Wait, what? You were using the phrase “a case of the Mondays” and you weren’t quoting Office Space? Is that something you actually say to people without being ironic?
Ha, yeah, I was quoting Office Space and then totally missed it when you additionally quoted Office Space after me. Awesome = me.
Looks like I have a case of the… aw, screw it. I clearly need more coffee.
You want to have a conversation, I want to respond sarcastically to worthless unsolicited advice. I’m sure we can find a middle ground.
Does anyone else keep forgetting that this thread is in MPSIMS and not the Pit? 'Cause I do.
Maybe you have Alzheimer’s Disease. You should see a doctor.
Dude, did Anaamika marinate your cat, or something? You are seriously harshing out on her for a really inoffensive minor comment.
Let us remember that we have a little rule here, and that is “do not be a jerk.” Please refrain from this in the future.
Ellen Cherry
MPSIMS Moderator
Back to the topic - let me share my century old IT story. (ok, not a century old store - just 18 years old).
Yes, I worked in a documentation control department back when we were still operating on 386s with DOS driven software that used F10 function commands. We were working on a government project, and the engineers were required to fill out a spreadsheet each week and submit it to us.
“Gail” was having problems with her spreadsheet. Each week she would stick her 5.25" floppy disk back in to her computer, and it would have a problem. She would come down and have us copy her previous spreadsheet on a new floppy and she would update it and print out the new one. Everything would work great until the new one was due, then the spreadsheet would be hosed again.
After about 3 weeks of this, I decided to follow her back to her office one day to try to figure out what the issue was. I watched her insert the disk in to the drive, open the file, save the file, edit the file, and print the file. It all worked fine. I watched her take the disk out, reboot the computer and then try the disk again - it all worked. I shrugged my shoulders, unsure what the issue was. Maybe the previous disks were old and corrupt.
Gail and I then chatted for a few minutes - just girly small talk - and I said my goodbyes. She thanked me again and promised to keep the disk in a safe place so nothing could happen to it. She proved it by taking a big magnet and sticking it to her metal file cabinet right by her desk.
I stopped, jaw dropped. Turns out, she’d been “storing” her file disk this same way every week. Once I explained to her that big magnets have a tendency to wipe floppy disks clean - as in 99.9% of the time, things worked better. Just glad she wasn’t on the software side of our government project.
Yes. I can ignore you from now on. It’s MPSIMS, ease up or go to the Pit. I don’t even know who you are so why you have such a problem with me I am not sure.
Here’s one that made me laugh today…we just got some netbooks in, and I was told in the strictest terms to call the help desk. So I did, and left a message. While I was waiting for a call back, I fired one up, plugged it in, followed the four step instructions, got us hooked up, and all ready.
So the help desk calls back and I explain what I did, and I’m like, “Do I need anything else? They told me to call you!”
Nope, that was it! So they are so worried about people being overwhelmed by these shiny new things that they insist everyone call the help desk when we get them.
BTW, Nava, the “train stop for the window” makes me giggle every time I read it.
Sorry, you handled that horribly. And I work as a second level software support analyst. You suffer from what a lot of computer people have: the inability to adjust your questions.
If you are on the phone with someone who is computer illiterate, you simplify your questions. Right from her first “what are you talking about?”, you should have done that. Your questions went over her head, increased the time it took to get the information you needed, made her feel dumb and insecure and made you look like an arrogant tool.
There are a lot of ways to get information from people who don’t know about computers. The best ways make them feel like they’re giving you the exact info that you need, maybe they feel they’re learning a bit, and like you don’t think they’re a moron.
And sorry, but there are probably a lot of things that you know not much about that others do. If you aren’t all that clear on, say, the details of your 401k and how they calculate contributions, yadda yadda, do you want someone who is clearly mentally sighing when trying to explain it to you?
Which is exactly what I did and do. I’m not going to argue with you because it’s not worth it but I did end up getting the information I needed and it didn’t take that long, and I was exceedingly polite (as I mention in the OP it turned out to be a legitimate LDAP error). The fact that I think she’s a moron was something I had to hide from her, but wanted to share elsewhere (here). I’m not interested in your ill-informed armchair judgments.
You’re the one who said you were writing down what she said, “verbatim”. I’m saying right now that you could have handled that “verbatim” conversation a lot better than you did and gotten the information you needed even faster. How do I know? I do it all the damned day; it’s my job.
Btw, none of your posts in this thread convince me you’re capable of not sounding like a tool when it comes to computer things. I’m quite sure she knew you thought she was a moron.
OK boss, thanks for the performance eval. I’ll try harder next time. :rolleyes:
Make sure you keep the auditory rolleyes up when you’re on your calls! Here’s a gold star.
Which part of my post is the problem?
I genuinely dislike getting advice I didn’t ask for-- it strikes me as nosy and presumptuous-- especially when the advice is obviously useless. It’s also rude, and “I was just saying” or “I’m just making conversation” no excuse.
There’s name-calling, guilt tripping, mini-modding, and insensitive language used in the thread, I’ll note, all of which can be jerk behaviour. I admit I’ve been off topic for a while now. I didn’t start it.
Seems like they’d be top notch then, as your description seems like something that only an expert could pull off!
Dunnow, I don’t think the goat is particularly comfortable with his dick in that straw. Maybe we could ask him… I’ll go bring the videocamera while you insert the dick in the straw, ok?
The part I quoted.
A previous manager - who ran the eBusiness division of a large local authority in the UK - talking with a new recruit in our office.
Manager: “So turns out the main server fell over last night”
Recruit: “What, really? It actually fell over?”
Manager: “Yeah, that’s what they told me… the server fell over shortly before 6am, but it’s been a bit unstable the last week or two apparently”
Recruit: “Well that’s a bit careless… if it’s unstable you’d have thought they’d put it on a stronger shelf, or maybe on the floor, that would stop it falling over”.
Manager: “I did suggest that but as usual those techies think they know better”.
I bit my lip and didn’t respond.
And if you could have just been arsed to say that in the first place I would have apologized. That’s how conversation works.