Vaguely Uncomfortable

[Xsorovan]

I'm an IT manager and I have to admit that there are several things about my job that always make me vaguely uncomfortable.

The first of which is post it notes around people's monitors. When I am fixing someone's computer I can't help but look at them. The one's the make me uncomfortable are the post-it-notes from significant others saying things like, "I can't wait to move in with you." or extra sappy romance (in 5 lines) on a post-it-note.

Another thing that makes me vaguely uncomfortable is when I'm working on someone's computer and they are hovering around and they take a phone call. Now I never care if the person is hovering around. I'll talk all techy and let them know I'm doing something. It's the answering the call (with the phone that is on the desk not 3 feet from me) or the cell phone and continuing to stand behind/by/next to me. I'm ok with this situation 75% of the time. It's the personal phone/cell calls in this situation that bother me.

For example I'm sitting at someone's desk trying to figure out why Word only types in Russian characters when the Russian language pack hasn't been installed and the person behind me (who doesn't know Russian) answers her cell phone: "Hello?... Oh hey, yeah, no it's cool. I'm getting my computer fixed right now... I don't know. Russian or something... haha yeah. So I was thinking about the other night when you called me a ho in front of my friends..." And down the conversation spirals until they are arguing and I sit there trying to be as small as possible. Then it takes this turn, "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't realize... no, I'm sorry. haha you're so cute. Love ya! No you hang up... no..." etc...

So I'm curious now that you know my weakness as an IT guy what is it at your job (IT or otherwise) that makes you vaguely uncomfortable?

 

[halik]

lol @ the phone call and the use of 'Ho' at work.

 

[effowe]

I'm the office guy at my small company, so I have to take care of tracking down the outstanding invoices. Sometimes my boss makes me call the same people several times over a couple weeks so I can ask about something I just talked to them about. I don't like being the bill collector.

 

[Feldenak]

Executive laptops and what's in their IE history/bookmarks and email always bothers me. There are somethings I just shouldn't know about their personal lives.

 

[meltdown75]

I don't like it when the people in the next cubicle are whispering. It just bothers me and seems grade-schoolish. Or worse, they are just mouthing the words. It doesn't sound like they are talking but they are, and it's all backstabbery and gossip. I know it's not about me, but it just bothers me anyway.

 

[Xsorovan]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Executive laptops and what's in their IE history/bookmarks and email always bothers me. There are somethings I just shouldn't know about their personal lives.

Oh... yes. I fixed student computers for a couple of years and I encounter the same issue there!

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: Xsorovan

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Executive laptops and what's in their IE history/bookmarks and email always bothers me. There are somethings I just shouldn't know about their personal lives.

Oh... yes. I fixed student computers for a couple of years and I encounter the same issue there!

Copying their documents and pictures to a new computer almost always ventures into the realm of TMI as well.

 

[ScottFern]

I am not allowed to talk to any of the Travel agents at their desks. I am supposed to go straight to the manager or the manager comes straight to me to deal with any issues they are having at their computer. It's very weird situation and I don't like it at all. But I am still a n00b IT guy but I am the resident admin and working my way to get my certs.

 

[amdhunter]

I hate when you are working under someones desk, and they insist on still sitting there, especially women. It puts you in a very awkward position.

Also, when I worked as a cable tech for Time Warner, it made me uncomfortable when people insisted on staying in bed, or underwear while you worked...or whenever they would stare at you non-stop just waiting for you to mess up. ugh

 

[moshquerade]

sometimes the blood, pus and smell gets to me.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: amdhunter
I hate when you are working under someones desk, and they insist on still sitting there, especially women. It puts you in a very awkward position.

:laugh: I find that funny whether it was sarcastic or not!

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: Xsorovan
I'm an IT manager

... not if you're fixing computers...

 

[Stuxnet]

I can't stand it when my team and I are trying to diagnose a problem and our boss hovers like a damn helicopter.

IF YOU CAN'T COOK, GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN!

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: jbourne77

Originally posted by: Xsorovan
I'm an IT manager

... not if you're fixing computers...

Depends on the size of the IT dept.

 

[deerslayer]

I used to be a Residential Network Techincian for Western Illinois University, and I would go to student's rooms to fix their computers and they would leave after I got there and go to a friend's room, the cafeteria, out for a smoke, wherever they felt like going. Of course, about that time I would need to reboot and of course they had a password to log into windows. That always irritated me.

 

[Xsorovan]

Originally posted by: jbourne77

Originally posted by: Xsorovan
I'm an IT manager

... not if you're fixing computers...

... I know plenty of IT managers that fix computers. Someone has to do it. Just because I work at a company where there could be only myself, a phone monkey and a tech under me doesn't mean I'm not the manager.

I'm not a CIO of a company if that's what you're thinking. How "dirty" you get your hands as a management position depends on the size of the company. If there are hundreds- thousands of people in your corp then as a manager II won't be touching anything. I'll be a people pusher. But if my company has less than 250-500 people I'm going to be doing things that "normal" techs do. It's really a matter of perspective.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: Feldenak

Originally posted by: jbourne77

Originally posted by: Xsorovan
I'm an IT manager

... not if you're fixing computers...

Depends on the size of the IT dept.

sound more like IT "Ho"

 

[Kwaipie]

I'm getting sick of recovering Exchange databases and extracting mailboxes for HR to skim through. I am especially uncomfortable when it is someone I know and HR wants me to recover every single backup I've performed in a 2 month span. My IT Director has no testes.

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: Xsorovan

Originally posted by: jbourne77

Originally posted by: Xsorovan
I'm an IT manager

... not if you're fixing computers...

... I know plenty of IT managers that fix computers. Someone has to do it. Just because I work at a company where there could be only myself, a phone monkey and a tech under me doesn't mean I'm not the manager.

I'm not a CIO of a company if that's what you're thinking. How "dirty" you get your hands as a management position depends on the size of the company. If there are hundreds- thousands of people in your corp then as a manager II won't be touching anything. I'll be a people pusher. But if my company has less than 250-500 people I'm going to be doing things that "normal" techs do. It's really a matter of perspective.

I was just giving you a hard time... sorry. FWIW, I'm a Team Lead / Systems Architect and I sling more code than anyone who works for me. Small company, too.

:beer:

 

[Xsorovan]

Originally posted by: jbourne77
I was just giving you a hard time... sorry. FWIW, I'm a Team Lead / Systems Architect and I sling more code than anyone who works for me. Small company, too.

:beer:

Ahh. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Cheers then. :beer:

 

[shortspanishguy]

One night I was in a ghetto area closing a loan for a family in their home. The mother calls her daughter out of her room to do some cleaning..... during the settlement dd:

Anyway, she comes out in a wifebeater and sweatpants. I'm like WTF. This girl was a teenager and she was bending over to clean all while her tits keep falling out the top. It was extra strange because the daughter and the father kept laughing at eachother.

I was a little concerned I was gonna get yelled at by the parents or something so I made an effort to keep my eyes on the paper.

 

[bignateyk]

Originally posted by: shortspanishguy
One night I was in a ghetto area closing a loan for a family in their home. The mother calls her daughter out of her room to do some cleaning..... during the settlement dd:

Anyway, she comes out in a wifebeater and sweatpants. I'm like WTF. This girl was a teenager and she was bending over to clean all while her tits keep falling out the top. It was extra strange because the daughter and the father kept laughing at eachother.

I was a little concerned I was gonna get yelled at by the parents or something so I made an effort to keep my eyes on the paper.

They were trying to get a better rate on the loan

 

[Xsorovan]

There was a time when I was working as a bookseller at a rather large bookselling establishment, and I had a person come in and order some books on "A Stripper Workout". It was like exercises to do with a pole or something like that. But the name of the book had stripper in it. We weren't required to ask anyone how old they were for any of the books we ordered or sold, so I really had no idea how old this girl was. Books were ordered, they came in, and as per custom we call the customer to let them know that the book(s) they have ordered are in. By some "stroke" of fate I happened to pick up the phone when this girl's (assuming conservative) father called our store after getting a message left on his answering machine about the books that had been ordered. The thing that kept it from being really awkward was the fact that he realized that we can't police everyone who comes through the store and what they order. But there was that vague moment when he was all like, "A STRIPPER WORKOUT BOOK!?"

 

[nageov3t]

we've got this metal rack in our build cage that we store servers on... the amount of servers people pile onto this rack of obscene. it's gotta be waaaay over the weight limit. any time you take a server off of it, it wobbles a little bit. I've mentioned it to my managers, but was told that we have no place else to put them... I've gotten into the habit of standing off to the side whenever removing a server from it so that I wouldn't be in its path when it finally does decide to come crashing down.

 

[SViper]

Originally posted by: amdhunter
I hate when you are working under someones desk, and they insist on still sitting there, especially women. It puts you in a very awkward position.

Also, when I worked as a cable tech for Time Warner, it made me uncomfortable when people insisted on staying in bed, or underwear while you worked...or whenever they would stare at you non-stop just waiting for you to mess up. ugh

I'm a fairly attractive guy, so when I get under the desk of an attractive women, I work it a little bit. Like I'll linger under the desk fiddling with wires with my ass in the air a little bit. It works for me.