Thursday, June 25, 2009

Technology Transfer with Honey


In one of my first jobs I worked with a public services agency and did most of my work on the computer. Since I had just come from the mom world, I had much to learn about software and hardware. In those days the end user was responsible for defrags, backups, etc. Our tech people were quite nerdy and also in their insecurity happy to make you feel stupid. I was regularly reminded of how inadequate I was and was asked questions about the system for which I had no answers. The attitude of our tech department was that they were dealing with lazy and stupid children who would never learn anything. Having been a teacher in a prior life, my whole philosophy was that there were no stupid questions. Their attitude was that all questions were stupid.

In this prior life I was responsible for a survey regarding a price change for services that my agency was considering. We worked with universities and colleges and also the public and were required by law to survey prior to raising our service fees. As a result, this meant I had to monitor many emails for several months and record the responses.

The first thing each morning I would open my over-filled email box and begin the responses. On one particular morning I opened an attachment from the Dean of a university to print it and immediately my email box was filled with responses from my huge address book from everyone...many of them address invalid responses. Within five minutes the headquarters computer security office in the city called me on the phone and said I had a virus and to shut down my computer immediately. I did. I also walked around the building and posted signs telling staff not to open any email from me that morning. It was the Melissa virus.

I was very intimidated by this whole mess and knew that the 'nerds' were going to have a field day with me. Because they worked late hours none of the crew got work before 10:00 AM. I had to sit and stew for the first part of the morning without any computer. When they arrived, they immediately wanted to know what games I had been playing on the computer, what Internet sites I had visited, etc. When I revealed that I had opened an attachment from the Dean of a prestigious university it took most of the wind out of their sails. I did get some pleasure from that.

When I changed jobs years later the next job also had a staff of IT that felt it was necessary to belittle the 'client' and to even go so far as to correct their English on the help tickets being posted, even though there was a database that recorded this insolence. I took a totally new approach to working with these folks. No longer was I going to be the deer in the headlights. I became the chatty and praise filled client. Everything they did was golden and my questions were always coated with awe at how they did what they did. I ignored their snide remarks. It worked! We became the best of friends and I became number one on their help list when a problem arose. They even began to share knowledge.

This all came back to me when twice this week I was in IE browsing various blogs and when I clicked on a link the 'about:Tabs' starts up and keeps opening new tabs ad nausea um until I am forced to turn off my PC...actually I have to UNPLUG my PC as I get no response from the keyboard or off button!

My PC is an oldie but a goodie, but I guess it is is now beginning to show its age. Staples is having a half-price sale on PC maintenance---which I hope means more than vacuuming the inside of the box. Maybe I should look into this. I wish I had some rude nerds in the neighborhood.

9 comments:

  1. I saw recently a blurb on FB about computer maintenance. I had complained about my computer getting as slow as molasses, and I wasn't going to open any more applications on FB because it slowed me down. Someone wrote back with a suggestion of a "cleaner" for files on the computer, which is supposed to remove more than most do. I downloaded and ran it yesterday, and my computer got lightning fast again.

    Go here to check it out:

    www.ccleaner.com

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  2. I upgraded to a new model within the last year and I have not regretted doing it although the baby cost me an arm and a leg. Nowadays new outfits are hardly ever purchased, holidays that cost money are far and few between; so why not. This toy gives me a lot of pleasure.
    Btw, Tabor, you have ended up as a link to a particular post once again and not in my followers list. Do you use the Blogger dashboard to manage and add followers?

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  3. Me again.
    I've just read your meme; it's brilliant! I love your feisty, determined, unusual, down-to-earth answers. I love your choice of reading material too. Thank you.

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  4. Friko, I started adding bloggers to my blogroll on my blog page. I have not been using the 'follower' feature that is on other pages because it seems redundant. By adding to my blog page I can see the updates that others make when I log on to my blogpage. I do follow your blog and that is why you probably have the link that shows and goes to my blogpage.

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  5. My brother always told me, "you catch more flies with honey, not vinegar", so that philosophy seemed to work for you...I always feel dumb with techies, but I endure it anyway....Sounds like all our 'puters are getting contrary.
    I am so excited to be back. I think I did more without it though.

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  6. Techie's still treat you like a wayward child. I spent a whole morning with one who kept having me run tests that I had already run before contacting him. Telling him that I had already done so did no good. His book said "do these things in sequence" and all he knew how to do was follow his instructions. After wasting many hours I gave up and finally fixed it myself.

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  7. Oh yes. The tech snob. I've seen so many of these I want to puke. Let me ask you this, though. Were they all guys? Did any female tech treat you this way? I don't mean to stereotype.

    I get lots of comments that I am a breath of fresh air.

    I don't have a lot of time this morning to research but I'll throw one program at you. malwarebytes.

    www.malwarebytes.org

    If you can possibly manage it, download it from another computer and put it on a disc or thumb drive.

    Disconnect your pc from the Internet, turn it on and run the malwarebytes program.

    If you are using IE, try Firefox for a change or Safari until it gets resolved.

    I am off to Cols. this week-end but let me know if your problem gets resolved. I've got more possible solutions up my sleeve. Just bad timing, right now.

    What AV are you running?

    New PC's are always nice and fun!

    I cannot believe that mine is 6 years old!

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  8. Me again. I remember well the Melissa virus. I went around at work the night before it was supposed to attack and did backups on so many end users computers. I was so clueless back then, I even backed up the macs.

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  9. Tabor get a new one.lol I'm being selfish because I'd love to share FB with you.

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Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.