(no subject)

[katealaurel.livejournal.com]

I do tech support work for my college, and wound up taking extra daytime hours over my spring break instead of my normal evening shift. As a result, I'm suddenly fielding many more calls from professors.

These professors are, for the vast majority of cases, brilliant in their fields, but some of them are not so great with computers. Case in point:

*phone rings*
Me: "Computer User Services, this is Kate."
Prof: "Hi, I'm trying to set up a vacation message thingy in my email.."
Me: "Ok.. What you'll want to do is go to webmail.[school].edu..."
Prof: "REDmail? All one word? Redmail?"
Me: "No, no, WEBmail.[school].edu.."
Prof: "I.. I don't see where to type that in.."
Me: "Sir, what program are you running?"
Prof: "I'm using my email..."
Me: "Yes, but can you tell me what program you're using?"
Prof: "Oh, uh, the Thunderbird."
Me: "Ok. I need you to open Safari or Firefox."
Prof: "Uh... ok... there's Safari..."
Me: "Ok. So type webmail.[school].edu into the bar at the top, and hit enter.."
Prof: "Uh.. ok..."
Me: "Now it should be asking you for your username and password.."
Prof: "Oh. I don't think I know my password..."
Me: [now attempting to bang head on desk while still on phone] "Ok, well, I can give your call to someone who can change your password for you.."
Prof: "No, uh, I'll take a guess at it.." [puts phone down]
Me: "Sir? Sir?" [belatedly realizes he's put phone down]
Prof: [picks phone up] "Well, that one didn't work.. I'll try again.." [puts phone down]
Me: "No, wait, sir..."

This continued for a few more rounds, until I was able to get his attention and pass him off to someone who could reset his password. In the meantime, though, it was a very Special phone call.

Comments

[garpu.livejournal.com]

I so feel your pain. I do tech support at a college, as well, and while the majority of the Ph.D's are wonderful to work with, there's a handful that are...special. One of them wanted me to print to pdf, because said prof would always pass it off to his/her RA, said prof never learned how to do it. (There's a bigass blue button in OSX.) I gave instructions as to how to do it, but said prof wanted me to schlep down the hall to do it, when I was literally putting out a fire with another prof's computer. Riiiight. Yet it's always those types who bitch the loudest, when their (non priority) things get properly prioritized.

[knittinggoddess.livejournal.com]

The emeritus profs are the best--or rather, worst--when it comes to ridiculously simple requests. Though in their case, it's somewhat forgivable as they not only have little generational knowledge of computers, but they don't have a whole lot to be doing in their retirement. Maybe I'm being overly charitable.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Yah. The one is completely clueless about modern computers, but he/she's *damn* polite every time he/she calls. Then again, he/she learned to use computers back when they took up entire rooms, so you HAD to mind your p's and q's around the computer tech. T

Then there's the new prof, who bought us chocolates (the GOOD kind) for setting up his/her new computer. They just upped the ante for the rest of the faculty. ;)

[knittinggoddess.livejournal.com]

I had a prof call for help with locating an email in his inbox. After we found it, he forwarded the joke email to me because he was so taken with it. The whole exchange was really quite endearing.

And then on the other hand, you get gems like the studio art prof going into the closet with the routers and turning things on and off to fix the wireless outage.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Wow. I hope your sysadmin smacked him/her hard. That's why only 2 people have a key to our router and server closet.

[knittinggoddess.livejournal.com]

I actually fielded that call on one of my first days. My boss overheard my bewilderment and took the phone off my hands, giving the prof a patronizing but firm "we'd prefer you never do that again."

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

And then on the other hand, you get gems like the studio art prof going into the closet with the routers and turning things on and off to fix the wireless outage.

(image of IT tech seeing art prof going into the server room, turning around in slow motion with a long drawn out "NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!" and leaping for the door ..)

I used to have about the same reaction (when I was working for the communications department of a certain large university in TX, in the late Mac OS 8.6 era) around people whose response to an iMac freezing was to unplug it from the wall .. before I could stop them. (Tray loading and slot loading iMacs have been known to not show the hard drive on the ATA bus after being abused that way, and worse things. Unplugging a powered-on computer is generally NOT good for it. Many people got that lecture from me in those days .. and many get it from me today ..)

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

I gave instructions as to how to do it, but said prof wanted me to schlep down the hall to do it, when I was literally putting out a fire with another prof's computer. Riiiight. Yet it's always those types who bitch the loudest, when their (non priority) things get properly prioritized.

Don't you just *love* the ones who think nothing anyone else needs could possibly be as important as the trivial thing they want you to do? Seems to go with higher level degrees, whether within a university or among the ones who've gotten out of the cage and managed to find private sector careers .. Ph.D.'s seem to be about as bad about this as hardass corporate-bondage-and-discipline MBA's whose favorite word is "unacceptable" ..

[garpu.livejournal.com]

I'm *so* learning how not to behave, when I get the Ph.D.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

When you get there, spread the word to your fellow faculty that cultivating friendships with the IT folks can be a lifesaving endeavor, and being treated with respect from that level of the faculty/administration is normally so rare that we tend to do huge favors for people who are nice to us, and conversely, tend to only do what's absolutely required for people who treat us like peons. And being in the middle of a major research project and desperately needing help from an IT tech is *not* the time to find out how much of a jerk one has been throughout the semester up until that point. :D More or less the same advice goes for anyone here who is being promoted to upper level management at a major corporation .. spread the word and make our jobs easier.

Because one of these days, one of those people is going to call *me* ..

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Ooooh trust me. Like I mentioned above, the new faculty person who gave us chocolates for setting up her new computer (read: turning it on, making sure it works, and installing some discipline-specific software), just upped the ante for the rest of the faculty. ;)

[knittinggoddess.livejournal.com]

We have a math prof here who had the OP's exact job, and she's held in fond regard by Computer User Services, if only because she can talk shop and reminisce.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Yet it's always those types who bitch the loudest, when their (non priority) things get properly prioritized.

S.L.A.'d!

[vampireborg.livejournal.com]

Yup, you work with the students and they THINK they know everything, and you work with the staff and they KNOW that they know everything. Can't win. :D

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Any usage of the word "thingy" is a dead giveaway, to me, that the call is going to turn out to be Special in at least one way, and will probably last far more than it should. Another big red flag is the more or less interchangeable use of terms that refer to completely separate things, or any mention of the web browser as a means of connecting to the Internet. And webmail/mail app calls are a whole other kind of Special, especially when the caller refers to one consistently and then you realize 45 minutes later their issue was actually the other one. I feel your pain ..

[blossomingfire.livejournal.com]

That's when you make out very detailed instructions on how to do so, and then you email them to the tard in question. Then if they run into issues, they can possibly call and torture someone else.

That's saved me from mass murder many times.

[wibbble]

Someone puts the phone down, or takes another call, or basically does anything that takes them away from the call, without asking me first? They get hung up on.