When I was an admin...

[snarl817.livejournal.com]

This was about 6 years ago. I got this call from the helpdesk. One of the VPs in Florida was having problems with his email disappearing and he needed it to be restored from the backups. I call him up to find out the details. The conversation went something like this (I can't remember exactly since I've slept since then):

Me: So, what exactly is happening?
VP: My VERY important emails are disappearing about a week after I move them out of my Inbox. I need them restored from backup as I have several important contracts that have gone missing. I'd also like to know WHY they are disappearing. I can't believe that you people are so bad at doing your jobs that you would let this happen!
Me: Ok, what folder were they in?
VP: The Trash folder.
Me: ...
Me: I'm sorry, did you say that they were in the Trash folder?
VP: Yes, and I need them back NOW! The deadline for getting this contract signed is tomorrow!
Me: [facepalm] Well...I can tell you why they've been disappearing. The system automatically purges items from the Trash folder after a week.
VP: What? Why?!
Me: Because that's where you put stuff you want to DELETE. There's no way to restore those items from backup, either, because the Trash folders are excluded from the backups to save space.
VP: WHAT?!?!?!?! That's unacceptable! These are multi-million dollar contracts and I need them back RIGHT NOW! Besides, this is the way I've always done it, and I've never had the problem before.
Me: Well, I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do. The system was recently reconfigured to purge items in the Trash folders after a week because nobody was actually deleting them. I would suggest that you move anything currently in the Trash folder somewhere else.
VP: [slams phone down]

I called the helpdesk manager and told her what happened. When he called her back, she "educated" him as to why he shouldn't store anything that he wants to keep in the trash. I'm STILL confused as to WHY anyone would do that, though. I mean, as much as I'd like to, I don't throw my bills in the trash.

Comments

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

The scary thing.... here..... is....

.... that this is NOT the first time I've heard someone tell (true) stories on this same topic. People store email in the Deleted Items or Trash folder, people store files in the trash can, people store files in temp folders...

God, but we need some bleach for this gene pool some days.

[manuka.livejournal.com]

been there, done that... had a customer get all huffy when we emptied his recycle bin of the important documents that he stored there.

One of the guys in our FAcilities department (a geek-in-training) works with IT one day a week and told me of a time a few years back when our video production department people had stuck an external HDD on top of a trash can and got really mad when it was gone the next morning.

[gnostalgia.livejournal.com]

I'm a consultant, and I see this ALL the time. I don't get it, either, but it's really common.

The only explanation I can come up with is that 'filing' emails into folders just takes too much time for these terribly important people, so they hit 'delete' so their Inbox is nice and clean, and they treat 'Deleted Items' like their 'old' mail folder.

[brownizs.livejournal.com]

That is nothing. There are supervisors where I work, that keep every email they get in their Inbox. The bad thing is, it is Groupwise, which I hate with a passion, due to the behaviour.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

We have a little popup at work that annoys you if you have more than a certain number of emails in the inbox or a certain volume of unarchived mail. Almost everyone I've had to troubleshoot just accepts it and clicks "Continue" - every single day. I doubt most of them even read it. Personally, I think the delay should get longer and longer before they can click it, and when it gets over ten minutes their email locks up and they have to have their manager (NOT the helpdesk) reset it. And if they don't clear out their mailbox, it locks up again on the next try.

[bassgirl.livejournal.com]

Yep... soooo many people do that.
"OMG! WHY are you EMPTYING my RECYCLE bin?!?!?!?!!!!!" *insert spasming and foaming at the mouth*

sigh.

I don't get it.
But then again, the fact that I have a slight grasp of how to use a computer might be why they hired me.

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

Same here. Seen the same behaviour at both a college (professors) and at my current job (engineers and scientists). Don't ever want to eat dinner at their houses. Would hate to see where they keep their food.

[snarl817.livejournal.com]

Wait, wait...
Where can I get that button? Every once in a while I feel ... vindictive. :D

[tsutton.livejournal.com]

He's having a moan because he knows he's fscked! :D

So what happened afterward? Did they lose the contracts?

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

yup. Had a woman get very snippy with me beacue I emptied the recycle bin where she kept her Quickbooks files and the games for her grandkids.

"Why do you keep them in the Recycle Bin?"

"Because I don't want them taking up space on the computer except when they come to visit."

"But what about your Quickbooks files? How often do you work with them?"

"Oh, every day."

[penguin-attie.livejournal.com]

God bless Macintosh for not actually allowing you to open files that are in the trash. It discourages the idiots from this behaviour.

[lmnk.livejournal.com]

You can't open files from the trash with windows either.

My soulution to this problem would be to remove the Recycle Bin/Trash from the desktop and tell users that whenever they delete something it is for good.

[fiannnachruinne.livejournal.com]

Sadly I'm pretty sure I've had a similar call where someone stored some files in their recycle bin or deleted items or somesuch and they had gotten deleted. Obviously that idiocy is more widespread than I realized. And I have to wonder, would these same people store their important documents in the trashcan at their desk? (the video production department people that manuka mentioned notwithstanding)

[phierce921.livejournal.com]

I have had this call several times. At my current job we get this quite often.

This one lady got particularly bitchy with me and I was having a bad day so I asked her "Maam, what EXACTLY is it about a folder shaped like a TRASH CAN that makes you think it is a safe place to store important documents? do you keep your important documents at home in a trash can?"

Yeah... she hung up on me.

[codecattx.livejournal.com]

Sigh.

You know, if I had a dime for every time I have caught a (l)user doing either that or storing/hiding documents in %temp%, I would probably be able to buy and sell Bill Gates for pocket change.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've had so many of those calls! *sympathy*

[iterative-steps.livejournal.com]

this lady next to me did that! and she was yelling at me because i didn't have her stuff stored on my computer. 3 times she's come to me, 3 times asking me to redo stuff because she had stuff in her trash folder and couldn't figure out why her stuff was getting deleted. i'm soooooooooo glad she retired last week. and i've never seen so many icons ona desktop in my life. it had a scroll bar!

[evilbill1782.livejournal.com]

That is just - words fail me! Just when you think lusers can't get any more ridiculous, they surprise you again.