aureolin (4/2/2009)
In an emergency you must remember to panic!!Well, not really, but people who *are* panicking often get really angry at your failure to panic along with them. They see your calmness not as competence in the face of an emergency, but as a "failure" on your part to "understand the seriousness" of the situation. If you're not careful (and sometimes even if you are), you can suddenly find yourself defending your actions and your attitude from a frustrated and angry person instead of solving the problem.
In my experience, the best bet is to remove the panicky people from the area where you are trying to problem-solve. This can help break the escalation of their panic (and give them a chance to calm down) and remove a fairly serious distraction while you're in an emergency situation.
It's sad to say but I know what you mean and have seen that. I have asked management to give me some time and space before. It wasn't rude but I said, "it will be easier for me to get you an update and fix things if I can focus on it". If they are good they'll understand and give you the space. A coworker once tried it in a ruder way... He was being asked every 5-10 minutes for an update and he replied, "if I didn't have to stop thinking to give you an updates every 5 minutes, I could have this solved a lot quicker!". It was effective but not an approach I suggest.
mike brockington (4/2/2009)
In that case, I suppose I must retract my earlier criticism of your analogy - I still think that the comparison wasn't very close, but the point of an analogy is to stimulate thought, and in that respect it has worked well!
Fair enough 🙂 In my experience in both troubleshooting technology issues and people issues it works. I agree doesn't translate to a fire scene but so far it has worked for me in SQL and the Ambulance.
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Mike Walsh
SQL Server DBA
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