Hats Off to the Unsung Office Heroes

That’s how it goes…
The world belongs to strategic consultants, project managers, senior account executives, top designers, and a hundred other beautiful people making great things happen… Their work is appreciated, their creations win applause, awards even, and they happily claim their deserved place in the spotlight.

But they achieve their goals thanks to the courage and support of the unsung heroes of today’s office life: the tech support people.

The customer is in the room
The whole team stayed late to finish that awesome presentation.
This moment will define the future of the collaboration. Stress is rising.
And then… nothing works. The big screen has some unknown error message, and now your laptop crashes, to boot. You feel as though you are sucked into a black hole. You can’t even find the power to share a little smile, all goes dark.

Helpdesk to the rescue
Suddenly Rick or Mark is there (or fill in your own tech support person’s name!). Deus Ex Machina. He says: ‘You talk to the people, I’ll get this baby going.’ Two minutes later all is well, you’re on a roll and the meeting is bound for glory.

Olivier, First Line helpdesk at Emakina’s Brussels office

I’m sure you know who they are…
They are often somewhat introverted, humble, with their own sense of humour, their to-the-core-geekiness and love for tech stuff. They have tons of patience and remain calm in times of crisis. When the going gets tough, they get going.

When Murphy’s law strikes, many leaders, designers and stars panic and are left without a clue on how to solve imminent disaster. Then the tech support people for a brief moment take centre stage. To fix it. Make things work again.

Tech support people get no statues.
They are the unsung heroes of our time.

They have no white horse, no shining armour. But they combine digital intelligence, wit, experience and the mind of a Zen master to make others succeed. And when that happens, they are already back in the shade.

On to the next issue, the next stressed out colleague in need of a fix…
HOW COME I KEEP WRITING IN CAPS LOCK? Why is the printer not responding? My computer mouse looses its bearings all the time. The bloody Wi-Fi is down again. My password suddenly is wrong (I’m sure I remembered it correctly!?).

Take a moment, people.
Pay your brave tech support colleagues the respect they deserve.