The fault that would not appear

Text: an original contemporary workplace-account-style practice extract.

The lift ran perfectly while I stood beside the technician. It rose, stopped and opened its doors with a reassuring chime. I said that perhaps the problem had sorted itself out. She asked me what time yesterday’s failure had happened and whether the lift had been carrying anyone. My answer was less exact than my confidence.

She spoke to the cleaner, who remembered the doors remaining shut after a journey with a loaded trolley. She asked the office staff to record the time and circumstances if the problem returned. There was no dramatic repair for me to watch. There was a sequence of questions, checks and notes whose usefulness depended on a fault agreeing to reveal itself again. I had expected a broken part to announce its name.

Before leaving, the technician explained what had been checked and arranged a further visit. She did not claim a solution she had not found. That restraint was less satisfying than a triumphant turn of a tool, but more useful than my suggestion that a successful ride had settled everything. The lift’s quiet operation had made her work look unnecessary precisely when she needed better information to judge it.

In this extract, the writer tries to create sympathy for work whose difficulty is not immediately visible.

Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.