Caution: Work Related Content

It's still slow around here. No change there. The holidays are just a slow time in general though, so that's not really much of a surprise.

However, a conversation at our daily morning meeting got me thinking.

There are five people that work here at the Help Desk. For broad generalization purposes, I'll put them into two groups: Level 1 and Level 2. Level 1 are the newer people here, that maybe haven't yet developed the full range of skills. There are two of those. Level 2 are those people that have been here longer, have more knowledge, and are likely Subject Matter Experts in something. There are three of those, including myself.

(Note: my subject matter expertise comes in the form of the 'B's WEB-Direct, which is our XML-related application. At the time I was assigned by my manager to start working with this application, I thought I was getting gipped. One of the other Level 2s was working with much bigger products at the time, and the other was working with the IT group. I thought I was getting the dregs. A couple of years later, and I'm the point person at the Help Desk for what is probably the best thing to be the subject matter expert in. It's probably the most technical of our applications. I've got a little coding chops under my belt. And we currently in the midst of a major project with that application for whom I'm pretty much the big cheese in my department. So it turned out OK.)

Anyway, the other two Level 2s have long since had company cell phones, and the ability to connect remotely from home. I never had either thing until recently. (I just recently got a new laptop that I can connect from home with.) And, for the most part, I did not much care. While I don't hate my job (unless it's a bad day), I'm also not particularly super-motivated to "climb the corporate ladder". That left me out of the contact chain for weekend calls. However, this morning at the meeting, the subject came up of upgrading the two people with the cell phones to Blackberries. And then, maybe as a result, giving the cell phones to myself and one other guy.

Now, our manager wouldn't force us to take the cell phones and get in that contact chain. But I considered this for a while. And although I'm probably shooting myself in the foot here, I went and told my manager that if anyone at all was getting upgraded to Blackberries, that I wanted in.

The cons to this are of course that I might now be required to be on call for things.

The pros, however, are better. With our move, and new PCs, and new phone systems coming in, the possibiltiy for the Help Desk folks to telecommute goes up a lot. Of course I'd want in on that. Esecpially after my four and half hour commute home through the snow last week.

However, the real issue, if I'm going to be honest, is the perception. I feel that I am on par, and in some case above, the other Level 2s in terms of ability. I'm not saying this to be haughty; they are both on par, and in some cases above, me in terms of ability as well. The point being that, rightly or wrongly, I realize there is a perception attached to what people are able to do here. They can take escalated calls and sign in from home, so they must be the creme de la creme of the department.

Well I'm here to say: Motherfucker, I'm creme too.

So, it looks like if anyone in the department gets a Blackberry, I'm getting one too. Which, is actually cool on a more basic level: New gadgets!