# Work stupidity **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 24, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561 "2008-07-24T00:14:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/1 "2008-07-24T00:14:11Z")
Power outage at the office today. Lasts about 20 minutes or so. Power comes back. Reboot my machine, and here’s the first two new emails I have: * * * To: All employees in location \ From: IT Guys in location \ Subject: Power outage ## The power is out. We will send mail once the power has been restored. * * * To: All employees in location \ From: IT Guys in location \ Subject: RE: Power outage ## The power has been restored. ::sadly shaking head, eyes closed:: ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/2 "2008-07-24T00:14:58Z")
Are you sure they aren’t just having you on? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/3 "2008-07-24T00:16:16Z")
How did the IT guys _send_ the email? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/4 "2008-07-24T00:19:09Z")
[QUOTE=Captain\_C] Are you sure they aren’t just having you on? [/QUOTE] I’ve known plenty of IT guys in my time; I’d be money on this. If they could see this thread, they’d be rolling on the floor right about now. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/5 "2008-07-24T00:30:47Z")
_pfft_ Hell, I’ve seen managment people making calls to ensure that an e-mail is sent out advising people that the e-mail system is unavailable. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/6 "2008-07-24T00:47:28Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] How did the IT guys _send_ the email? [/QUOTE] OWA and a laptop? I really don’t know. > [@](#): > > I’ve known plenty of IT guys in my time; I’d be money on this. If they could see this thread, they’d be rolling on the floor right about now. “IT” is misused by them - they’re more like facilities folks - phones, lightbulbs, fire drills, etc. They are humorless idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/7 "2008-07-24T01:58:44Z")
We had a power outage that lasted 12hrs about a month ago. They also sent emails… but they also sent text messages to everyone’s cell phones, which was way cool. ---
**Author:** ![SomeUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@SomeUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeUserName)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/8 "2008-07-24T08:32:05Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] How did the IT guys _send_ the email? [/QUOTE] Generators? When our power goes out we have back up generators that immediatly start up. Our OPS and helpdesk remains up while the rest of us head for offices with windows or wonder around outside. We have emergency lighting but depending were you are in the cube farm that could mean you have a spot light on you or you are in almost total darkness. When power is restored we get the same type of emails that tell us the power was out and is back on. It is more of an operations requirement to notify. The power does not always go out during working hours, our OPS is 24/7, so they send the notice regardless of the time of day. We get the same emails if the email server is down or if the internet is down but at least with those they also make an announcment over the loud speaker so you are not sitting there like a monkey wondering why your internet connection does not work. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/9 "2008-07-24T12:29:47Z")
I think the emails went out for people on a backup device. Basically shut down your computer, because the power is off and that’s why your unit is beeping. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/10 "2008-07-24T14:00:09Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] Hell, I’ve seen managment people making calls to ensure that an e-mail is sent out advising people that the e-mail system is unavailable. [/QUOTE] Heh. Our corporate tech guys for some reason took against the soft-token based remote access solution (I’m guessing someone found a security hole in it). So they disabled this at the server end, meaning that anyone without a hard token could not connect to the remote network remotely. They did this late Friday evening New York time. Then they went home, having made no plans to source hard tokens in a hurry, or to distribute them, alert the helpdesk, or to generally prepare for the gigantic global shitstorm that broke Monday morning as several tens of thousands of home workers/travellers phoned up to ask why they couldn’t connect. What they had done was send out an email to remote access users telling them that their VPN access would no longer work. True genius. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/11 "2008-07-24T14:23:01Z")
UPS and a wireless card in their laptops. If the email is sent to all employees, it’s likely that they were alerting people in other offices instead of you. At least, that’s how it goes down in my company. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/12 "2008-07-24T14:39:11Z")
Some people have computers on UPS systems or on separate power feeds. It isn’t unusual to have mission-critical systems on a high-reliability power feed while everyone else gets ordinary commercial power. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/work-stupidity/457561/13 "2008-07-24T19:59:05Z")
[QUOTE=Lord Ashtar] UPS and a wireless card in their laptops. If the email is sent to all employees, it’s likely that they were alerting people in other offices instead of you. At least, that’s how it goes down in my company. [/QUOTE] Unfortunately no. It only went to the alias for employees in the office in which the power went out. At least this has been a good source for humor around here since it happened - we need a little of that.