Funny Story From Work

[Gyrene]

So I'm sitting at my computer, drinking my Jolt and surfing the web when an engineer from the design shop comes running into my office screaming:
Him: There's a virus on my computer again, I can't get to any of my files, my computer won't do anything. I've got a project due out in an hour and I can't access it. You have to come help me NOW!
Me: Uh huh...give me a second
Him: No, you don't understand, I have to get this design out in AN HOUR.
Me: Ok, let's go see what the problem is.
So we walk over to his computer and I sit down.
Me: Ok, let's log you in, then we'll see what the problem is.
Him: Login?
Me: Yea, you type your username and password so you can access your files.
Him: What's my username and password?
Me: Weren't you given those when your computer was setup?
Him: I don't remember
Me: How have you been getting on your computer?
Him: Well I just sit down and its on. But every so often this virus keeps popping up and I have to get Brent (our Helpdesk Admin) to fix it.
Me: *I log him in* Ok, its fixed. From now on, if that "virus" comes back just type in your username and password *I write them down for him* and it will fix the problem.
Him: Ok, thanks.
I get up and run out the room, down the hall, to my office, shut the door, and burst out laughing. Any of you IT guys have people this stupid in your office? I didn't think they existed.

 

[iamwiz82]

a few weeks ago one of my co-workers wascalled to the cube of a part designer, whose monitor wouldnt work. The standby light was on, but nothing else. She looked at him and at the machine and laughed. Not turning on the PC will usually cause the monitor not to work.

 

[Czar]

not as stupid as this one but every once in a while I get a call where a user cant logon

reason?

Me or the main Network Admin have logged on to the users computer earlier with the user account "Administrator", when they turn on their computer it shows the last username logged in in the username text box. This confuses the users alot because they are just used to typing their password in and pressing enter. Often they dont know their own username, mostly because this is the only time they use it and its not easy to relate the username to their email.

Users are fun

 

[WhiteKnight]

Hey, easy with the generalizations. He must be one crappy engineer if he can't even understand how to do stuff like that. Fine if he doesn't know how, but if he can't follow what you're doing at all or understand the concept behind it... that's the kind of thinking that one needs to be a good engineer.

<-- Engineer, no IT problems here.

 

[rbhawcroft]

NT is confusing, at my uni I could only work out how to use the computers in the language lab that had a different client to the library's NT/ Novell thing, I just couldnt work out how to use that thing.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: Czar
not as stupid as this one but every once in a while I get a call where a user cant logon

reason?

Me or the main Network Admin have logged on to the users computer earlier with the user account "Administrator", when they turn on their computer it shows the last username logged in in the username text box. This confuses the users alot because they are just used to typing their password in and pressing enter. Often they dont know their own username, mostly because this is the only time they use it and its not easy to relate the username to their email.

Users are fun

I have had that happen too. They call up frantically, "Someone has been on my computer, it says A-D-M-I-N-S-T-R-A-T-O-R!"

 

[Linflas]

When I worked on a contract for GSA the LAN support staff were not allowed to leave the workstation until they had logged back in as the user. The reason for this was because we were not allowed to expect the users to remember what their user ID was. Their user IDs were in the form of "FirstNameMILastName".

 

[Gyrene]

Originally posted by: WhiteKnight
Hey, easy with the generalizations. He must be one crappy engineer if he can't even understand how to do stuff like that. Fine if he doesn't know how, but if he can't follow what you're doing at all or understand the concept behind it... that's the kind of thinking that one needs to be a good engineer. <-- Engineer, no IT problems here.

Sorry, guess I should have made the title to "Why I Despise Working With Engineers At My Company," because every damn one of them here is like thatm, save a few Project Managers .

 

[Demon-Xanth]

The way I see it is just because they're an engineer doesn't make them computer savy.

Yesterday a Sofware Engineer (read PROGRAMMER) couldn't get a computer to come up, it was turned off, the power button on the front needed to be pressed. A while back another software engineer said "I've never used an AMD system before, what's it like?" as if the differences between AMD and Intel was like Windows and MacOS. By the same token other engineers (mostly in a different department) are quite at home with the RAID SCSI cards in the dual Xeon systems they built themselves.

Just because someone knows how to write software doesn't mean they're computer savy either

 

[Triumph]

Sheesh, if you want to make a sh*tty generalization, at least go by one that makes sense, i.e. AGE of this engineer. It's usually the older PEOPLE who have problems like this, the younger people usually do just fine. It's not because he's an engineer. Or are you one of those "Nick Burns: Your Company's Computer Guy" computer guys?

<---- is insulted by your unfair generalization.

 

[Killbat]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
The way I see it is just because they're an engineer doesn't make them computer savy.

Yesterday a Sofware Engineer (read PROGRAMMER) couldn't get a computer to come up, it was turned off, the power button on the front needed to be pressed. A while back another software engineer said "I've never used an AMD system before, what's it like?" as if the differences between AMD and Intel was like Windows and MacOS. By the same token other engineers (mostly in a different department) are quite at home with the RAID SCSI cards in the dual Xeon systems they built themselves.

Just because someone knows how to write software doesn't mean they're computer savy either

I hear that a lot, and frankly it baffles me. I can't understand how you could understand the workings of a machine well enough to write software for it, but somehow at the same time be completely inept at basic things like "turning it on".
Unless they're writing VB or webpages.

 

[brxndxn]

"I'm a people person! Engineers aren't good with working with people! Can't you get this through to your head? What the hell is wrong with you?!?!"


The stupidity of the users is because of the 'IT Industry Dumbing Down Initiative Conspiracy' by the major PC vendors.. Ever since they started making Quick Restore (without the OS Install discs) and putting a sticker on the back of the PC case that states it voids the warranty if opened, the user has been getting progressively dumber.

 

[rahvin]

Keep something in mind. Those engineers keep the business running, without them you have NO job. You are simply there to keep them working and nothing more. You DON'T generate revenue for the company.

 

[Alphathree33]

I think the term "engineer" gets used way to much.

Who wants to bet this person was not an engineer but a CAD designer or graphic designer or 3d modeler or architect or something like that?

 

[daddyo]

Hey IT boy, you know that Engineers designed the computers you work on right?

Maybe the Engineers at your company are nitwits, but by and large, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more intelligent, logical group of people.

IT people making fun of Engineers....now THAT'S funny.

 

[Gyrene]

I'm sorry if what I said offended some of you, I really didn't think it would. I was just posting something funny that happened to me today, no need to get bent out of shape.

 

[MajesticMoose]

That's not as bad as the time i had a teacher flip out because I turned off her monitor when she still had work there, possibly not saved. She just didn't get that you could turn that off without killing the whole machine. Then the one next door called me or one of my friends in to fix his. Everything was good as soon as the monitor was turned on.

 

[Red Dawn]

Maybe the Engineers at your company are nitwits, but by and large, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more intelligent, logical group of people.

Just don't invite them to any party if you want to have fun.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: Alphathree33
I think the term "engineer" gets used way to much.

Who wants to bet this person was not an engineer but a CAD designer or graphic designer or 3d modeler or architect or something like that?

Quit true.

My nanny's fiance refers to himself as a Building Maintenance Engineer. According to his resume, he's actually a glorified Janitor.

 

[SpongeBob]

Originally posted by: daddy-o
Hey IT boy, you know that Engineers designed the computers you work on right?

Maybe the Engineers at your company are nitwits, but by and large, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more intelligent, logical group of people.

IT people making fun of Engineers....now THAT'S funny.

Yeah no kidding. You should be thanking us for being able to drive a car or live in a house, without us neither would exist!

 

[purbeast0]

Heh I have a funny story from yesterday that might even beat yours ...

I am a summer intern in the IT department at Swales Aerospace. So some of the stuff I do is go fix computers when other people in the company call the help desk and need some help. So the lady at help desk was like "someone's computer isn't turning on. They say the monitor is working, but not the computer. Can you go take a look at it?" So of course, being the good intern I am, and doing absolutely NOTHING at that time, said "Sure I'll go look"

So I go take a look and get to his office. I'm like "this is the computer?" and he's like "yea." So I see the monitor is on saying "NO SIGNAL" or something like that. So I turn push the POWER BUTTON on the computer, and bam ... wouldn't ya know ... the computer works now! The guy then says "How did you fix it?" and I say "I turned it on" ...

So yes, people ARE actually that stupid. I walked out of his office just shaking my head like "wtf ... how are people so stupid." My main concern is how can people like that work WITH computers when they can't even turn them on. And to think these are the kinda people who design space aircrafts and satellites ....

 

[lRageATMl]

i think i can beat you all out.

a few days ago i get a call, "my computer isn't turning on i don;t know whats wrong". so i go over to her desk to take a look at her pc. i make sure everything is plugged into the surge protector, and it is...but wha I also noticed was the surge protector ws plugged into itself!!!!

heres another one for you, I get a user who calls and says his mouse isn;t working. So i'm like okay I'll bring another one down to you. So I go down there and I see the mouse on the floor. I was liek why is the mouse on teh floor, and he said "well i put my foot on it and push it down but it doesn;t do anything."

 

[skace]

Keep something in mind. Those engineers keep the business running, without them you have NO job. You are simply there to keep them working and nothing more. You DON'T generate revenue for the company.

I love this response. Like it is supposed to make IT people feel grateful for engineers or something? "Oh thank you Engineers! Because of you I have a job! I don't generate any revenue without you, massah!"

Engineers are humans. IT people are humans. There are dumb and smart humans. There are dumb and smart engineers/IT people. I work in IT and do a pretty good job, so much so that the majority of the people in my building specifically request me for problems. I've heard jokes from both sides of the spectrums, ones about dumb engineers and ones about dumb IT people. Infact when I'm helping out engineers with a problem, they usually ask me about the dumb IT people I work with. So it is a 2 way street. I really don't think a single engineer should not know how to turn a PC on properly. That is like a plumber not knowing how to flush a toilet. Sure, he only works with the pipes, but he needs to know wtf the rest of it does regularly.

Sadly enough, I've met engineers that barely knew how to code. I've also met quite a few IT people who didn't know what regedit was.... arrrgggghhh, so depressing. I've helped engineers with code and most of my fellow IT people with their problems. I usually write in batch files, but am self-teaching myself perl. I know how to code in VB, C++ and a little in Java.

So, Although IT people don't generate revenue in the same way as engineers - they are still a piece of a puzzle. IT people and Engineers are practically one in the same.

Two stories:

I went down to help some guys to get their laptops working over remote connect. They had figured, since they both had laptops that needed to be worked on, they would some how daisy chain them to the same phone line. The phone line went in 1 laptop, then a small phone coord was barely in the ethernet jack of the laptop and it went over to the other computer's phone jack. I'm sitting there staring at it for a second, then I go "You realize thats the computer port right?". And one of them responds with "Oh, so I can't set these up like my phones?" (He had 2 phones on his desk). D'OH! I've gotten so used to these scenarios that I barely flinch anymore.

A group of people had recently moved areas and, on top of that, got new phones. The combination of these 2 steps led to extreme chaos. At the height of the chaos, we walked into one office and the guys inside had their phone cords DUCT TAPED to the ethernet ports. They went on to tell us how the phones don't work for sh!t. Man, go figure .

I love stories, they make the job that much better.

 

[Gyrene]

Originally posted by: lRageATMl
i think i can beat you all out. a few days ago i get a call, "my computer isn't turning on i don;t know whats wrong". so i go over to her desk to take a look at her pc. i make sure everything is plugged into the surge protector, and it is...but wha I also noticed was the surge protector ws plugged into itself!!!! heres another one for you, I get a user who calls and says his mouse isn;t working. So i'm like okay I'll bring another one down to you. So I go down there and I see the mouse on the floor. I was liek why is the mouse on teh floor, and he said "well i put my foot on it and push it down but it doesn;t do anything."

Sounds like This Story and This Story. Tis a funny site.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

The only times I ever make a bit of fun towards users doing stupid stuff is either when it's exceedingly odvious, or they really should know better. I don't expect a mechanical engineer to know what regedit's for, a software engineer should be comfortable with it though (assuming one who programs for Windows, an AS/400 programmer couldn't give a rats arse about regedit)