A Case of Mistaken Identity

One of my best friends called me on my day off, just to tell me this story. I was at breakfast and nearly died laughing. I don't know how it will play out in word form but I'm gonna give it a shot.

We have both been working for the same company for almost 2 years now and doing exceptionally well. However, our old boss was asked to leave almost 9 months ago and we both have maintained contact with him just because he was a great guy. And despite opinion, you can be a good person and a good boss. In fact, in my career too many unqualified managers have ruined and I mean destroyed the careers of some great people.

So my friend Mike, or in this case Michael, was working late one night and didn't finish his job until 2 am. After a long grueling night he just wanted to get some sleep. However at around 5:30 am his cell phone rang and it was our old boss:

"Mike, good morning it's Tom Robert's here. Sorry to get you up early this morning Mike, but I'm in Chicago at corporate headquarters,and I've got the Vice President of operations Neal here, along with 2 of our customer service reps. We wanted just wanted you to give us an idea of how it's going at your account ______ Hospital. How are you this morning Mike?"

"Uh...good, good. I guess. What was the question again Tom?", Mike answered wondering why Tom was calling him at 5:30 first of all, and secondly why was he with the Vice President of another company?!

Michael responded but the whole time he was thinking "this must be a joke or a job interview. I'll just play along. Why does he keep calling me Mike, he's always called me Michael?"

"Ha ha. I know it's early, are you awake Mike? We were wondering how are things with _______ Hospital? Neal is just concerned since we've had some issues with the account, and it's our largest account in the West. We'd just like to be clear on their concerns. Did we get the billing issues resolved?"

" Uh yeah sure I guess. I'm not really familiar with that account Tom, since it's not in my territory. Are you referring to another _______ Hospital?"

" Nope there's only one...Always the kidder, huh Mike? Seriously Mike, can you give Neal a run down on what's happening with the account please. We don't have a lot of time Mike and we just want to clear this up before we go into a meeting."

"Oh sorry Tom. The account's good, it's good... Uh things seem to be better now. I was worried for a while but things seem to be improving.", he answered thinking "he must have me confused with his new rep. He never calls me Mike it's always Michael." So he starts sending a text immediately which reads, "Tom, get off the phone you are calling the wrong Mike this is Michael, not Mike. Hang up the phone!" He waits a few seconds but no reply is returned.

" Oh well that's great Mike, absolutely great. How bout those billing issues we were having? Are those resolved now? I know we were having trouble with their payables for a while. Did they pay those back invoices?"

Michael didn't know what to say, but he didn't want to blow Tom's cover and embarrass him at his new job. He also didn't want to carry on with this conversation when he didn't know the answers to the questions and he was operating on 3 hours of sleep. So he did the logical thing. He hung up the phone on Tom!

He figured that Tom would get the text and not call back. 30 seconds later, his phone rings again!

"Mike. We must've got cut off there. Sorry about that. So Mike, we were talking about those billing issues and I was wondering, did they pay us are they resolved?"

"I guess so yeah Tom, I haven't heard anything more so I'm pretty sure they paid. I'll double check though. "

" Great. How about that ICU Director, everything okay with him now? I know he was unhappy for a little while."

" Oh he's fine now. I in-serviced the account and he's okay now.", Michael said, lying through his teeth to protect his old boss, and hoping the call would end.

" Wonderful Mike. Well that's all the questions I have Mike. Thanks."
" No problem Tom.", he says and sends off the same text again.

At this point Michael thinks he's off the hook and is about to hang up the phone, but he's interrupted just as he is about to say goodbye.

" Mike, this is Peggy, customer service rep for the account. How are you?"

" I'm good, good. Thanks Peggy.", Michael responds thinking, "please let this end soon!"

" Mike, I have a few questions. Number one. Were we able to recover that missing product for their emergency room?"

" Yes Peggy we were thanks. I'm glad you brought that up. It was kind of difficult to find. But the staff helped me.", now Michael was just "hamming it up".

" How about the Cardiology unit are they okay with our service?"

" Oh yeah, yeah, they were a problem for a while. But they love us now."

" Good, good. That's great news. Thanks Mike, I appreciate the feedback."

"Oh no problem Peggy. Thanks for all your hard work.", he says and again he is about to say goodbye when...

" Mike. Neal here. The VP (he emphasized the VP part) I just want to thank you and I'm sure Tom does as well for the great job you're doing. Keep up the good work and have a good day."

" Just glad to help Neal. Although I'm not used to getting up this early", Michael responded and the response was audible laughter on the other end of the phone line.

"Very funny Mike. Thanks again we'll talk later.", Tom said.
" Okay Tom. Have a good one.", Michael answere and hung up the phone. He was somewhat proud of himself for getting through the call, and extremely confused about what just happened.

He sent another text to Tom and the exchange went like this:

Michael: "Tom, this is Michael, I just go off the phone with you, but you were trying to call your rep, not me."
Tom: "Michael why are you texting me this early. Are you up?"
Michael: "Yes, I'm up. I'm trying to tell you that you called me by mistake. You were trying to call your rep for the new company but you called me."
Tom: "Michael I didn't call you this morning."
Michael: "Yes you did. BY MISTAKE! I was confused. I didn't want to blow it. I thought it was a job interview or something so I played along then I hung up the phone."
Tom: "Oh, thanks Michael, wow I almost blew it there. I appreciate it. Glad you hung up that could've been a disaster."
Michael: " I did hang up but then you called me right back, and so I had to play along."
Tom: "?. I called you back?"
Michael: "Yes. You called me twice."
Tom: "Michael. Please tell me that was not you on the phone when I called a second time."
Michael: "It was. That was why I was sending the texts."
Tom: "OMG!"

Take care of your employees and they'll take care of you. No matter where they're working!

-M