I recently had an encounter with another IT person that ended badly. My company built a web site for a new client that was his client. Let’s call him Ted. While working with this new client, we had been informed they wanted to switch hosting companies because they were unsatisfied with the service they had been getting from Ted. This formed an opinion in my mind before I even communicated with Ted. My bad.

When time came to launch the web site, we needed to manage the DNS and Ted was the domain administrator. My email was straight forward and written as nothing more than an inquiry and introduction. I figured he would be reluctant to provide much assistance; he was losing a client and wasn’t getting paid for his time. He suggested we transfer the domains so we had ownership and control. Great.

We ran into some issues that required Ted and I spend more time than we had hoped and I was unfamiliar with the process. Ted did not respond and provide assistance in a way that I thought was satisfactory. Because of my confusion and Ted’s poor communication, I was uncertain on what to do and I thought he had an obligation, as the administrator, to accommodate his client’s needs. This is where our rapport deteriorated quickly.

This story has several lessons:

1. Always be professional, respectful and helpful.
2. Don’t let other people’s impression taint your own and cause preconceptions or misconceptions.
3. Don’t make assumptions on people’s knowledge, relationships and conduct.

In hindsight, I should have been more mindful and articulated my lack of knowledge giving Ted a better perspective. Ted should have expressed his situation, or offered to take the ball to get this done as easy as possible. He could have even charged for his time, so it didn’t seem like such a loss. Regardless, it’s a shame when two professionals can’t communicate properly and get something so simple accomplished without drama.