Nice guy



  • Although my immediate cow-orkers are currently both nice and competent, there is no lack of _____ in the building, nice or otherwise. And coincidentally, just today, a new guy from the support team dropped by our office, with a USB key in hand.


    - There is a problem with the extranet, the dev team asked me for the logs but it didn't work.
    - What didn't work?
    - Well the logs.
    - Oh there is a problem with the log server?
    - No, no, I took the log file on the log server.
    - So what is the problem?
    - Well you see the dev team wants the database logs.
    - Ok that's the answer to the question "what does the dev team want", but what is the answer to the question "what is the problem"?
    - Yes I understand but the clients can't use the web site you see.
    - Ok what is the problems with the logs.
    - Well I created a ticket like you asked me.
    - I never asked you anything. What is the problem with the logs.
    - Well I tried to send the logs to the dev team but it's 300M so it didn't work.
    - How did you try to send the logs?
    - Well I created a ticket and it didn't work.

    At this point I lost it and my boss had to ask me to calm down (but he was laughing). I've had the experience of such unproductive conversations, but never face to face.

    - What didn't work!
    - It didn't want the log file
    - WHAT didn't want the log file!
    - Well you see I have to give the log file to the dev team

    Turns out he was trying to attach a 300M compressed log file to a ticket, and, well, shockingly it didn't work. He never said it in so many words, though. I had to ask him, "did you try to attach the god damn file to the ticket?" and he said "yes," nodding.

    - And what do you have on that USB key, I asked, realizing I already knew the answer ...
    - Oh, it's the log file, I was wondering if you could help me send it to the dev team.

    My colleagues were chuckling, trying not to humiliate the poor guy while I was trying not to yell at him as I directed him to the dev team -- located at the end of the corridor, a good 20m away.

    All that time he kept remarkably calm and nice. Maybe he just doesn't get the signals that say "you're doin' it wrong."



  • That sounds just like me trying to get information out of my father.



  • Oh man, that would so horribly piss me off. I would have probably started ignoring him only half way trough, you have way too much patience.

    The worst is probebly that he actually honestly didn't get it, yet kept calm. For people like that I can only recomend postnatal abortion and call his parents to tell them to try again, because the first one was broken.



  • If that is really how the conversation went then the problem is that you kept cutting him off.  Some people like to give too much background information to people (yeah it sucks, but get used to it).  It looks like a lot of this is him telling a somewhat long story and then you cutting in, making and assumption and then getting him off track.  Yeah, he did a poor job communicating, but you didn't help either.



  • The trick is to raise a flag in your brain when you notice this kind of conversation starting to unfold, and then to just ask, What happened?, What did you do?, then moving in for the kill with strict yes/no questions.



  • @tster said:

    If that is really how the conversation went then the problem is that you kept cutting him off.  Some people like to give too much background information to people (yeah it sucks, but get used to it).  It looks like a lot of this is him telling a somewhat long story and then you cutting in, making and assumption and then getting him off track.  Yeah, he did a poor job communicating, but you didn't help either.

    Right on... assume nothing, question everything, and realise that users are being asked to use terminology they're not familiar with and do things they've never done with minimal instructions. We get the usual mistakes here - by "Internet" they mean "web browser", by "CPU" they mean "PC case" etc.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @nixar said:

    And coincidentally, just today, a new guy from the support team dropped by our office, with a USB key in hand.
    What does he support?



  • @PJH said:

    @nixar said:

    And coincidentally, just today, a new guy from the support team dropped by our office, with a USB key in hand.
    What does he support?

      The USB key, obviously. Without his hand there, it would've fallen on the floor.



  •  Totally agree. you have to give some people a break, take a deep breath and count to 10...and begin again from the start.  Losing the rag with them just because they can't describe what they are trying to do smacks of pure arrogance. That's the RWTF in this case I think.



  • @katana said:

     Totally agree. you have to give some people a break, take a deep breath and count to 10...and begin again from the start.  Losing the rag with them just because they can't describe what they are trying to do smacks of pure arrogance. That's the RWTF in this case I think.

     

    You know, you'd have a very good point if we were talking about an old lady having trouble with 'em newfangled intarwebs, or a minimum wage call center drone. 

    But we're talking about a level 2 support technician whose job description includes basic Unix shell and SQL, log analysis and reporting, and supposedly went through an ITIL training session.



  • @nixar said:

    @katana said:

     Totally agree. you have to give some people a break, take a deep breath and count to 10...and begin again from the start.  Losing the rag with them just because they can't describe what they are trying to do smacks of pure arrogance. That's the RWTF in this case I think.

     

    You know, you'd have a very good point if we were talking about an old lady having trouble with 'em newfangled intarwebs, or a minimum wage call center drone. 

    But we're talking about a level 2 support technician whose job description includes basic Unix shell and SQL, log analysis and reporting, and supposedly went through an ITIL training session.

     

    Yeah but you didn't state it that way.  You said "a guy from the support team" which could have been anybody.  Especially when you say a "new" member of the support team.  Could have been a 19 year old intern for all we know.

    But, being as he is supposed to be higher up, he's a douchebag for not being able to figure something so simple out.



  • @amischiefr said:

    Yeah but you didn't state it that way.  You said "a guy from the support team" which could have been anybody.  Especially when you say a "new" member of the support team.  Could have been a 19 year old intern for all we know.

    But, being as he is supposed to be higher up, he's a douchebag for not being able to figure something so simple out.

     

    Well I said he had access to the database logs, and implied it was a production system since it impacted clients, so I thought it was somewhat obvious.



  • @nixar said:

    Although my immediate cow-orkers are currently both nice and competent, there is no lack of _____ in the building, nice or otherwise.

    No lack of... WHAT? Cheese? Kangaroos? Chinese jet pilots?




  • @Zylon said:

    @nixar said:

    Although my immediate cow-orkers are currently both nice and competent, there is no lack of _____ in the building, nice or otherwise.

    No lack of... WHAT? Cheese? Kangaroos? Chinese jet pilots?


    I love a good mad lib!


  • @nixar said:

    @katana said:

     Totally agree. you have to give some people a break, take a deep breath and count to 10...and begin again from the start.  Losing the rag with them just because they can't describe what they are trying to do smacks of pure arrogance. That's the RWTF in this case I think.

     

    You know, you'd have a very good point if we were talking about an old lady having trouble with 'em newfangled intarwebs, or a minimum wage call center drone. 

    But we're talking about a level 2 support technician whose job description includes basic Unix shell and SQL, log analysis and reporting, and supposedly went through an ITIL training session.


    To me, "a guy from the support team" means "tier-one script-monkey", whose job description includes being able to read English at a basic level and understand the words "yes" and "no".



  • Ok the same guy just managed to physically destroy his 4 day old USB token yesterday, and proceeded to lock up the new one this morning.

    Wow.

    He's still sporting the same nonchalant smile.



  • @nixar said:

    Ok the same guy just managed to physically destroy his 4 day old USB token yesterday, and proceeded to lock up the new one this morning.

    Wow.

    He's still sporting the same nonchalant smile.

    Well if he wasn't breaking everything, you wouldn't have much to do now, would you?  He's giving you job security, a welcome thing to find in this time of economic turmoil.  I would go over to his desk right now and shake his hand if I were you.



  • @belgariontheking said:

    Well if he wasn't breaking everything, you wouldn't have much to do now, would you?  He's giving you job security, a welcome thing to find in this time of economic turmoil.  I would go over to his desk right now and shake his hand if I were you.

     

    I wouldn't. Probably end up with a broken hand.



  • Fair enough, now that we know what he's supposed to know, yes, OK, you win, new guy is a retard.

    Still though I thought you could have handled it better.



  • @katana said:

    Fair enough, now that we know what he's supposed to know, yes, OK, you win, new guy is a retard.

    Still though I thought you could have handled it better.

     

    Handled what? The guy tried to attach 300M to a ticket and couldn't be farked to take a USB key to the next door before I even entered the narrative.



  • @nixar said:

    He's still sporting the same nonchalant smile.
    He's on drugs, either illegal or prescribed. Or really fucking stupid.



  • @Sir Twist said:

    @nixar said:
    He's still sporting the same nonchalant smile.
    He's on drugs, either illegal or prescribed. Or really fucking stupid.
    He's a smarmasaurus.  The kind of guy that you feel icky just talking to because he's smiling so much you think he's always trying to sell something.

    Or he's retarded.



  • @nixar said:

    Ok the same guy just managed to physically destroy his 4 day old USB token yesterday, and proceeded to lock up the new one this morning.

     




  • @belgariontheking said:

    @Sir Twist said:
    @nixar said:
    He's still sporting the same nonchalant smile.
    He's on drugs, either illegal or prescribed. Or really fucking stupid.
    He's a smarmasaurus.  The kind of guy that you feel icky just talking to because he's smiling so much you think he's always trying to sell something.

    Or he's retarded.

    Or, he's a stupid, retarded and drugged smarmasaurus.


Log in to reply