Good managers can always save the day!

This manager shares how his employee got yelled at by a mean client and how he jumped in to make sure things were okay.

Check out the full story. 

A tale about respect, manners, and how IT fired more than 100 guests

A recent story I read reminded me that last year I had an encounter of that sort which I didn’t post about yet. For your entertainment, here it is.

First a little background info to set the scene:

This is where it gets interesting…

Our company HQ building has big conference rooms. Despite not being in the events or hosting business at all, we sometimes rent those out if we don’t need them ourselves.

Only B2B, we only offer little service but that makes for a fair rate, all usually easy going, not much work and earns a few extra bucks.

The day this story took place was one such time: A company that had rented our conference rooms before had booked them again, but this time for a completely different occasion, hence other guests in our house.

UH OH…

Regarding technical equipment and support the rules were simple: We as the host provide you with one high quality projector per room, one HDMI cable, one audio cable if you want to use the room’s speaker system, and one wifi voucher for each of the devices people need to present from.

Everything other than that is your own business as a guest.

Last year’s autumn, when this happened, both the IT team and our facility department (not sure if that’s the correct term, not a native speaker – the department who janitors, catering staff etc belong to) were very short on staff thanks to a bad stomach flu going around.

Preparing the conference rooms for renters hasn’t been of my duties for years anymore, but due to the staff situation and still knowing how to do it, I helped out.

He simply wanted to contribute…

Usually our main janitor prepares the room layout and our internal catering woman stays on standby for the guests, but both were sick.

The only option to fill in their positions on short notice was to borrow Lucy, an apprentice from another department.

She was fresh from school, had only started her apprenticeship a few weeks ago and didn’t mind doing something completely different for a day.

Naturally she needed instructing and some help with her newly assigned duties. It took longer than usual, but together we made sure everything is perfectly prepared in time for our guests.

Things escalated pretty fast…

Prior to their arrival I had briefed her to call me personally if the guests require any IT help before I had to leave.

Since I passed the conference area on the way through the building a little later on, I checked on Lucy and the guests.

Quite a few had already arrived, but everything so far was good, projector and sound worked, she felt comfortable to handle the job, everything fine.

Half an hour passes by, then I receive a first call from Lucy. The guests wanted to know where they could get wifi vouchers.

Dang, my bad, forgot to tell her. I sent her to the front desk to fetch one per device the guests need for their presentations.

UH OH…

Ten more minutes pass. Suddenly another call.

Lucy, sounding strangely nervous: “Could you please come down? The guests need help with the wifi…”

Since I’d never interacted with her before today, I couldn’t quite place if the tone of her voice indicated a problem, or if she was just a little insecure and stressed now… Something felt off, though.

Me: “Sure, don’t worry, I’ll be there in a few minutes, just gotta finish something real quick.”

Upon entering the hallway to the conference rooms I could already hear an irritated woman’s voice heavily berating somebody. Not a good sign.

She got really scared about the whole situation!

Worried now, I picked up my pace and turned around the final corner, only to find poor little Lucy cornered by a suited woman in her 40s whose voice I had heard, absolutely barking at her about not delivering what they paid for.

Lucy was visibly shaking a little, probably getting close to a panic attack. After hearing my footsteps her eyes immediately made contact with mine, looking anxiously for help.

Me, sharply: “Excuse me!”

Woman: “WHAT? Now who the **** are you?”

Me: “I’m from IT and here to help you with the wifi issue Lucy has contacted me about. What can I do for you?”

That’s INSANE!

Woman, still in a very angry tone: “We were promised wifi vouchers in the lease contract for the room, but SHE -” pointing her finger directly at Lucy, almost stabbing her in the eye – “refuses to hand out any!”

Lucy, seemingly at the verge of tears now: “But I… I gave you one for your laptop, your tablet and your guest speaker’s laptop…”

Woman, shouting down on Lucy again: “AND WHAT ABOUT THE OTHERS? We have over 100 people here and EVERYONE needs wifi, you stupid worthless ****!”

Those words really hurt and this new, unexpected toxic situation became too much to bear – tears welled up in Lucy’s eyes. Before seeing this I already had more than enough of this woman’s behavior, but now I snapped.

This had to stop.

Me: “HEY! STOP. Calm down. Keep those insults to yourself, where are your manners?! Back off of her, she’s just doing her job and following policy!”

He was so done with this customer!

Woman, turning to me, angry look on her face and maximum disdain in her voice: “Who do you think you are, telling me what to say or do, huh? And what stupid policy?! We were promised wifi, and that’s what we’re getting from you.”

Me: “The contract clearly states the IT policy for external guests, which -”

Woman, cutting me off: “DON’T. CARE. You two drones are utterly useless and should get fired! Get me the manager in charge, NOW!”

Me: “Alright. As you wish. Be right back.”

With that the woman stormed off, back into the conference room. I gestured Lucy to come with me and she immediately followed, glad to get away and barely keeping it together.

He tried consoling the poor employee…

We made our way around the corner, back to the elevators, when I stopped and put my hand on one of Lucy’s shoulders, getting her to look up at me.

Me: “I’m so sorry you were treated like that. Are you OK?”

Lucy nodded and took a deep breath, slowly regaining her composure.

Me, continuing walking with her: “Listen, you don’t have to accept this sort of behavior, neither as an apprentice nor as anyone else. Feel free to simply walk away next time and report to a manager.”

Lucy: “OK. I will.”

Me: “Don’t let those hurtful words get to you – forget everything she said, you were doing a great job. Really, I mean it, and am very proud of you standing your ground.”

Things got under control for a little while…

We reached the elevators and entered one. I pushed the button to the executive floor.

Lucy: “Where are we going now?”

Me: “My office. At least, I will. You go fetch a cup of hot chocolate or whatever you like from the machine next to the elevators, it’s free. Have a seat on the sofa then. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Lucy looked confused, but complied. Meanwhile I went through the adjacent hallway door – and into my office.

Since I knew in advance I’d help get the conference room ready due to filling in for the missing sysadmin in my team, but had an important meeting in the afternoon, I had changed from my slacks into jeans (which I keep in my wardrobe for such occasions) earlier and left my suit jacket and tie by my desk.

He knew he had to do something about this situation!

Now I reverted those changes, made a few quick phone calls and returned to Lucy all dressed up. Her eyes grew wide.

Lucy: “This question might sound stupid now, sorry, but… who are you exactly?”

Me, smiling: “I do work in IT, but I am the CIO. Since so many of my people are sick right now I’m filling in for them. That’s why I helped you set up the room instead of Ben, who’d usually do this. And now, since that lovely woman down there asked for management attention, we’ll teach her a lesson in respect. Follow me.”

With that we made our way down to the conference rooms again.

Finally the plot twist!

Me, mockingly straightening my tie and suit jacket: “Lucy, would you please be so kind to inform our guest that the manager in charge is here now?”

She grinned and did as requested. Immediately I could hear a faint “Finally, everything takes too damn long around here!” before the woman hurried through the door towards me. When she recognized me, she froze in her tracks.

Me: “Good morning. My name is , I’m the CIO of and therefore the manager in charge regarding your issue, who you demanded to speak.”

Calmly I walked towards her, reached into my jacket and gave her my business card. The woman took it, but not being able to throw anybody under the bus apparently left her without a plan and speechless.

He had completely shocked the customer!

Me: “Now that I got your attention, I have three things to tell you.

One: You stated that you ‘were promised wifi’ and that you ‘want to get what you pay for’. You signed a contract stating that you get wifi access for every device needed for your presentations, which we delivered. We neither can nor will provide access for all attendees of your event. Our network, our rules. Period.

Two: Your condescending, rude tone is bad enough in itself, but verbally abusing and intimidating employees, especially a minor like in this case, absolutely won’t be tolerated around here! I expect a sincere apology of yours to Lucy and myself.”

She slowly found the ability to speak again.

Finally the cherry on top!

Woman: “OK, I apologize, that was not very professional of me. But -”

Me, interrupting her: “That’s a massive understatement and doesn’t sound terribly sincere to me. Furthermore, point three:

Verbal assault and intimidation are against our house rules, which we strictly enforce and you agreed to adhere to by signing the rental contract. This alone warrants your personal removal from our premises. Also you apparently invited more than 100 people, which you weren’t allowed to do and violates fire code rules, since the maximum room capacity is exactly 100, as stated in the contract. Due to now multiple breaches of contract and said fire code violations I herewith have to ask you and your guests to leave. By the way, according to internal consultation we have not the slightest further interest in renting out our rooms to your company, considering the circumstances. Please gather your people, personal belongings and then leave our premises.”

Long story short from here on:

It was a memorable day for everyone!

She of course threw a massive hissy fit, questioned my authority some more and needed to be guided out by security. The other people from her company were confused and understandably not amused, but cooperated in a civil manner.

A week later she had her lawyer send us a letter claiming unfair treatment and requesting a refund, which gave our lawyer a big laugh and the opportunity to lay out to their counterpart how they breached the contract in great detail.

That was the last we heard from them, thankfully.

AWESOME! That is so entertaining!

How come the client didn’t see that coming?

Let’s find out how people on Reddit reacted to this one!

This user hates that it is rare to see management backing their employees!

This user has a lot of respect for this manager for making sure his employee was doing well.

This user knows this guy is a great boss!

This user wants to know Lucy’s reaction after she found out about the plot twist.

This user thinks the employee can get fired over this situation.

Somebody’s being a gem here!