Who ya gonna call?

You dial 411 when you need information. You dial 911 when you need help. But what if you don't need either of those things? What if all you really need is sympathy? After all, sometimes you just need to bitch about stuff. There should be something in between 411 and 911. I imagine the call would go like this:

Operator: "Hello, this is the operator."

You: "My life sucks. Nothing is working right."

Operator: "Oh, you poor dear..."

All joking aside, there is great value to this kind of service and, as a manager, you should provide it to your team. If for no other reason, it will help keep all the complaining in-house. But it will do more than keep your team out of trouble, it gives them a place to be heard. People like to be heard. The competent ones don't need you to do anything; they just need to get something off their chest.

Any given day, a team member will come into my office and just launch into something. I will interrupt them, tell them the hotline joke, and then ask them what kind of call are they making. Most times, they don't even realize that is ok to just complain. 

It also helps clarify, when they are only providing information (411) and don't need me to do anything just yet (911). Often, the sympathy call will point out a problem that hasn't gone critical, yet. I know to keep an eye on it, and use the time to work a solution.

This, of course, can be abused - so be sure to set boundaries. Some team members can be olympic-level complainers.

When I first thought of this sympathy call joke, I used 811 as the number that you would dial. It turns out a couple years ago, the Department of Transportation set it up as part of a public safety campaign, a national digger's hotline of sorts. (If you are curious: www.call811.com)

I almost changed the number I used in the joke, but I liked the idea that 811 was setup for your own protection and safety. So now, I work that little fact into the discussion to reinforce that complaining is ok, so long as you make the right call.

© Aron Ruthe, 2014