[BenignDesign]

I need to vent. So I opened a thread to vent to the only people I know who would actually understand the conversation I'm about to relay. Do I have a point for discussion, aside from the sharing of other dumb people stories? No. Nor do I care at the moment that a true discussion point is lacking. I need to vent before I flipping explode, so shut-up and read the post. Thank you. And have a nice day.

I have been in an ongoing battle with my department secretary for the better part of a week now.

We have a WYSIWYG editor back-end for our company intranet site. She has permissions to edit our specific department's portion of said intranet site.

Last Friday, she sent me an email stating that:

(1) the page title displayed in her file tree was showing the "old" department name instead of the "new" department name (the department name was changed before I started here.. so it's been incorrect for a minimum of two years now and she's never mentioned it before)

(2) she's been trying to create a page called "Forms" to display all the printable forms our department uses on a regular basis. She says she created it, lost it, found it, deleted it, created it again, and subsequently lost it again. She wanted me to find it and delete it so she could create it a third time.

I pulled up the directory listing - there were TWO files called "Forms" (more specifically "Forms" and "Forms2"). I opened the files to check the contents. "Forms2" was empty, so I deleted it. "Forms", however, contained our departmental list of policies and procedures. I emailed her to explain this. She insisted I delete the "Forms" file so she could recreate it.

Not being a complete idiot, I first saved a backup copy of the file and proceeded to delete it from the server as requested.

Not two minutes later, I get a frantic email crying "Something's wrong! My policies and procedures page worked fine yesterday! And now it's not showing up at all! What did you do to all my work??"

I replied, "I deleted it, just like you asked. The policies and procedures page was a file called "Forms". You asked for "Forms" to be deleted, I explained to you in a previous email that the file was in use, but you insisted, so I complied. However, in anticipation of this exact moment, I saved a back-up copy of the "Forms" file. I will restore it to the server and your policies and procedures page will magically reappear."

Her response: "The policies and procedures page is working fine now, but I'm having the same problem I had in the beginning where I can't create a forms page! What are you doing wrong?!"

Dear Secret Satan, I know the shipping fees would be a nightmare, but I'd really love a cement block for Christmas. I want to keep it on my desk to smack my head on when the dumb attacks. Thank you.

This post has been edited by BenignDesign: 07 December 2011 - 10:39 AM

[supersloth]

why would you hit your head on the cement block instead of tying it to this person's foot when you throw them in the river?

[jon.kiparsky]

Jeez, sounds like you're dealing with sharepoint, and a sharepoint fan. I really don't know which would be worse.
Have you considered drinking heavily?

@Supersloth - not in the river. In the ocean, positioned so their chin is at water level. At low tide, that is.

This post has been edited by jon.kiparsky: 07 December 2011 - 10:54 AM

[Martyr2]

Brilliant move in keeping a copy. When dealing with dumb people I always recommend that you cover your bases. Keep a copy of all emails you send and receive, date everything and backup whatever you can even if it looks trivial.

More than once I have had to deal with situations like this. Being in a major city I even run into these people on a daily basis.

Get on the skytrain, some person jumps in and before the door closes they decide they want back out and get stuck in the door. One person was actually dragged once. Nevermind you can get on, go to the next station and get off and take it back if you make a mistake (and at no additional cost mind you).

I see people walk into other people, people walk into walls, people ask a question and never listen to the answer only to ask the question again in five minutes as if they never asked it to begin with. I have seen people jump out into streets before crosswalks tell them to, almost to get hit and force them to jump back.... then 2 seconds later they try it again. You would think the near miss would scare them into thinking before crossing against the lights. Nope!

I have been watching this phenomenon over the last 5 years specifically and I am sad to report that it is getting worse. As sad as it is, I do believe technology is contributing to it. I am quietly observing it to see if it progresses. I think the lack of attention span caused by electronic devices and automation is taking away the ability to use common sense.

I also believe it is taking away spatial awareness and the awareness of one's own environment. I notice people are worse at judging distances (I think due to the 2D world of computing) and often lack communication skills due to lack of formality (something which is being lost in the times of instant messaging).

Thanks for the story B9.

This post has been edited by Martyr2: 07 December 2011 - 10:55 AM

[dorknexus]

How are people so uninformed about the computers which they interact with everyday. These sorts of people are just stubborn.

This post has been edited by dorknexus: 07 December 2011 - 10:55 AM

[JackOfAllTrades]

Quote

department secretary

Quote

has permissions to edit our specific department's portion of said intranet site

Bad, bad juju...

[BenignDesign]

jon.kiparsky, on 07 December 2011 - 12:51 PM, said:

Have you considered drinking heavily?

I ponder this option almost daily.

[Craig328]

B9...we all feel your pain. I regularly experience similar exchanges with our customer service and sales folk. I have one who cannot open a report on an Excel worksheet without getting some kind of bizzaro "font not displayable" issue (only person in the building this happens to). I have suggested saving the sheet as a .csv, closing Excel, reopening Excel, loading the .csv, save the .csv as an Excel sheet...and the problem is gone. Perhaps 15 seconds of effort. He won't do it.

Instead he runs the report then emails it to me and asks "Getting the font error again – can you please do that thing you do?" (actual cut/paste from the last time he asked). Keep in mind this is supposed to be the technical liason between sales/support and IT. "That thing you do"...which is nothing more than what I describe above.

I'm going to have to locate a wizard hat and keep it close at hand in my office.

[The_Programmer-]

I have Qwest fiber optic internet. I am suppose to get 40mbps download and 20mbps upload. If I connect my computer to the internet via an ethernet cord, I only get 8mbps download and 1mbps upload. I have called Qwest multiple times to tell them what is happening and they insist that it is the computers and not the internet because the router says it is getting the correct speeds. The router only shows what you are suppose to get and not what you have! They either need to set up new cables leading to the house, or they are purposely doing this to piss me off.

[jjsaw5]

dorknexus, on 07 December 2011 - 12:54 PM, said:

How are people so uninformed about the computers which they interact with everyday. These sorts of people are just stubborn.

As a developer what really bothers me is that you have people like this communicating to your business users about technical matters, and in some cases the success of your job relies on them. Scary.

[kiasta]

I read this topic and I immediately thought about the movie Office Space.

[supersloth]

it's no different than most things, really. i don't know jack shit about my car.

but then again... i guess i'm not getting paid to work with cars...

[jon.kiparsky]

supersloth, on 07 December 2011 - 01:40 PM, said:

it's no different than most things, really. i don't know jack shit about my car.

but then again... i guess i'm not getting paid to work with cars...

Jack shit is either what you do when you have a flat tire or it's what you do when you smash a window and grab stuff. Usually, you wouldn't do the latter to your own car, but hell, it's your car.

[Curtis Rutland]

jon.kiparsky, on 07 December 2011 - 11:51 AM, said:

Jeez, sounds like you're dealing with sharepoint, and a sharepoint fan. I really don't know which would be worse.
Have you considered drinking heavily?

@Supersloth - not in the river. In the ocean, positioned so their chin is at water level. At low tide, that is.

Sharepoint is seriously painful to work with. Unfortunately, I haven't encountered anything that does it's job better (intranet portal, that is), so for us it's a necessary evil. Luckily, we have a sharepoint guy at work, and he's not me.

Actually, SP2010 is leaps and bounds better. It's what our public site is made in, and it works surprisingly well. Again, glad it's not me that has to maintain it though.

[BenignDesign]

The site in question isn't a Sharepoint site. It's an Adobe Contribute site. Pick your poison, I suppose.