I'm a sys-admin, not a programmer...for me, the "OMFG THE COMPUTERS ARE ON FUCKING FIRE!!!!!!!" emails, which are always CC'd to at least 10 people, end up being something stupid like
"Reset your password...that box, the one that keeps popping up telling you that you need to reset your password, what it generally means is that your password has expired and that YOU NEED TO RESET IT!"
My favorite is when a printer runs out of toner and I get an email saying "Help!" (which I loathe) "we're all 'down' over here and can't get anything! HELP! SORRY FOR BUGGING YOU!"
This drives me insane because:
A) Stop using "help", you're not 6 years old, you haven't fallen down a well
B) You know how to change the toner, there is a stack of toners sitting right next to your printer.
C) You're not "down", "everyone" is not "down"...you specifically cannot print, the printer is telling you that you can't print, and it's even telling you how to fix the problem, just LOOK AT IT!
D) Saying "sorry for bugging you" has got to be one of the most obnoxious things you could even possibly say. Stop. If you need something, just ask for it.
I also work largely as a sys-admin, but I do some desktop support as well.
I get a lot of vague emails. "My internet is down," is a favorite of mine, as it could be a network outage, a local computer misconfiguration, a page being inaccessible, or simply the user getting an error page from the site because the URL they bookmarked doesn't exist anymore. If it's an email problem, it's probably because they didn't read the error message.
I also loathe when people walk over to my desk and say, "I hope I'm not interrupting you. {insert problem}". Now I've already been interrupted, so my train of thought has been derailed (worst when programming). I then have two choices, help the person because I am now not so busy with something else that I can't help but reward their behavior by doing so, or brush them off and try to get back on track with my previous task and risk being a bit of a jerk in the process.
Either way, I've already lost out. I'd gladly take a vague email over a confused user walking over to my desk.
My favorite "I'm locked up" is when somebody else logs on to the workstation that the user normally uses. "Locked up" means "there is a different user name in the user name field that mine!".
Another favorite is when a user types their password wrong enough times on our iSeries system. It does something called "varying off" (disabling the terminal until I re-enable it)...so they keep trying...at all the rest of the terminals. Pretty effective denial of service attack if you ask me!
I remember one user who was furious with me because he had worked for the company for over a year, and WHY THE HELL HADN'T I SET HIM UP WITH AN EMAIL!!!?!?!
I had...the trouble was that he had to click the icon (which is on his desktop, and on his start menu) labeled "email". Oh joy!
Also, don't get me wrong, I love my job :), sometimes the users screw up, but it's generally pretty low-impact :).
Comments
I'm a sys-admin, not a programmer...for me, the "OMFG THE COMPUTERS ARE ON FUCKING FIRE!!!!!!!" emails, which are always CC'd to at least 10 people, end up being something stupid like
"Reset your password...that box, the one that keeps popping up telling you that you need to reset your password, what it generally means is that your password has expired and that YOU NEED TO RESET IT!"
My favorite is when a printer runs out of toner and I get an email saying "Help!" (which I loathe) "we're all 'down' over here and can't get anything! HELP! SORRY FOR BUGGING YOU!"
This drives me insane because:
A) Stop using "help", you're not 6 years old, you haven't fallen down a well
B) You know how to change the toner, there is a stack of toners sitting right next to your printer.
C) You're not "down", "everyone" is not "down"...you specifically cannot print, the printer is telling you that you can't print, and it's even telling you how to fix the problem, just LOOK AT IT!
D) Saying "sorry for bugging you" has got to be one of the most obnoxious things you could even possibly say. Stop. If you need something, just ask for it.
Comic related: http://newslily.com/comics/17
Also, in some ways this: http://newslily.com/comics/24
I also work largely as a sys-admin, but I do some desktop support as well.
I get a lot of vague emails. "My internet is down," is a favorite of mine, as it could be a network outage, a local computer misconfiguration, a page being inaccessible, or simply the user getting an error page from the site because the URL they bookmarked doesn't exist anymore. If it's an email problem, it's probably because they didn't read the error message.
I also loathe when people walk over to my desk and say, "I hope I'm not interrupting you. {insert problem}". Now I've already been interrupted, so my train of thought has been derailed (worst when programming). I then have two choices, help the person because I am now not so busy with something else that I can't help but reward their behavior by doing so, or brush them off and try to get back on track with my previous task and risk being a bit of a jerk in the process.
Either way, I've already lost out. I'd gladly take a vague email over a confused user walking over to my desk.
At least you get the descriptive "internet".
Lots of times I just get "I'm locked up"...
My favorite "I'm locked up" is when somebody else logs on to the workstation that the user normally uses. "Locked up" means "there is a different user name in the user name field that mine!".
Another favorite is when a user types their password wrong enough times on our iSeries system. It does something called "varying off" (disabling the terminal until I re-enable it)...so they keep trying...at all the rest of the terminals. Pretty effective denial of service attack if you ask me!
I remember one user who was furious with me because he had worked for the company for over a year, and WHY THE HELL HADN'T I SET HIM UP WITH AN EMAIL!!!?!?!
I had...the trouble was that he had to click the icon (which is on his desktop, and on his start menu) labeled "email". Oh joy!
Also, don't get me wrong, I love my job :), sometimes the users screw up, but it's generally pretty low-impact :).