“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

[“Animal Farm” George Orwell. 1945]

When a service provider takes over tech support, it will be processed through a help desk tracking system based on contracted pre-defined situation assessments (urgencies) and standard service level response times based on the assessment. There may be a “break in” period, but pretty soon after the outsourcing, your prior tech contact whom you had on speed dial to call to fix your blue screen of death will no longer be able to respond directly to you.

Most of us get this. But what I find fascinating is that there still is the culture of entitlement based on seniority, not need, that you would have thought should have disappeared in the latest white collar economic melt down. The “old school” executive may have “chosen to explore other opportunities”, but his younger successor has morphed into the entitlement role.

I know this happens in all types of professional organizations, private companies, public companies and the public sector. But I am going to limit my narrative to law firms. I have some “sources” at a few Bay Street and Wall Street law firms. A number of these law firms have outsourced their tech support or they themselves have implemented the “discipline” of a help desk system. They want to cut costs and standardize the technology used at the firm.

All goes well initially, until the first senior/managing partner “crisis”. A panicked call from his (and on rare occasion, her) assistant – because dialing a phone is still not done by such an august individual - jumps them to the front of the line regardless of the issue. Tech support will come running on the double to deal with the issue; and more often than not give a private tutoring session on other technology related questions that have nothing to do with the original call and often are not business related.

And so the slippery slope begins.

The standard issue computer hardware and software that will do more than enough tricks to fulfill legal services requirements is not necessarily the latest and greatest. And when a senior/managing partner gets tech envy, look out. The help desk may try to stop the line jumping and keep to contracted standards; but the individuals at the front lines of service delivery know that this is a career limiting (killing) move, and so the discipline breaks down.

So if your organization has this type of an culture – and a surprising number do - you can accommodate this if you want and create a “super priority” category in the service levels, but this will cost more and not necessarily allocate resources effectively. Or you can try resist the elevation of some of the denizens of the farmyard above others, however history shows us ……