As support engineer I’m often the piggy in the middle, or “tussen de wal en het schip” as we say in Dutch. At one hand there is the Sales Department, who would like to see our product as if it were Play-Doh and you could mould it into any shape that fits customer needs, whenever they would want to. On the other hand you have our Developers, who seem to speak another language altogether and have a totally different definition of time than the rest of us. It is always a challenge to be the interpreter of these two factions.

I have learned over time that the pressure on Development can be quite fierce, as they are the core of the company and without them there would not be a product. That is why it is important to show your developers that you care about them, despite the ruthless demands, and that sometimes all they need to go on, is a human hug: