Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)

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I just had to assist one of my newer colleagues with one of the worst callers I have ever encountered, and now I'm shaking like a leaf. Remember how I said I'd only had to report someone for a breach of the Code of Conduct a couple of times in my career? Well, it just happened again. Guy was absolutely frothing. You bet we're reporting this one.

I need to visualise a peaceful meadow for a while now.
 
arthwollipot said:
I just had to assist one of my newer colleagues with one of the worst callers I have ever encountered, and now I'm shaking like a leaf. Remember how I said I'd only had to report someone for a breach of the Code of Conduct a couple of times in my career? Well, it just happened again. Guy was absolutely frothing. You bet we're reporting this one.

I need to visualise a peaceful meadow for a while now.
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Would you be interested in supporting my new logon token? It's worn as a wristband and can remotely deliver an electric shock.
 
arthwollipot said:
I just had to assist one of my newer colleagues with one of the worst callers I have ever encountered, and now I'm shaking like a leaf. Remember how I said I'd only had to report someone for a breach of the Code of Conduct a couple of times in my career? Well, it just happened again. Guy was absolutely frothing. You bet we're reporting this one.

I need to visualise a peaceful meadow for a while now.
Click to expand...
In Oz, how would you know what that looks like?
 
arthwollipot said:
I just had to assist one of my newer colleagues with one of the worst callers I have ever encountered, and now I'm shaking like a leaf. Remember how I said I'd only had to report someone for a breach of the Code of Conduct a couple of times in my career? Well, it just happened again. Guy was absolutely frothing. You bet we're reporting this one.

I need to visualise a peaceful meadow for a while now.
Click to expand...

Well, you're one up on me. I've never had to report anyone for violating my employer's code of conduct.

I did lose a contractor from my team, though. He engaged an employee in the parking lot, to harangue them about their unsafe driving habits, and managed to cross a very bright line in the code of conduct. Security was called, his badge and computer were confiscated, and he was escorted off the property. His contract was terminated that morning.

Anyway, every decent organization seems to have a Code of Conduct, but as you have illustrated yourself, they don't actually prevent bad behavior.
 
We have a new contractor on the team and this morning he was commenting on the techs from India who often times call people by their last name.

He said he would be upset by that and I chuckled. I've been called by my last name countless times, it's nothing to be upset about - it's either a cultural thing or it's people not understanding how commas work.

Mostly, the people I interact with are delightful.
 
Faydra said:
We have a new contractor on the team and this morning he was commenting on the techs from India who often times call people by their last name.
He said he would be upset by that and I chuckled. I've been called by my last name countless times, it's nothing to be upset about - it's either a cultural thing or it's people not understanding how commas work.

Mostly, the people I interact with are delightful.
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Tell him to read this: Naming_practice_guide_UK_2006.pdf before he gets upset.
 
"Hi, I can't open Outlook."

"Do you get an error message?"

"Yes, it says Outlook detected a problem with normal.dotn and do you want to create a new one?"

"What happens if you say yes to that?"

"Okay, Outlook looks like it's opening normally now."

"Please call back if you have any further problems."
 
theprestige said:
<snip>

Anyway, every decent organization seems to have a Code of Conduct, but as you have illustrated yourself, they don't actually prevent bad behavior.
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I think it illustrates that that they don't actually prevent every single instance of bad behavior.

They do provide prescribed avenues of redress when such instances occur, as you have illustrated yourself.

Whether or not they discourage some or many instances of bad behavior which might have occurred in their absence is a difficult thing to quantify. I think it is safe to suggest that they probably discourage some of them.

Which I suppose is a good thing.
 
arthwollipot said:
"Hi, I can't open Outlook."

"Do you get an error message?"

"Yes, it says Outlook detected a problem with normal.dotn and do you want to create a new one?"

"What happens if you say yes to that?"

"Okay, Outlook looks like it's opening normally now."

"Please call back if you have any further problems."
Click to expand...

I would probably have called tech support for this question myself, thinking perhaps there was a problem with a document I'd previously edited, and creating a "new one" would delete the recovery version. Something like this has happened before...
 
I understand the complaint about people who claim to "not be computer persons", but unfortunately, those do exist. It has nothing to do with the fact that computers existed since the 70's. Not all people are computer savvy. Just because you do use computers, doesn't mean you actually know your way around them when anything unexpected happens and now you have to go to "Settings" and try to fix the problem yourself. Or even knowing how to navigate certain web servers such as e-mail and stuff.

An example of that is my dad: My dad has been a screenwriter his whole life. So yes, of course he has used computers most of his life to write, but this means that because his job is writing, he has only been concerned with the writing part, which is just opening a Word document and typing. Anything beyond that is pretty much a world of the unknown to him.

I will give you that people like my dad have been too lazy to try to understand how computers work a little bit better. But there's also some kind of cultural issue, I think. And also just, different brains are wired differently and find it harder to understand things (whether it's operating a computer or playing chess or being able to draw, etc) There are things that we take for granted that are just intuitive that people like my parents still fail to see. For instance, you're looking for something on the web, and you hit on an unofficial website. You can't really tell exactly why, but you know this website is probably some ******** spam trying to disguise itself as a website with the information you're looking for. There's a sort of instinct that computer savvy and just people who use computers a lot, that we know this website is a waste of time. But people like my parents cannot tell the difference. They basically take anything they find on the web at face value.

So it's a little bit of both: 1) Yes, people who are not computer people do exist, and 2) It does have to do in part with their lack of commitment to try to learn a bit about computers.... but it's also just a matter of how people's brains are. Some people just have it very hard to wrap their minds around how to operate computers.
 
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You can be "not a computer person" all you want, provided you don't get a job that is 100% entirely done on a computer.
 
Tech: "What group are you in?"
Me: "That depends on the system having a problem. I'm in at least 4 groups."
Tech: "A user is getting an error on a web app."
Me: "Okay, I support servers, not desktop. Why are you sending this to me?"
Tech: "Oh, someone said it's an SSO-enabled site."

Okay, finally, he gets me to the system that lets me tell him what assignment group to send the ticket. I look at the ticket (keep in mind my role in this context is single sign on):

User description: After I log into the site the app doesn't display properly.

Facepalm.
 
If I could install a single, magical device on my users PCs it would be big flashing neon light that switches between "You're now on the part of the network I can control" and "You're now on the internet where I have no more control then you."
 
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