Collective Responsibility

I sat down with all of them individually today after the mail service was reinstated. I explained the worst of it first, that much of their emails were archived and that their mailboxes were capped at 400 MB. For some this was a quarter of what they had on Friday. I told them that it wasn't the number of emails they amassed but the attachments within. That 10 MB from the limit they would receive warnings before they were restricted from sending mail. Showing them the properties of their mailbox and explaining the folder breakdown helped them isolate the largest folders. Then I showed them how to use the field chooser to create a size column to sort by, so they can trim their mailboxes by only dealing with a handful of large messages. After my explanation and time they all seemed a little easier with the restrictions. The staff was pleased to realize their efforts would have a positive impact on the health of the network, in that Exchange would never max out again. At my last job I managed to create a collective responsibility around the network in this way and maybe I can do the same here. If both the staff and the IT people can empathize with each other's position, a level of alignment is achieved that makes running the business easier. 10 minutes per staff person is a worthwhile investment.

Lastly I told them I was always available if they had any questions. I meant it. I always do. It's easier to answer a question then to troubleshoot a problem because I was inaccessible.