"Leave my stuff alone, please."

[drquuxum.livejournal.com]

Ever have a user that had no respect for other people's property?

This one comes to my office with his Titanium G4 which isn't booting (turns out to be a genuine problem), but while I'm trying to diagnose it, he starts picking up and playing with a bunch of stuff I have on my desks and tables. Cards, cables, magazines, an ACTIVE external SCSI case, the UPS connected to a minor server behind me....

I don't believe I should have to tell a 45-year-old PhD these sort things. Repeatedly....
Don't pick up that disk, please.
Don't lean on my monitor, please.
Put that video card down, please.
(Can I borrow this magazine?) You haven't returned my last...wait! No you can't, until you return...dammit.

The last bit he ignores as he says back, while walking away, "Give me a call when you're done."

Oh well. Maybe giving up a copy of Linux Journal to keep him out of my office is worth it.

Comments

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

Taking your property is not right. No fix computer until magazines come back.

[drquuxum.livejournal.com]

People have complained about his behaviour before. Other than repeated talkings-to from the dept. chair, nothing has been done.

Oh, and I forgot to mention his less-than-stellar personal hygiene. I'm not exactly sure I want them back.

[ex-deliveryboy.livejournal.com]

I keep a few toys and gadgets around just for that purpose.

"Here, play with a couple of these bright and shiny objects for a few minutes while I do big people stuff"

[ramennoodlegirl.livejournal.com]

what an asshat! thank goodness i've never encountered someone like that.

[pleaseremove.livejournal.com]

If you don’t put that down now I will:
a) Return your laptop to you as it is as you are not showing me common courtesy
b) Castrate you here and now

[guitarguy1980.livejournal.com]

I got that beat. I am one of the youngest in the office, and I'm 25. I have my cube very personalized, with Star Wars stuff and a few lava lamps. Well, I came in to work a few days ago and noticed that Luke Skywalker was positioned in a way that he might be assraping Darth Vader. I've since taken my stuff home...

[residentgeek.livejournal.com]

You can't just take your toys and go home! You've got to give it back just as good as you got!

[guitarguy1980.livejournal.com]

the problem is, that EVERYONE around my office is immature enough to be considered suspect. I have no clue as to who it was, either.

Besides, stuff like this happened at my old job, and because I didn't remove my personal effects, one of them got destroyed.

[residentgeek.livejournal.com]

Damn, that sucks. It's one thing to play and be silly, it's another thing entirely to destroy someone's stuff.

My desk is full of toys and stuff. I'd rip heads off if someone tore them up. Thankfully, it's an office and not a cube.

[infy.livejournal.com]

With or without the lightsaber?

I suppose I should be grateful that to remove Darth Tater's lightsaber from his hand, you'd also have to remove his arm too. So far no one's done that to him yet. I did find him one day with his butt removed and sitting on top of my computer. No one owned up to who was searching for the stuckout tongue part. Bastards.

[guitarguy1980.livejournal.com]

Without. The lightsabers, fortunately, were laying next to the two.

[byh.livejournal.com]

I found it the best to keep people out of my room at all.

You bring me your computer or just tell me what the problem is - leave. I will contact you myself. Some consider me quite a loner but I just don't like too much people messing around while I am busy.

[jecook]

Same here. Although I keep my office door open, It really bugs the shit out of me that people just walk right in...

[coyoteden.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't lean on the monitor like that. Those big, old, heavy CRTs have a tendancy to jump right off the desk and land on your foot, don't you know?

If it were my offfice he would have gotten as far as touching the active external SCSI case before he realized those kind of things to be REALLY active, as in 110 volts to the case. I always wire them that way to better shield the drives from magnetic fields. Oh and the batteries in those cheap UPS have a nasty habit of exploding.

[drquuxum.livejournal.com]

Those big, old, heavy CRTs have a tendancy to jump right off the desk and land on your foot, don't you know?

Dude, how'd you know? A 1995-vintage 20" CRT on top of an ex-SCSI enclosure. :-D

[coyoteden.livejournal.com]

Bastard's intuition.

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

I'd keep his computer for an extra week because you're "fixing all the problems caused by his mishandling all the equipment in your office"

[jjjiii]

This is why you should carry a riding crop with you at all times.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Wanker!

[lions-tambua.livejournal.com]

oh. normally these guys dont dare to touch ANY of my stuff.
maybe of the Granade with an label "1" on the lever and a sign, "pick a number"

or maybe because of the G3 Softair hanging on the wall ?

or maybe because the only stuff on my desk (beside the weapons) are plushies. i LOVE the expression on the face of people coming into my office *G*

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Kee-ryst on a pogo stick. Anyone tried anything like that around here, they'd be bleeding from the eardrums two seconds later.

Have you considered removing his hands from whatever he's groping, administering a sharp (ie actually painful) smack on the wrist, and saying "No! Sit!" as if training a dog? It sounds like he's known for this behaviour, so it wouldn't be unexpected.

[dangermouse74.livejournal.com]

yeah i'd definitely give up the mag (at least temporarily) for some peace and no more frazzled nerves worrying abotu what he's touching...