I Don’t Make This Stuff Up…
September 11th, 2009
Now that we’re pretty much back into the swing of things and we’ve gone from 300+ workstations to 700+ workstations and from 500+ people to 1,000+ people to support within the last six months, I like to take some time every so often to…well…hide. I was actually on my way to doing exactly that when I was hit up with yet another question. Now, I don’t mind questions. It’s the ID-Ten-T one’s I have a hard time with.
Me: :::Walking, walking, practically jogging:::
Enduser: ::literally runs up to me and gets in my face:: “I CAN’T GET TO MY COMCA$T ACCOUNT!!!”
Me: “Oh, hi. Good to see you.”
Enduser: “DIDN’T HEAR WHAT YOU SAID??? I CAN’T GET TO MY COMCA$T ACCOUNT!!”
Me: “Why, yes, I heard you. In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone down the hall heard you.” (Noticing a bunch of heads that immediate popped back into their offices after overhearing the sudden outburst.)
Enduser: (More subtly now as I think she noticed those heads too.) “Well, what are you gonna do about it?”
Me: “I’m sorry but corporate policy has dictated that personal email accounts are not to be used with corporate computers. It’s not my call but a corporate mandate.”
Enduser: ::blink, blink:: “Do YOU mean to tell me that I CANNOT check my Comca$t email at work??”
Me: “Ummm, yeah.”
Enduser: “Well, we’ll just SEE about that!”
Me: “Okaaaaaaay.” :::start walking away:::
Enduser: “Hey, where are you going? We need to look into this!!”
Me: ::thinking “oh, this is gonna be FUN!!:: “You want ME to go with YOU to ask Corporate why YOU can’t access YOUR PERSONAL email on COMPANY TIME and EQUIPMENT?”
Enduser: ::blink, blink:: (I think she has a nervous tick.) “You lead the way.”
Aaaaand, so I do…lead the way, that is. I lead the way so much that I had that woman doing enough laps around the campus that by the time we got done, we could have logged a half marathon. Funny all the time she kept screaming at me about the offices being “this way or that way.” “Don’t worry,” I kept replying over my shoulder, “I know lots of shortcuts.” But, for *some* reason, I kept getting lost. Hey, I’m a guy…I don’t *do* directions.
Needless to say, my mission was accomplished when she exasperatedly threw her hands up and screamed “JUST FORGET IT!!!” and raged off in a huff.
And now I’m in hiding. Shhhh…don’t tell anyone.
grumpy
