In the midst of chaos, I had things under control. All four of the phone lines were lit up, but I knew who was on hold, why they were on hold, and what they needed. I took a minute to clear some of the call bulk. I announced everyone their respective calls with the usual what line they needed to answer and who it was that was holding for them.
As everyone scrambled to find an available phone, I swiveled in my chair to return to the one call that was holding for me. Someone else had picked it up.
In fact, several someone else’s had picked up someone else’s.
Confusion and panic. And chaos. I knew who was on each of those lines. And I know I gave people the right line numbers to answer. And the people I work with are smart. So when I say Line 50, they wouldn’t just answer Line 51 for the heck of it. Unless – and here comes the lightbulb moment—the phone line numbers on my phones don’t correspond with the phone line numbers on the other phones.
So we tried out the theory, and sure enough, what we have is a labeling issue. What is line 50 on my desk, is labeled as line 51 on another. Line 51 on my desk, is line 52 on one phone and line 51 on another. And on my desk, I also have two lines that are not labeled on any of the other phones. Whether or not they’re just for me, or for everyone else is now an entirely new possibility.
My bias sides to my phone having the correct labels-- only because it’s my job to answer the phone. Mind you, the ward clerks got a new phone last week… so that could have something to do with all this. And to think, the first time I worked with it, I was more concerned that there is now capability of 5 different phone lines to be answered on it. And to think, at the time, I thought that one more number for me to worry about was crossing the line. But now, this opens up an entirely new can of worms.
As everyone scrambled to find an available phone, I swiveled in my chair to return to the one call that was holding for me. Someone else had picked it up.
In fact, several someone else’s had picked up someone else’s.
Confusion and panic. And chaos. I knew who was on each of those lines. And I know I gave people the right line numbers to answer. And the people I work with are smart. So when I say Line 50, they wouldn’t just answer Line 51 for the heck of it. Unless – and here comes the lightbulb moment—the phone line numbers on my phones don’t correspond with the phone line numbers on the other phones.
So we tried out the theory, and sure enough, what we have is a labeling issue. What is line 50 on my desk, is labeled as line 51 on another. Line 51 on my desk, is line 52 on one phone and line 51 on another. And on my desk, I also have two lines that are not labeled on any of the other phones. Whether or not they’re just for me, or for everyone else is now an entirely new possibility.
My bias sides to my phone having the correct labels-- only because it’s my job to answer the phone. Mind you, the ward clerks got a new phone last week… so that could have something to do with all this. And to think, the first time I worked with it, I was more concerned that there is now capability of 5 different phone lines to be answered on it. And to think, at the time, I thought that one more number for me to worry about was crossing the line. But now, this opens up an entirely new can of worms.
2 Comments:
Makes me glad my phone at work only has two lines. Figuring that out would make my head hurt :D
just making a random comment so you know i'm still out here.
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