It's classic Max Weber's formal description of bureaucracy, in the good sense, ca 1900-1920 as an administrative/management structure. You try to set up the local office (call it first-tier) so they can answer about 90% of all questions. The other 10% are kicked up to the regional (call it 2nd tier) who one hopes can answer 90% of those questions, and so on. Or as I used to say as an academic: If you (students) have any questions about majoring etc please don't hesitate to ask me. If I don't know the answer we can go to the dept head and ask again. If the dept head doesn't know the answer we can all go to the dean who, if s/he does not know the answer, will no doubt make one up on the spot! On January 4, 2018 at 15:34 list@satchell.net (Stephen Satchell) wrote:
On 01/04/2018 01:02 PM, Dan Hollis wrote:
when the first tier incompetence stops, the direct contacts will stop too.
But, but, but...when the first tier support person gets the training to not be incompetent, he is promoted to the second tier and the vacuum is filled with another incompetent first-tier person.
So, by definition, the first tier of support will only be able to answer questions "from the book". Anything more complex than what's in "the book" is bumped to the second tier...where the problem is above the second-tier pay grade and it gets bumped further up the chain.
It's a variation of the Peter Principal: ex-incompetents will rise up the promotion ladder.
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