THE GOOD SOLDIER

The Good Soldier

I still clearly remember these words as if they were uttered just yesterday: "Do EVERYTHING you can. You have MY TACIT APPROVAL."

Somehow, there was something about "TACIT APPROVAL" that didn't sit well with me. But being the good soldier that I am, I blindly followed the order and relayed to my team the mission to do EVERYTHING to make the customers happy and "fish" for that elusive CSAT. I must confess we had to resort to some "unconventional tactics" just to ensure the customer ends the call on a happy note. If 'tis true that the end justifies the means, then I feel justified. I'm not particularly proud of what the team had to do but at least we felt justified.

One little twist in this story of the good soldier is in what I had to do to follow orders while, at the same time, protect my team. Feeling really uneasy with that "TACIT APPROVAL" hanging over my head, I made it a point to cover for my team and made sure every "out of the box" solution my team offered to resolve customer issues had my imprimatur and clearly notated. I also backed those notes with my own notes.

One funny thing when your site becomes #1 is you suddenly appear on the auditors' radar. And I was totally anticipating that. I was hoping our managers can justify our performance but somehow that damn "TACIT APPROVAL" just kept haunting me. Well, at least I know I got my men covered. But who's covering me?

Damn, I hate it when I'm right. Guess what? When things got hot, our great general showed his yellow streak and disavowed a handful of sups and agents who were just following orders and now were betrayed and suffering the consequences of being good soldiers.

Bulls**t! Good people were put in a bad spot simply for following orders. The site lost a lot of good people that month, myself included. And dozens more subsequently left the account after realizing what happened. But our great general managed to hang on to his post... for a while. I heard karma eventually caught up with him.

As supervisors, we are usually caught between following orders and protecting our team. If the order is legit and adheres to site policy, then no problem. But if you know the order is questionable and you only have "TACIT APPROVAL" to cover your behind, better think twice. But whatever you do, DO NOT PUT YOUR AGENTS' CAREER ON THE LINE! You have to take the bullet for your team if things go south.