Two Minutes in the Office Kitchen

Scene: It is Tuesday morning. You are refilling your water bottle in the office kitchen when Priya, the VP of Operations, walks in to make tea. You have never spoken to her one-on-one, and you have about two minutes before the kettle boils.

You: Morning! This kettle takes forever, doesn't it? I'm Wei, by the way — I joined the support team back in March. I don't think we've actually met, but I sat in on your all-hands last week.

Priya: Hi Wei, nice to finally put a face to the name. March — so you've survived four months. How is it going? And honestly, is there anything that's slowing your team down right now?

You: Mostly good. The team is friendly and I've picked things up faster than I expected. One small thing, since you asked: customers often email us and open a chat about the same issue, so we end up answering the same question twice. Nothing urgent — it just eats about an hour a day.

Priya: That's useful, thank you. We've heard something similar from the Manila office, so you're not imagining it. Would you mind sending me two or three real examples? I'd rather look at actual tickets than a summary. My calendar is a mess this week, but email always reaches me.

You: Happy to. I'll pull a few from last month and send them over this afternoon, with the ticket numbers so your team can follow up. I'll keep it short — I know how much email you get.

Priya: Short is very welcome. Oh, my tea's ready. Thanks for flagging this, Wei — it's exactly the kind of thing that never makes it up to my level. Grab me again if nothing has happened in two weeks.

You: Will do — I'll chase you politely. Enjoy your tea, Priya, and thanks for listening. It was nice to meet you properly at last. Say hi to the Manila team from us; we work with them every day.