Showing Up

There's a funny challenge floating around social media; I've seen it a few times posted by friends or in a couple of private groups for dads. The challenge is to describe your profession badly. For example, a photographer could say they ask people to smile then shoot them. A PE teacher would explain how they make kids throw balls at each other. An IT support person said he asks people if they've turned it off and back on again. Me? When I terribly describe my job, I say "I have the most amount of power with the least amount of authority." Which is both the worst and truest explanation of my day job.

Realistically, my job is unique and difficult to describe. The simplest definition is data analyst, and while I do some analytical work, it's not a big part of what I do. I could also call myself a reporting technician, but even that is a flimsy descriptor. I work closely with IT, but I'm not in IT. I speak their language, yet I don't have any of their certifications. My actual title is system access coordinator, but no one knows what that means. To complicate matters, I'm the only person in my building that does what I do and it's not a common job in other industries.

This leads me to fall back on the most power/least authority comment. No one reports to me so I'm not responsible for any employee development. Although, I frequently support those who do train and coach employees. I do not have the ability to make hiring or firing decisions, which is good because firing people was my least favorite aspect of my job when I was in that kind of position. I can make recommendations but can't make demands. I have zero authority. But power? Absolutely. If I didn't do my job, then no one in my group would be able to do theirs. This leaves little room for error. Thankfully, I'm good at my job.

In some ways, I could say I am to my office what Fox Mulder was to the FBI. When something weird happens, I am the one that gets summoned. I show up, I troubleshoot, I investigate, and sometimes I resolve the weirdness. Other times, the strange occurrence is beyond my ability to diagnose or fix, so I escalate it to someone who can take care of it. If I don't know the answer, I know who does.

This guy, probably.

There are other times, when hailed for trouble isolation, I don't have to do anything. I show up and it mysteriously works. It's like a superpower. One of my coworkers refers to it as my magic pixie dust. Here's how it works. An employee complains about a system or process that isn't working the way it is supposed to, preventing them from doing their job. Their boss comes to my office and asks me for help. I follow them to the employee and ask them to show me what went wrong. They open the supposedly broken system to recreate the error, but instead it works exactly the way it's supposed to function. Problem solved. They thank me for assisting and I walk away a hero despite not doing anything.

Actually, I didn't do nothing. (Yay, double negatives!) I showed up. You would be surprised how many problems I fix by just showing up. Perhaps the real problem was user error and all they needed was my presence to fix what was broken. They probably could have done it on their own but having someone like me standing beside them or looking over the shoulder was enough motivation for them to do what needed to be done. They know I'm not going to judge them or criticize them or terminate their position. I'm only a friendly face and they can't get that support if I don't show up.

There is a life lesson in here. Showing up is great for employment, it's also needed outside of the office. When my friends invite me out for pizza, they don't need me to do anything specific for them, they just need me to show up. When my fiancée shares her feelings about a rough day, she doesn't need me to fix anything for her, she just needs me to be present and listen to her. When my kids need help with homework, it's not because they can't do it on their own - they just need me to be there providing bits of guidance and affirmation. It's amazing what can happen with the people I love the most when I just show up.

To be honest though, I'm not great at showing up. Too often, my nose is pointed down looking at a little black device most of us carry around in our pockets. I get distracted far too easily. Facebook and Twitter, texts and IMs, news feeds, podcasts, Angry Birds, Youtube, Netflix, Kindle. It's like I'm around but I'm not. I'm there and somewhere else at the same time. I'm simultaneously productive and unproductive, busy and slacking. I am horrible at multitasking. Maybe it's ADD or FOMO. Probably not. The true culprit is misplaced priorities. The solution is easy, yet incredibly difficult. All I need to do is turn off the phone. Put it away. Ignore it. It's a habit I need to break because there are more important things in life. And great things happen when I show up.