Don’t pick up the phone and call Barry if any of the following conditions are true:

1. You have not examined the error messages that have been returned.
2. You have not researched what the error messages you received mean
3. You haven’t opened a ticket normally yet
4. You haven’t seen Barry’s normal processes through yet
5. You expect to get special help because of your “previous relationship” with Barry

All of these are recipes for disaster. You can pretty well expect that Barry is going to ask you about the first four.

All of the Barrys I know are firm believers that your failure to do your own research and examination is not cause for alarm by them. So, circumventing the normal routes of resolution is not going to be in the cards.

In addition, most of the time, Barry’s effectiveness as an employee is not measured in how many phone calls and emails they answer from people like you. Instead it tends to be measured in terms of how many trouble tickets are resolved. If you try to circumvent that process and don’t even both opening a ticket then you are setting yourself up to fail. Barrys like their jobs and want their bonuses just like you do. But if mail isn’t getting delivered and your bonus is in jeopardy, understand that this is not sufficient reason for Barry to jeopardize their own bonus (and hopes for retention when layoffs happen… again) by depressing the standard of their own worth to the company in favor of your phone call or instant message.

So, do yourself a favor: work the system and do your own research first.