My initial frustration trying to configure our internal VoIP phones that were integrated with instant messaging

This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: MSDN Blogs.


I remember when Microsoft made their initial internal roll-out
of its VoIP phones.
The VoIP phones were integrated with a desktop app which
let you configure the phone,
managed your telepresence,
as well as serving as an instant messaging client.



That last part was the annoying part,
because it meant that I started getting lots of instant
messages from people all over the company asking for help,
mostly people from product support.



When I asked if there was a way to block the instant messages
but let phone calls through,
the team that supported the VoIP phones was baffled.
They couldn't understand
why somebody would block the less intrusive thing
but leave the more intrusive one.



I'm blocking the less intrusive thing
because people think they're not intruding.
But I leave the more intrusive thing,
so people can call me if they really need to,
where "really need to" means
"I'm willing to do this really intrusive thing."



Even with this explanation,
the team still couldn't comprehend why someone would do this.
"If you're going to block the less intrusive thing,
but leave the more intrusive thing enabled,
then what did you accomplish?"
No amount of explaining could convince them
that I wasn't crazy.¹



I ended up just blocking everybody
and putting my cell phone number in my status message.
That way they could still call me if they needed to.



Turns out people rarely called.



So I guess those messages weren't all that important
after all.



¹
I could very well be crazy.

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