Work: I.T. Department

[kyra_ojosverdes]

(The 'department' part is a joke, because it consists of one person.)

I swear I'm going to start taking cues from the BOfH archive.

I was reflecting earlier today that I need to self-adjust away from The Cranky.

Continuing to reflect, I realized that The Cranky is pretty effective when it comes to "suck it up and learn something new because I'm not going to keep wiping your metaphorical noses, you technophobes."

Yesterday at staff meeting:
One of Them: We should plan a party for when the E.D. comes back from Ireland!
Them: Yes! Yay! Yes! Party!
One of Them: Okay, I'll write an e-mail and send it to Katrina and Katrina can send it to a distribution list that includes everyone except the E.D!
Me: No.
Them: *BLINK*
Me: That discussion should go to the bulletin board. The one you've all steadfastly refused to use.
Them: *BLINK, COUGH*
Me: Because it would be stupid for me to send one e-mail to thirty people and have three of those people reply, sending those replies to thirty people and then two more people reply to each of those replies, sending each reply to thirty people. Instead, you can each log on to the bulletin board once or twice a day, see what's been posted, and reply there.
Them: But...
Me: *smile of teh cranky and the "you can't do anything about it"*
Them: But we don't know hooooooooooooooooooooooooow!
Me: I'll be happy to send out an e-mail explaining the process. I still have the last two e-mails in my "Sent Items" folder, so it won't take me long at all to repeat that process.
Them: I.. we... uh...
Me: We won't need to worry about the E.D. logging in to read the party plans, because she uses the bulletin board as frequently as the rest of you. I'll send the e-mail to everyone, then log into her e-mail account and delete that e-mail so she doesn't see it.
Them: *BLINK*
Me: Not that I use that capability often.


One of the more "willing to learn new stuff" staff members (who ironically enough is probably the oldest or second-oldest staff member) later said "Hey, nice job with the arm-twisting yesterday. That was very impressive." My reply: "Hey, knowledge is power, and when people refuse to learn that leaves you with the power." He shot back with "Hell yes, why do you think I scramble to learn every new thing you present? I know who to keep happy around this place!"

... yeah, maybe I'll just stick with the cranky.

Comments

[smoonn.livejournal.com]

That just added to my "happy."

I like cranky.

[hopeevey.livejournal.com]

Well applied cranky can be a beautiful thing, really.

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

good job. :)

[roguespirit.livejournal.com]

The cranky also works well with annoying calls from people who insist that you are withholding the person they desperately want to speak to but you are insisting aren't available.

[kyra-ojosverdes.livejournal.com]

Did I mention cutting someone off yesterday and applying The Cranky?

[sweet-byrd.livejournal.com]

I crave your power.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

And now you know why tech-support and IT people the world over make with The Cranky... because it's just about the ony thing that works with the technophobes... and most of the Lusers out there are.

[kyra-ojosverdes.livejournal.com]

I found patience and understanding pretty effective when I was teaching sweet little 80 year-old women to use DOS-based genealogy software in 1992. Same thing, really, when I was tutoring my fellow Apple BASIC programming students in high school.