasn’t naive about.
It was probably one of the craziest four months I had ever worked too. The days zoomed by which I hated. When you’re on the phone, taking random tech support calls, you tend to wish the day would move by at a good clip. Most customers are cool yet one awful call can just ruin the day and sometimes the rest of the week. The key thing though is that while on the phone, a tech can justify a paycheck by showing tangible results: calls taken, hours/cases logged, resolutions happening, reports filed to Engineering and occasionally compliments from customers via e-mail. Management’s productivity is riddled with an obstacle course of meetings, paperwork, projects and (my least favorite) interruptions. Now couple it with some set objectives, namely completing a certain number of call evaluations. I’m not complaining. I’m just saying it isn’t a situation for those with poor time-management skills because as soon as you walk in the door, get a cup of tea and sit down in your cube, something will be on fire and before you catch your breath, it’s 5 PM. The day is over. You think about what you achieved and sometimes it isn’t much. Hence, you know why some people resent their managers.
I’m not fishing for sympathy. I’m trying to illustrate the whirlwind and shift in perspective I experienced. I never thought managers were lazy, totally ineffective or worthless yet I felt they had it a little easier. HA! Herding my four cats would be a walk in the park after what I realized then. I had a headache in the frontal lobe of my brain for a month before I could figure out how to compartmentalize the various crises I handled; I gladly shared this piece of wisdom with other backfill managers who came aboard a couple months later.
The one aspect I enjoyed the most was call evaluations. Initially it can be perceived as spying on your co-workers, trying to find fault with them but it isn’t. The objective is really to discover what they do well, which tools at their disposal functioned and get anecdotal evidence of what customers are asking about. There are times the call does go poorly because of the customer, the tech, the tools, the weather, perception and a dozen other things. The tricky part there is to find the silver lining to put in the evaluation since nobody wants to read a completely gloomy, negative report. These are also challenging. While listening to the call, I was trying to resolve it as if I were the tech; checking to see if the means to answer the questions were present. Often there was extra research to do before turning in a result.
Through the calls I discovered the various strengths the techs on my team had. These were then converted into opportunities to get them signed up for beta tests (Mac OS X was on the horizon), projects and best of all, permanent offers from Apple (the majority were temps). I also took the time to speak with them individually. Use the lessons my friend Lee taught me: find out what motivates each person and most importantly, how to work with any who are looking for another job. The latter thing tends to be perceived in a negative light, not so. The key is to get it in the open with the team member and to work out an agreement, primarily, wanting to help the person land the new job without leaving under a dark cloud. For example, Lee would surprise people whenever he said (paraphrasing), “I want to know when one of my people is looking for a new job. Not to fire them but to help. Then I won’t be caught off guard when the other company calls up for a reference. I can give well thought out responses to their questions.” Here, I had two people in this situation. Once we got this aired out and I expressed my willingness to help in exchange for them carrying out their core responsibilities, I never sweated anybody bailing suddenly and I bet they felt good relieved because they could put their time Apple down on their resumes/job applications without worry.
Eventually, I had to vacate the position at HR’s behest by June. I wasn’t pleased, more like pissed due to all the hard work I had performed. The manager I had agreed to a point but it wasn’t his decision. The spot wasn’t permanent in the organization so it had to be rotated with another person for another cycle. I did get offered something similar to what I do today, mainly working with the development of techs. This unfortunately didn’t suit me after a couple months and when the powers that be did make the team manager job permanent, I was beat out by the new incumbent, I seriously considered quitting Apple. Instead, I decided to leave the desktop division and joined the server group as a plain-old phone tech where I have been for a decade, a story for another day probably in the Fall). It seemed like a bittersweet, lateral move but after I came up to speed at my speciality (then) called Macintosh Manager, I never regretted it a moment.
The four months did remain a positive experience despite the (initially) bad outcome. I had little interest in ever managing for at least a couple years. I liked it yet I wanted to only worry about me for a while again. I gained a greater understanding of the larger picture in how call centers work and the personalities (or fiefdoms) operate. It made me more prepared to take on the role I have today, something I thought I would never do again. (Trust me. I had been offered Senior Specialist in 2008 and refused it outright due to my Evil Twin.) Thankfully, I have a management team who didn’t give up on me. They let me develop some more, keep the spot in mind and when the opportunity arose again, I took it because I felt ready to get back on the horse I fell off of 10 years ago.
Today, those lessons I learned in 2000 remain, I just don’t let them completely cloud the entire picture. Much has changed, including me.
Will I ever be a manager again? I don’t know. Maybe. Currently, I am enjoying what I do too much and there’s a ton of things to do. Even in the early 21st century, computer technology continues to be a work in progress; it doesn’t stabilize for a decade without minor changes like cars, televisions or publishing did in the recent past. Refinements and improvements will continue indefinitely which will be accompanied with learning curves. It reminds me of the old joke my UNIX teacher told me. I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the sun has enough fuel to continue another five billion years. The bad news…I-35 will be completed in the dark.
What about the good side effects of this backfill?
- My efforts were rewarded with a trip to MacWorld NY 2000. I spent several days in a fancy hotel in Manhattan, saw Times Square at various hours of the day, sampled the food and took in a Broadway show. More in July.
- I did help make the case for a few people to be hired on permanently. Many of them remain at Apple in great, challenging careers and I have never felt bitter about it. I am happier that I somehow assisted a little bit in them getting there. I made a positive difference for somebody besides myself.
- One evening, I was listening to random calls from the general desktop queue instead of specific people. The tech did a good job (from what I recall, usually awful ones are always memorable), I sent the evaluation and received a polite “who the hell are you?” response later on; he didn’t know these were done by people other than his manager or the quality team. This tech went on to become my friend Jeremy since we discovered our mutual love of D&D, then hockey and Futurama.
- I have always kept a chunk of empathy for managers having walked in their shoes, never forgetting the balancing act they do daily.