Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Quick to Judge, Slow to Ask

Since my company often works together with the government, a number of friends have asked me for tips on dealing with civil servants. I usually reply by telling the stories of Sudi, a coworker.

Sudi is an IT technician, and because of that, he's met government people from various positions. Years ago, an executive of a particular Ministry asked him to enable an internet access into the 21st floor's meeting room. Sudi said that it would require a lot of efforts, since the main server's down on the first floor.

"I don't care how you do it," said the executive. "I'm bad at technology. Just make it happen."

Sudi practically punctured holes and dragged cables all the way from the first floor. After reaching the meeting room, later that night, he asked the executive, "So what is it for, anyway?"

He answered, "Tomorrow, there will be some important guests coming into this meeting hall."

"And?"

"I want to play them some local MP3 songs."

"Uhm, Sir," said one of his subordinates. "But that doesn't require internet access."

"See," the executive bellowed. "I told you that I'm bad at technology!"

Another day, Sudi got to plug a new ethernet card into the Minister's computer. After he was done, the minister switched on his PC. The power light turned on. But the monitor was dead.

"What is this? How can the new card kill my monitor?" asked the Minister.

"Well, Sir... it's because..."

"We paid great money for these cards. If they damage our computers this would be a great loss! How can this be?"

"Maybe--"

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe because I haven't plugged the [monitor's] cable power?"

The message is simple: when facing people who are quick to judge and slow to ask, we find it very helpful (for ourselves) to just be the opposite. Be quick to ask and slow to judge.

6 comments:

Eddy Fahmi said...

hahaaa... buat pak eksekutif itu harusnya si sudi bilang perlu bikin wifi hotspot di lantai 21, biar dia yg ngurus pengadaan barangnya (dg harga tinggi)

n untuk reparasi monitornya biar bisa 'kompatibel' dg card baru butuh biaya sejuta!

hihihiiii... bisa cepet kaya kalo kerja sama orang2 macem gitu :D

Primadonna Angela said...

cepet kaya tapi makan hati. beuh... mending nggak deh.

Rika, Mamanya Naufal said...

Hah.. tipikal pejabat.

Hari ini baca Jakarta post, makin miris baca tulisan di halaman depan, SBY mantuan pake dana president household budget... artinya.. saya yang bayarin.. hihihi tajir juga gw.

btw, Man... check a hillarious pic on my blog.. you'll love it!

http://www.rumahsari.com/blog

Number13 said...

Nggak cuma pejabat, yg anggota DPR juga ga ketulungan semeleketenya! Liat ini deh, pasti geleng": http://as-laksana.blogspot.com/2005/07/tentang-dpr-di-sebuah-tembok.html

serenity said...

I got a better idea, why don't he had the guest in the second floor, where it took less trouble and he can still play mp3 with the internet!

Anonymous said...

LOL ... kewl story. wonder i havent read it. points are worth taken, man.