The Top 13 Things Your IT Guy Wishes You Knew

 

the-it-crowd-moss-and-roy

Inspired by Claire’s request for professional wisdom, here’s my take on what IT guys wish people knew. IT environments differ a lot in size, so not everything will apply, but I’m sure we have enough folks waiting in the wings to add or subtract in the comments.

1) Yes, really. Turn it off and on again.

I know, you hate when we ask you to do that. I really understand the sighing, eye-roll-thing you do when I ask you to do it. It’s annoying to have to stop, save everything, close the dozen-plus tabs you have open in Chrome, and press the restart button. But here’s the thing: It’s one of the biggest reasons your computer is running like Canadian molasses in January. Mac or PC, the operating systems just aren’t 100 percent efficient. Over time, junk builds up, memory gets sequestered and never released, and those updates you’ve been ignoring really do need to be installed. We keep a running record of the longest time since reboot that we’ve found in my office. Right now it’s not numbered in days or weeks, it’s months.

Restart it. Trust me, it may not solve the problem, but it’ll help.

2) There’s one of me, and hundreds of you.

One of the things that fails to cross many user’s minds is that he or she is one of many, many people who want some of my time. I’ve worked in environments where the ratio of users to IT guys was 1-to-1000-plus. (That was a university). I know what you’re doing is important, but so’s the stuff the other 100 people in my In Box are doing, and there just might be someone higher up the chain with a problem that — rightly or wrongly — we have to make a priority. It’s not personal, and we don’t hate you. We just have a lot of people asking us for stuff all at the same time. And none of them are happy.

3) Don’t yell at your waiter.

Ok, so it might be a little personal. Have you ever heard the warning to never make the person serving your food angry? I hate to admit it, but this is true in IT as well. We’re only human. Some people are a joy to work for. There’s nothing more satisfying than being a knight in shining armor to someone who’s about to start sobbing into the keyboard. But the self-entitled jackwad who throws his title around yet can’t remember his password just may wind up at the end of a very long line.

Hey, I never said I was perfect.

4) Please, please, please put it in a ticket or an email.

One of the most vexing things in IT is when someone walks up to you with a problem, you have a conversation about it, and then you get a disappointed nastygram later because whatever you talked about didn’t happen. I’m a guy who prides himself on getting things done: It’s my job. But I honestly can’t remember everything (please see #2). If it’s not in an email, it didn’t happen, and not because I’m trying to cover my rear. I just plain forgot. Ten seconds after we talked, I ran into someone else with a completely different problem, and what you and I talked about got put in a box and put away. For that, I’m truly sorry. If there’s a ticket system for reporting issues, use it. I’ll recognize it, grab it, and get it done — if it’s something I can do; and if not, I’ll give it to someone who can. If there’s no ticket system, send me an e-mail. I check my mail constantly, and I’ll make sure your e-mail is marked “unread” until I get it done.

5) Everyone gets spam. If I could keep you from getting it, I wouldn’t be here.

We try to make sure no one gets the ones from the Nigerian prince or the “BIG … er … whatever” e-mails anymore, but you need to trust me here: If I could make sure every e-mail you’re supposed to get got to you and every baloney spam e-mail went to the trash bin, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be sitting on a beach, earning 20 percent, à la Hans Gruber in Die Hard. I hate those things as much as you do –and I get them, too. Forwarding them to me doesn’t really help, though if it makes you feel better, by all means do so. I’d just like  you to understand that literally, every human being on the planet who has e-mail gets spam, even the ones who use Gmail (just not as much).

6) Yes, I really do need your computer.

By far the thing that makes me want to remote into your computer, disable your keyboard access, and shut it down while you watch is getting an email from you that says your computer isn’t working right, but you won’t stop using it long enough for me to fix it. This isn’t a TV show where I can click the “make it work” button without you even knowing I’m there. I might even have to take your computer and work on it in my office to get it running again. I know it sucks, and if didn’t have to, I wouldn’t. But if you want it to work, you’re going to have to hand over the keys and let me drive for a while.

If you have to, make me your excuse for taking that two-hour lunch. I’ll vouch for you. (And please bring me some fries.)

7) I, too, have bad days.

This isn’t one I’m proud to admit. But I have bad days. Sometimes, for no reason at all, I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and it takes everything in me not to bite somebody’s head off when he tells me his “computer is running slow” — even though he has a better computer than I do. One good thing to remember is that no one ever comes to me to say, “Hey, everything is working awesome! I just wanted to say thank you!” I don’t only put out fires, but 99 percent of the time, if I hear from users it’s because something is wrong, and they want it fixed now. Most of the time this isn’t a problem. I try to be an upbeat guy, smile, and say, “Hey, no problem, I’ll take care of that for you.” If you catch me on a day where I’m not that friendly, gimme some grace. I have bad days too. (Unless I’m that guy who’s always the jerk nobody likes. Trust me, we don’t like him either).

8) I promise, I don’t watch your webcam or what you’re working on.

A few months back, I started noticing a lot of stickers, tape, and random post-its over the top of the laptop cameras built into the monitor. After a few conversations, I discovered that people are worried they’re being watched or listened to through them. First off, a little tape doesn’t mute the microphone (just a heads-up). But more importantly, we’re not watching. Really, we’re not. I know what you saw on NCIS, and technically, it is possible to hack into someone’s computer to watch and listen to them. But unless you’re Angelina Jolie or some other celebrity, a hacker who does that kind of thing is more likely to find you by accident. The odds are slim. Most enterprise-level organizations use software that lets us remote into your computer so we can fix things. Some flavors of that software let us see screenshots of what you’re doing before we connect to you (so we don’t interrupt you if you’re doing something important). But I’ve got a lot of work to do, so if you’re surfing Facebook on company time, it just isn’t my concern. Now, if we’re told to watch your habits, that’s a different thing altogether. So don’t abuse your Internet privileges, commit corporate espionage, or watch porn. Deal?

9) We eat lunch.

It should seem obvious, honestly, given the general body-mass index of your average IT guy, but we eat lunch. I can’t speak for all of us, but I tend to do working lunches. It’s a great time to get caught up on e-mails, tickets, and anything that I can do while eating the food I brought from home — and still leave on time to beat traffic. It’s not a great time for you to walk into the office and give me a play-by-play of your latest computer malady when you could easily have told me about it in an e-mail. If you come into my office and I’m eating lunch, maybe just give me the Reader’s Digest version. Tell me you’ll send me an e-mail about it later. It’s nothing personal, but the fact that you can’t add an attachment in Outlook Web Access in Chrome might not be the food-abandoning crisis you think it is.

10) Yes, complex passwords suck. I hate them, too.

Passwords. Everybody hates them, me included. Capital letters and numbers and special characters — who can remember that stuff? Everybody has a dozen-plus accounts these days, and you’re supposed to make all the passwords different and change them frequently. I get it, it’s a pain. But it’s a necessary evil and a standard practice, and I don’t have any control over it. I wish I didn’t have to make you do it. I really do. Just watch the news, though: Stuff gets hacked all the time, and this is one of the easiest security measures to implement. We know you use the same basic password and change the numbers at the end; we’ll give you a pass on that, everybody does it. Still, if you can avoid it, please don’t give us the whole speech about how much you hate it every time it comes up. We know. We sympathize. But there really isn’t a thing we can do about it.

11) No, really, I don’t hate Macs.

The Enterprise network world (as far as users are concerned) is Windows-centric. It just is. Right, wrong or indifferent, Microsoft is at the top of this pack, and even with their menagerie of problems, they make a decent and affordable product that scales well as organizations grow. I say this as a user of Apple products: I don’t hate Macs. I know you like the personal one you have at home, and I know you hate Windows. There are days I hate it, too. But if you knew what it would take to make the occasional Mac work in a PC-centric Domain, you wouldn’t beg for one — if only out of compassion. More importantly, if you knew what it would cost to make everything an Apple product, organization-wide, and keep it that way, you really wouldn’t want us to, because you wouldn’t be getting a raise. Ever.

When Apple makes Enterprise solutions a priority I’ll be more than happy to consider it, but for the time being, enjoy the one you have at home. I know I do: It’s right next to my PC and my Linux box.

12) Sometimes, there is no magic wand.

Alas, sometimes you win the new-problem lottery. You see, not everything that happens in the IT world has happened before. Don’t get me wrong, most of the time it has, and even if I haven’t seen it, it’s been seen by someone just a Google search away. But when that’s not the case, you need to understand that there’s no magic wand. It could very well be that what you’ve run into is new. We’re trying to figure it out (and believe me, as much as we bellyache about it, we enjoy the challenge). It may even be that the hardware on your computer is broken, in which case, no combination of nasty e-mails, expletive-laden phone calls, and in-person butt-chewings can change the fact that we have to wait for parts and/or wait for the manufacturer to figure it out.

I’m really sorry. Please take the loaner laptop and be patient with us.

13) I really do want your stuff to work.

Ultimately, I would really like users to believe that I want your stuff to work. I don’t get any pleasure from your computer breaking down in the middle of a presentation or from Word crashing on you as you typed the last few sentences of that report. Honestly, it pains me, because I feel some responsibility even when it’s nothing I could have prevented. As much as I may like you, the only time I really want to see you is when I give you that cool new upgrade or when we cross paths getting a cup of coffee. In a perfect world, that would be the only time you ever had contact with me.

But it isn’t a perfect world. So let me take care of you as best I can, and trust me when I tell you that a little patience and a smile can go a long way.

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  1. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    lesserson: Yes, really. Turn it off and on again.

    Also, try another outlet if you can. This worked for me yesterday, and I’m still not sure why. Stuff breaks for reasons most of us cannot even guess, so doing the easy stuff, even if it seems stupid, is worth a shot.

    And if you can’t remember the keystrokes that bring up Task Manager or Force Quit, tape a permanent posty note to your machine (speaking from experience here). And following a hard quit by a soft quit can do wonders.

    I’m a luddite at heart, never at the bleeding edge of tech usership, even if I’m around computers for a living. So I need to give myself all the help I can. I’ll be following others’ how-not-to-harass-the-IT-guys tips with interest.

    • #1
  2. Eric Hines Inactive
    Eric Hines
    @EricHines

    By far the thing that makes me want to remote into your computer, disable your keyboard access, and shut it down while you watch….

    Here’s one that achieved much of that.  In an earlier job, we all worked via terminals hooked to centralized servers in a general UNIX system.  We could (or most of us could; see below) tailor our terminals to our hearts’ contents via our UNIX profiles.

    We had, though, an emigre with a Physics PhD from an eastern European university (eastern as in east of the Vistula) who kept…tailoring…her terminal to the point she would lock herself out and need IT to come fix it for her so she could go back to being unproductive.

    IT finally set her up with a basic vanilla profile and then passworded her profile and refused to let her have the password.

    Eric Hines

    • #2
  3. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Midget Faded Rattlesnake:

    lesserson: Yes, really. Turn it off and on again.

    Also, try another outlet if you can. This worked for me yesterday, and I’m still not sure why. Stuff breaks for reasons most of us cannot even guess, so doing the easy stuff, even if it seems stupid, is worth a shot.

    And if you can’t remember the keystrokes that bring up Task Manager or Force Quit, tape a permanent posty note to your machine (speaking from experience here). And following a hard quit by a soft quit can do wonders.

    I’m a luddite at heart, never at the bleeding edge of tech usership, even if I’m around computers for a living. So I need to give myself all the help I can. I’ll be following others’ how-not-to-harass-the-IT-guys tips with interest.

    It’s funny how different things react to small differences in voltage and amperage. My first “real” job was working for a company that provided DSL. There was one particular modem where plugging it directly into the outlet was the standard fix. I want to say it was an Alcatel for some reason.

    • #3
  4. Arizona Patriot Member
    Arizona Patriot
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Are there really people who call (or email) you before they’ve tried turning it off and on again?

    As Andy Rooney once said — in response to an article purporting to show that cats are more popular than dogs — “I am more disappointed than usual in the human race.”

    • #4
  5. Petty Boozswha Inactive
    Petty Boozswha
    @PettyBoozswha

    I have two e-mail accounts – yahoo for most stuff and G-Mail for important stuff. I made a big mistake signing up for Jonah Goldberg’s G-File on G-Mail and now my account is clogged with spam – from National Review! Some clown named Fowler keeps sending all this crap about cruise ships or Bill Buckley inspired deodorant or somesuch and I’m fed up. How do I make it stop?

    • #5
  6. Jason Rudert Inactive
    Jason Rudert
    @JasonRudert

    Send Jonah 750 mL of brown liquid. The expensive kind.

    • #6
  7. user_1050 Member
    user_1050
    @MattBartle

    Good list! I’m an I.T. guy, too. The I.T. guy where I work – 100 of them and one of me. All your points ring true.

    • #7
  8. user_278007 Inactive
    user_278007
    @RichardFulmer

    Great post, lesserson.  I’m a terminal jockey as well and have a few tips to add:

    1. When you open a ticket with your support team, be sure to tell them which system or application you’re having issues with.  Trust me, they support a bunch of apps.
    2. Before clicking on any link in an e-mail, check the address of the sender.  If the address is jsmith@hotmail.com, the e-mail is not from the Microsoft corporation.
    3. Have a question?  Google it.  There is an amazing amount of good information on the web.
    4. Defrag your drive(s) every now and then.
    5. Flush out your browser history periodically.
    • #8
  9. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Arizona Patriot:Are there really people who call (or email) you before they’ve tried turning it off and on again?

    As Andy Rooney once said — in response to an article purporting to show that cats are more popular than dogs — “I am more disappointed than usual in the human race.”

    Sadly, yes. I try my best and give them the benefit of the doubt, but if I know them really well I’ll give them a “Really?!”

    • #9
  10. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Eric Hines:By far the thing that makes me want to remote into your computer, disable your keyboard access, and shut it down while you watch….

    Here’s one that achieved much of that. In an earlier job, we all worked via terminals hooked to centralized servers in a general UNIX system. We could (or most of us could; see below) tailor our terminals to our hearts’ contents via our UNIX profiles.

    We had, though, an emigre with a Physics PhD from an eastern European university (eastern as in east of the Vistula) who kept…tailoring…her terminal to the point she would lock herself out and need IT to come fix it for her so she could go back to being unproductive.

    IT finally set her up with a basic vanilla profile and then passworded her profile and refused to let her have the password.

    Eric Hines

    When I was working at the University I got a call from a professor (PHD) who read me the riot act for not resetting his password (it was policy not to do it for staff over the phone) and he gave me this “Do you know who I am!? I have a PHD in blah blah blah.” I politely told him that I had a high school diploma…but I knew my password. My boss paid for my lunch that day for that one.

    • #10
  11. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    anonymous:

    lesserson: Yes, complex passwords suck, I hate them too.

    Use a passphrase instead.

    Password strengthYou’ll never look back.

    If you have difficulty making up a passphrase, I’ll be glad to do it for you. The generation is done entirely within the browser on your own computer: nothing is sent over the Internet which might be intercepted. (Of course, if your computer is already infected with spyware or your browser phones home to Big Brother, all bets are off.)

    Some people have found these randomly generated passphrases useful jumping off points for short stories when confronting writer’s block.

    When I was studying Network Security we had a similar thing :)  It’s all about the math.

    • #11
  12. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    lesserson:When I was working at the University I got a call from a professor (PHD) who read me the riot act for not resetting his password (it was policy not to do it for staff over the phone) and he gave me this “Do you know who I am!? I have a PHD in blah blah blah.” I politely told him that I had a high school diploma…but I knew my password. My boss paid for my lunch that day for that one.

    I would have bought your lunch, too. That’s classic.

    • #12
  13. Jason Rudert Inactive
    Jason Rudert
    @JasonRudert

    MIDGE! GET IN HERE! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT I GOT!!!

    1) gibbous kenaf jawbone diocese
    2) world skycap deluge yaupon
    3) revamp help flaxseed carouse
    4) menfolk bitumen tittup scant
    5) burglary bluey milium harangue

    • #13
  14. EThompson Member
    EThompson
    @

    It’s obvious you’ve had some telepathic communication with my IT guy J**** so I am forwarding this post to him.

    We’ve had a power outage today in the midst of a tropical storm so …

    • #14
  15. Midget Faded Rattlesnake Member
    Midget Faded Rattlesnake
    @Midge

    Jamal Rudert:MIDGE! GET IN HERE! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT I GOT!!!

    1) gibbous kenaf jawbone diocese 2) world skycap deluge yaupon 3) revamp help flaxseed carouse 4) menfolk bitumen tittup scant 5) burglary bluey milium harangue

    So he’s scant among the menfolk’s bitumen, is he?

    • #15
  16. Julia PA Inactive
    Julia PA
    @JulesPA

    I’m that person who says THANK YOU to the IT person in advance. I know it is a tough job.

    OTOH, please notice when we tell you all the things we’ve done before we submit the ticket, which includes restarting, etc. Some of us learn from your instructions. :)

    Still, Thank you, Mr./Ms. IT. You help technology be our friend, not an enema enemy.

    • #16
  17. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    EThompson:It’s obvious you’ve had some telepathic communication with my IT guy J**** so I am forwarding this post to him.

    We’ve had a power surge today in the midst of a tropical storm so …

    That man’s gonna need a drink later…

    • #17
  18. user_428379 Coolidge
    user_428379
    @AlSparks

    Petty Boozswha:I have two e-mail accounts – yahoo for most stuff and G-Mail for important stuff. I made a big mistake signing up for Jonah Goldberg’s G-File on G-Mail and now my account is clogged with spam – from National Review! Some clown named Fowler keeps sending all this crap about cruise ships or Bill Buckley inspired deodorant or somesuch and I’m fed up. How do I make it stop?

    I see humor here.  But in the unlikely event you’re serious, there’s a link (in very small print) at the bottom of those National Review emails that allow you to manage your “… National Review e-mail preferences.”

    You can unsubscribe, and then start subscriptions that will go to your Yahoo account.

    • #18
  19. user_1050 Member
    user_1050
    @MattBartle

    Tech-Support-630x475

    • #19
  20. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Jules PA:I’m that person who says THANK YOU to the IT person in advance. I know it is a tough job.

    OTOH, please notice when we tell you all the things we’ve done before we submit the ticket, which includes restarting, etc. Some of us learn from your instructions. :)

    Still, Thank you, Mr./Ms. IT. You help technology be our friend, not an enema enemy.

    These are always my favorite.  I appreciate when folks have already tried the stuff they know I’m going to ask. On the other hand it usually means you get the, “Huh…that’s weird…” and we’re going to have to borrow it for a while :)

    • #20
  21. user_1050 Member
    user_1050
    @MattBartle

    A friend of mine bought me a Dilbert mug that says, “Let me drop everything and work on your problem.” But I never took it to work. The thing is, it actually is my job to drop everything and work on your problem!

    • #21
  22. Julia PA Inactive
    Julia PA
    @JulesPA

    lesserson:

    Jules PA:I’m that person who says THANK YOU to the IT person in advance. I know it is a tough job.

    OTOH, please notice when we tell you all the things we’ve done before we submit the ticket, which includes restarting, etc. Some of us learn from your instructions. :)

    Still, Thank you, Mr./Ms. IT. You help technology be our friend, not an enema enemy.

    These are always my favorite. I appreciate when folks have already tried the stuff they know I’m going to ask. On the other hand it usually means you get the, “Huh…that’s weird…” and we’re going to have to borrow it for a while :)

    Or when my colleague, who calls me before tech support, has a computer that refuses to conform to any known IT standards. Really. Why don’t the IT just re-image her computer? Clearly there is something wrong when every known standard is unsuccessful every single time. No. Matter. What.

    It it like a poltergeist computer. I want to drive over it with my car (by accident–of course!)  :)

    • #22
  23. Petty Boozswha Inactive
    Petty Boozswha
    @PettyBoozswha

    Thanks Al Sparks I will do it.

    • #23
  24. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Jules PA:

    lesserson:

    Jules PA:I’m that person who says THANK YOU to the IT person in advance. I know it is a tough job.

    OTOH, please notice when we tell you all the things we’ve done before we submit the ticket, which includes restarting, etc. Some of us learn from your instructions. :)

    Still, Thank you, Mr./Ms. IT. You help technology be our friend, not an enema enemy.

    These are always my favorite. I appreciate when folks have already tried the stuff they know I’m going to ask. On the other hand it usually means you get the, “Huh…that’s weird…” and we’re going to have to borrow it for a while :)

    Or when my colleague, who calls me before tech support, has a computer that refuses to conform to any known IT standards. Really. Why don’t the IT just re-image her computer? Clearly there is something wrong when every known standard is unsuccessful every single time. No. Matter. What.

    It it like a poltergeist computer. I want to drive over it with my car (by accident–of course!) :)

    I know exactly what you mean. Whatever little difference there is on that computer is nearly impossible to figure out. More than once I’ve been tempted to have to explain to my boss that “It just fell down the stairs, it was awful…and yeah, I closed that ticket”.

    • #24
  25. user_428379 Coolidge
    user_428379
    @AlSparks

    lesserson: Please, please, please put in a ticket or an email. One of the most vexing things in I.T. is someone walking up to you with a problem, having a conversation about it, and then getting a disappointed nasty-gram later because whatever we talked about didn’t happen.

    Uh, carry a notebook and a pen.  I know, it’s very low tech.  But people who approach you will be very impressed if you take a few minutes to write down what they have to say.  So few do.

    And whatever service job you have, attempt to give everyone who approaches you your undivided attention, no matter how harried you are.  I learned that in a non-IT job, and carried it over when I started working computers.

    Working IT in a University setting is tough.  There’s a lot of petty arrogance to deal with, that extends beyond the faculty to, for example, administrative assistants that work for “very important people.”

    Obviously, not everyone was bad.  But when they were, they were very very bad.  I’m glad I moved on.

    Which brings up another maxim in any service related job.  It’s natural to develop a a certain amount of contempt for your customers (or patients), but when it gets past a certain point, reassess.  Either adjust your attitude, or move on.

    • #25
  26. Jason Rudert Inactive
    Jason Rudert
    @JasonRudert

    Another one? Never have two IT guys. Never change IT guys. For many years, our little system of XP, five PCs and one server, would crash every evening randomly between about 530 and 800 pm. Any terminal would lose contact with the server and have to be rebooted to use any of the software that resided there. The problem was, anybody we ever had look at this would start checking into the accretions left behind by the prevous IT guys, and then every last one of them would turn to us and say some #$÷% like, “Well, he’s got the interrossellator connected to the decabulator. Do you know why he did that?”
    SERIOUSLY! They would look at us and ask us that!
    This problem only went away when we replaced all the computers.

    • #26
  27. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Al Sparks:

    (SNIP)

    Uh, carry a notebook and a pen. I know, it’s very low tech. But people who approach you will be very impressed if you take a few minutes to write down what they have to say. So few do.

    And whatever service job you have, attempt to give everyone who approaches you your undivided attention, no matter how harried you are. I learned that in a non-IT job, and carried it over when I started working computers.

    Working IT in a University setting is tough. There’s a lot of petty arrogance to deal with, that extends beyond the faculty to, for example, administrative assistants that work for “very important people.”

    Obviously, not everyone was bad. But when they were, they were very very bad. I’m glad I moved on.

    (SNIP)

    All good advice. I’ve gotten into the habit of throwing it in Evernote while I’m talking with them but it slips through sometimes when I’m up to my elbows in something (usually the copier, I really hate that thing). One thing that our organization is really bad about is people trying to circumvent the system so sometimes we have to remind them we even have a ticket system. Getting text messages and phone calls at odd hours when I can’t respond but one of the other guys can caused a lot of “re-training”. I always hated having to do that.

    • #27
  28. user_428379 Coolidge
    user_428379
    @AlSparks

    Eric Hines:IT finally set her up with a basic vanilla profile and then passworded her profile and refused to let her have the password.Eric Hines

    My favorite story, it was someone else who did (or didn’t do) this, but he had a admin assistant who was often arrogant towards him bordering on rude.  She was also very high maintenance, which forced him to deal with her a lot.

    One time he watched her enter a long column of numbers in an Excel spreadsheet.  She then used an adding machine to add up the numbers.  She then manually entered the total at the bottom of that column.

    He didn’t say a word.

    • #28
  29. user_1050 Member
    user_1050
    @MattBartle

    I could add a couple things people should know:

    You did something

    Don’t tell me, “I don’t know how that happened. I didn’t do anything!” Yes, you did. You did something – you clicked OK or clicked delete or cancel or you dragged and dropped the file where it didn’t belong, or something. It didn’t just happen!

    I have to wade through your explanation of the problem for a while to figure out what the problem actually is

    “The Internet is down.”  No, the web site you’re trying to access is down. The rest of the Internet is fine. “I can’t print.” No, you can’t print to that printer. You can print to other printers. Often people are really bad at understanding and communicating what their problem is.

    • #29
  30. lesserson Member
    lesserson
    @LesserSonofBarsham

    Matt Bartle:I could add a couple things people should know:

    You did something

    Don’t tell me, “I don’t know how that happened. I didn’t do anything!” Yes, you did. You did something – you clicked OK or clicked delete or cancel or you dragged and dropped the file where it didn’t belong, or something. It didn’t just happen!

    I have to wade through your explanation of the problem for a while to figure out what the problem actually is

    “The Internet is down.” No, the web site you’re trying to access is down. The rest of the Internet is fine. “I can’t print.” No, you can’t print to that printer. You can print to other printers. Often people are really bad at understanding and communicating what their problem is.

    Perfect!

    • #30
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