when egos collide

I wish I could understand it, because then maybe I could explain it in a manner that doesn't make it seem totally ridiculous. Between this and the whiners, y'all are gonna think I work with a bunch of idiots. Some days, I think you might be right.

We have a company intranet. When you click on a certain link it's supposed to launch an application that is basically a huge address book. Under the right circumstances it doesn't work. Well, one person works on the intranet and another works on the glorified address book. Both are insisting it's nothing wrong with their stuff. Their shit doesn't stink!! It has to be the other's stuff, so we start pointing the finger at each other. (Yes, I know the question is coming and I'm ashamed to say your assumption is correct. They're both men.)

Now, these two guys work within 5 feet of each other. They're cubicle neighbors. You would think one could stand up and walk the 5 feet and, working together, figure out the issue. If they did, the solution could take as much as half an hour..as little as two minutes. This would be the lumberyard solution.

Do we do this? Of course not...or I wouldn't be whining about it now.

This happened while I was in a meeting in a different location yesterday afternoon. When I got back from said meeting and looked at my e-mail, there were probably 20 to 30 of them, total, written by one or the other, copying the entire world (which is how they found their way to my inbox), telling the other it was their problem and telling the other exactly what was wrong with their shit. Now, both are copying the entire world, because (I assume) both think they're right and the other person is wrong and they want everyone to know just how right they are and just how wrong the other is....making both look like egotistical babies, spending a few hours in self-righteousness. I heard the whole mess ended in a verbal confrontation that was audible outside the building.

Folks, if you know what's wrong, take five steps and talk it out. The solution could take half as long as writing one of those 30 e-mails, and definitely less time than the entire e-mail flame war. Cooperation works a whole lot better than a battle of egos. That was one of the most pitiful series of e-mails I have ever slogged my way through.