Yankee Arrogance - Tue June 13, 2006
Funny, my first work email yesterday was from an end user bitching about my "yankee arrogance" and bascially taking his bad day out on ME.
Number 1: I don't talk to end-users. I support the businesses that sell our software, that's my job. We have over a half million users out there. If my work email addy ever got out there, I'd get BOMBARDED by emails. I support the Resellers. Period. (That's only about 52 businesses, and all their employees, for approximately 6 million dollars in annual revenue).
Number 2: the dumb-ass sales guy should NOT take a CONFIDENTIAL INTERNAL email and forward it, unedited to the end user, especially when it contains all kinds of information about his license and implicates him (whether knowingly or unknowingly) in breaching the License Agreement for the software that he bought.
"Yankee Arrogance." That's kind of funny, considering my grandfather was a Treganowan from Cornwall, England, who emigrated to Canada, and his wife was a Wilson, who was from either Scotland or Wales (I don't remember) who also emigrated to Canada, around 1900. In fact, instead of being German or Jewish, my last name is actually a bastardization of an Anglo-Saxon last name (British Isles).
So my ancestry hails mostly from the United Kingdom. I'm nearly as Brit as the guy who was calling me a Yank.
Anyhow, this is why I hate Sales Guys, in general. They are idiots about this sort of thing. Legal-schmeagal, they just want to get the $. If they are going to sell the software, then they should know some basic rules about it. And actually show some SUBTLETY in dealing with a delicate situation.
And to top it off, the person whose duties I took over actually totally goofed on an order, essentially resulting in this mess. A little care on their part, and this whole thing could have been avoided.
Sigh. As an employee of X-Corp (real company name withheld), I am tasked with many duties, not the least of which is ensuring the security and legal usage of the software. Because if we are lax, the companies whose software we bundle into ours can sue us and the entire company would be up the proverbial creek. And if something like this is traced back to sloppiness on my part, the Legal Dept at my company would probably have me out in front of my managers for a little talk.
So I have to take breaches of license agreement, even unwitting ones, very seriously, and have the Reseller straighten the mess out ASAP.
Dumb-ass sales guys.
I sicced the Area Managers on that sales guy. 1) I won't take any kind of crap like that, I don't get paid to suffer that kind of abuse, and 2) the Area managers rely on me to faithfully ensure that nothing on the administrative end costs them license count or revenue (remember the 6 million figure from above? That'll get them their hefty end-of-year bonus). I am the last piece in the puzzle to them making their numbers. I'm totally dedicated to them, thus they are going to take care of this problem (they are meeting with the directors of that company today).
Sales guys. Sheesh!
On another note, if I got paid one-one-hundreth of a percent of that annual revenue, I'd make 60K a year. I need to talk to my boss about my bonus!
Number 1: I don't talk to end-users. I support the businesses that sell our software, that's my job. We have over a half million users out there. If my work email addy ever got out there, I'd get BOMBARDED by emails. I support the Resellers. Period. (That's only about 52 businesses, and all their employees, for approximately 6 million dollars in annual revenue).
Number 2: the dumb-ass sales guy should NOT take a CONFIDENTIAL INTERNAL email and forward it, unedited to the end user, especially when it contains all kinds of information about his license and implicates him (whether knowingly or unknowingly) in breaching the License Agreement for the software that he bought.
"Yankee Arrogance." That's kind of funny, considering my grandfather was a Treganowan from Cornwall, England, who emigrated to Canada, and his wife was a Wilson, who was from either Scotland or Wales (I don't remember) who also emigrated to Canada, around 1900. In fact, instead of being German or Jewish, my last name is actually a bastardization of an Anglo-Saxon last name (British Isles).
So my ancestry hails mostly from the United Kingdom. I'm nearly as Brit as the guy who was calling me a Yank.
Anyhow, this is why I hate Sales Guys, in general. They are idiots about this sort of thing. Legal-schmeagal, they just want to get the $. If they are going to sell the software, then they should know some basic rules about it. And actually show some SUBTLETY in dealing with a delicate situation.
And to top it off, the person whose duties I took over actually totally goofed on an order, essentially resulting in this mess. A little care on their part, and this whole thing could have been avoided.
Sigh. As an employee of X-Corp (real company name withheld), I am tasked with many duties, not the least of which is ensuring the security and legal usage of the software. Because if we are lax, the companies whose software we bundle into ours can sue us and the entire company would be up the proverbial creek. And if something like this is traced back to sloppiness on my part, the Legal Dept at my company would probably have me out in front of my managers for a little talk.
So I have to take breaches of license agreement, even unwitting ones, very seriously, and have the Reseller straighten the mess out ASAP.
Dumb-ass sales guys.
I sicced the Area Managers on that sales guy. 1) I won't take any kind of crap like that, I don't get paid to suffer that kind of abuse, and 2) the Area managers rely on me to faithfully ensure that nothing on the administrative end costs them license count or revenue (remember the 6 million figure from above? That'll get them their hefty end-of-year bonus). I am the last piece in the puzzle to them making their numbers. I'm totally dedicated to them, thus they are going to take care of this problem (they are meeting with the directors of that company today).
Sales guys. Sheesh!
On another note, if I got paid one-one-hundreth of a percent of that annual revenue, I'd make 60K a year. I need to talk to my boss about my bonus!