Workplace Problems as an Employee

Workplace Problems

As an employee of Westlb AG, I arrived at work one day to find an atmosphere of a higher than usual stress level. It was as if most of my colleagues were trying to avoid me. When I arrived at my desk, I did not wait long to find out what the matter was. My boss paged me into his office. When I came into the office, another colleague, the Network Team leader, was already waiting. He looked even more unhappy than my boss.

I could see that my boss was having a hard time to control his temper as he explained that we were having a problem with a client. I had coordinated with the Network Team in installing new Market Data software for a financial analysis company. In attempting to work with their new software for a client of theirs, the company's computer crashed without warning. The client was extremely inconvenienced by this, as the client involved wanted to withdraw his patronage from the company. He was only appeased by a promise that the problem would be resolved within 24 hours. In turn, the analysis company was threatening to withdraw its patronage from Westlb. As the company has been a longstanding and regular customer, this could mean a serious loss of revenue for us.

After the explanation, my boss wanted to go further and threaten both myself and the Network Team leader with either a pay cut or retrenchment. I stopped him and asked for the remaining 24-hour period to try and resolve the issue. I promised that, if we failed in our attempt, my boss could do as he thought appropriate. My boss agreed and left us to our own devices.

A began my investigation by calling a meeting with all the Project Team members involved in the installation project. I asked them for all the technical details of the installation, and whether any problems might have been overlooked. I emphasized that, as the problem occurred the previous day at 4pm, we only had about seven hours to find and solve the issue. After some deliberation, the Network Team offered some suggestions on what they thought the problem might be. One of these suggestions was that the client's current computer system did not have the necessary upgrade requirements for the software we installed. I suggested that we visit the client for further investigations.

A called the client to make an appointment, and was further bombarded with a number of irate threats to the effect that the client would terminate his contracts with us. In order to calm him down, I asked the client whether he had been primarily satisfied with our service. He was obliged to affirm that he had indeed been very satisfied up until the previous day. He also explained that this was the reason for his level of disappointment, as his clients are themselves used to only the best service from them. I asked for an appointment to visit the premise to investigate the problem.

It was found that there was indeed a compatibility problem with the upgrade level of the existing computer system. Once the problem was identified, the Network Team was able to upgrade the system and reinstall the software. Thorough testing and retesting were conducted in order to ensure that the system works smoothly. I offered to also contact the company's client to explain what had happened. I did so, the client came in, and his service was also completed before the end of the 24-hour window he allowed.