Stuck in Neutral for the Week

This week was ok, but not too great. No travel unfortunately.

Winter can be that way, especially January, and it's sort of a mixed blessing. The good part of it is, I don't have to deal with winter storms when I'm not on the road, and as it's too cold to use the vehicle for shelter, it keeps me from being at the mercy of the local hotel industries for lodging.

The bad is, no jobs = no pay. I did get a small local job this week. I had to go in last Sunday and run diagnostics, then they wanted a solution to a problem that was there, but not the problem for which the customer had called. I told them the fix they were requesting would not solve the problem, they relayed to the customer that dispatched me that I was stubborn and they weren't happy with me.

Well, here's the deal: you're working off of a flowchart that offers possible solutions. First, you are not in front of the computer, second, you don't have the years of experience in the field that I do. If you want a monkey to turn wrenches, I suppose I can be that monkey, but it's my experience that customers want fixes, not a runaround until you find the right solution on a spreadsheet.

I went back to the site knowing this, figuring I would simply do what they told me. In their troubleshooting, they changed the configuration of the machine entirely, so it couldn't be compared to other sites where the problem didn't exist. Flowchart problem solving.

I made the repairs they requested, and held my tongue when it didn't solve the problem. I asked my dispatch if it was to be kept open, he replied that no, we had done as they asked, time to close it. I think he was getting a little perturbed as well.

The perception of some of these folks seems to be that if we had any knowledge at all, we would not be dispatch techs. What they fail to understand is that ageism is rampant in the tech industry, and some of us live in tech deserts where these sorts of jobs are our only option. They used to want my expertise; now they only want my Phillips screwdriver.

Whatever, I suppose. As long as the check clears.