Workplace anger and Facebook

More frustrating to me than technology failures in the marketplace are people unclear on concepts related to technology and the marketplace.

To wit: A colleague's outburst last week on, of all places, Facebook, after his onerous experience with our employer's productivity software.

Exactly what prickled him wasn't made clear in his post, but his general disparagement rang bells with a few other colleagues, and they therefore felt the need to chime in.

I can guess what happened. You see, our workplace software is, to put it mildly, uncooperative about 2 percent of the time; files are lost or erased, templates must be reloaded time after time, network connections fracture and the servers have a hard time swallowing commands when too many come through the pipe at once. Not to mention that the computer system itself is aging. (What the heck; I mentioned it anyway.)

From this standpoint, anyone unfamiliar with our systems might nod in understanding, as I doubt our issues are either new or unique. 'Tis always thus for people and institutions who expect electrons to maintain a constant charge.

There is, therefore, a certain amount of hair-tugging, fabric-rending, desk-pounding, heart-racing and blue language expected with such matters when said matters arise at or near a project deadline.

What galls me though is not these animated displays in the office (no, that's not right; they do, in fact, gall me), but animated displays artlessly distributed through social networks. In particular: Facebook.

I attribute this distribution to a desire for emotional outreach, a search for understanding among kindred souls who may have stumbled down the same dark path. Basically, these folks are just venting and demand an audience to gage their performances.

But when I next crank up my workplace computer, that venting will not have released whatever silicon-based pressure initiated the trouble. The software will be, as before, balky at times. (Perhaps more so if addressing the users' initial complaints leads to alterations in the software interface that in turn force users to revise their behavior.)

That is, in part, because the venting goes out to people who may understand but cannot fix the problem. The wrong audience is listening.

But the other part is design of the system and the need. Our software was created with one goal, and we are able to achieve that goal adequately. Anything more demands an expenditure the company had neither the time nor inclination to accommodate. Here too, this is nothing new in the American workplace.

In other words, we've got what we've got because it does the job and fell within a specific price range, not because it was apt to coddle its users.

Of course, this doesn't stop people from treating software as a friend, instead of as a tool. As a result, we're hurt when it jilts us.

Whatever subsequent closure we seek, however, cannot be found on Facebook. Or Twitter. Or any of the social networks we use. They become little more than conduits for noise when we try.

So, folks, please just, you know, keep a lid on it. Bite your tongue. Bite someone else's tongue, if you prefer. But refrain from taking a one-step approach to what could be a 12-step problem. And be mindful of your employer's perceptions regarding publicized workplace issues. (Employers do read Facebook, you know.)

Because while you may feel better after venting on Facebook, your boss might feel just the opposite.