We are moved! Our old house has been sold, we have moved from 40 miles from work to 11 miles from work for both of us. In the last few days I have battled a kidney stone, AUA battled a cat that tripped him causing injury to a hand, we've battled delays, moving help cancelling and being injured and breaking our new front porch. We have conquered the forces of darkness that wanted us to stay in nowhere land and now find ourselves in a bastion of civilization (ok compared to Corydon, IN, Louisville, KY IS civilization!) and in the Towers of Light. I drove 18 minutes to get to work today, after my hour plus drive I had, I don't know what to do with all this extra time! All karma returned multiplied to those who sent it out to us and out now to those who need it next.

She was having serious issues with one of our customer interfacing programs; it was not allowing her to do the necessary maintenance for a customer. So she went to one of the managers, let's call her "Loss" for her initials...Keep in mind that Loss has been there much longer than me or Furl who started 1 1/2 years ago there... The issue was that wasn't letting us reset or issue temp passwords.

Furlwren asks Loss "So should I escalate this password issue, or should I have someone else in the department do the maintenance for the customer?"

Loss answers, without looking up from her own computer, "Troubleshoot."

Furl, looking bemused since the issues with well known to all, answers "It's ."

Loss asks, still not looking up from her own manager business, "What are the steps for troubleshooting ?"

Furl shifts her feet and answers "Ummmmm... Contact manager to confirm if it should be escalted to tier 2 techs."
Now, at the time, before we were able to escalate, we had to get the manager's approval, though it didn't matter which manager.

Loss looks up expectantly and asks "Well... and have you done this?" Again, note that Loss IS a manager and was one at the time of this conversation...

Furlwren answers with a WTF look "Ummm... Yes? What would you like me to do with ?"

Loss counters this logic with "Well, there's nothing you can do to troubleshoot the program?" while looking at Furl like she has absolutely no brain and is worse than a starfish.

Furl answers, managing to maintain some much needed patience, "Ummm... Ok? So should I call tier 2?"

Loss is apparently bored with the conversation and the use of logic. "Yes. There's nothing I can do here either..."

Furl asks oh-so-sweetly "Would you like a screenshot to document the issue in case anyone else has this issue?"

Loss nonchalantly quips "No screen shot necessary."

Some of you might remember Frick, a guy I used to work for, our store's Imperial District Supervisor Supreme. I thought he was an idiot, until I met his collegues. Then I KNEW he was an idiot, it's just that I then understood that was a job requirement.

Anyway, so Frick comes to our store one day. See, when we first set up our computer repair station, we did it with a deck in front, which was our public face. This was where techs spoke to customers and filled out paperwork. The actual teching was done in the back room-- a nasty storage room. Oh, it wasn't much to look at, but it was well-lit and very spacious. The techs were never hurting for places to keep computers, even when they had 20-30 in the que. And their tools could be kept in giant toolboxes, not chintzy storage containers from Staples.

Anyway, Frick comes in and decides this should not be. It did not make any sense to hire techs and allow them to spend all their time *gasp!* fixing stuff! No, we had to make sure all work was done on the teensy desk out front. Frick was confident in his plan, though for appearances' sake, he decided to ask my opinion on the matter. Heh, I told you he was an idiot.

"So, Linkv, you're the department supervisor, right?"

Wow, since you're ripping up my store, shouldn't you already know that?"Yes indeed."

"So, tell me, where's your tech bench?"

It's the giant black thing in front of you, you moron. "Well, actually, we have two. We have this one here that we use for talking to customers, and the real work is done in the big room in back."

"Uh huh. And how do you think that's working out, reeeealllly?"

"Fantastic."

"Uh... huh. Well, what would you do if I told you that I wanted all the tech stuff moved out here immediately, and for the techs to only use the back room for storage?"

"I'd sweat profusely."

Frick was unprepared to think that someone would not like his idea. "Why?"

"Because the techs need space to work. Their whole job is to get computers done as quickly as possible. If they're constantly distracted by customers asking where the crapper is, the quality and speed of their work will go down, and it won't be their fault."

"Uh huh. Well, what if I told you other stores did it that way?"

"That doesn't really concern me. I work *here*. And this is not a good idea."

"Why are you so against this? Give me one good reason why we should keep the tech room in the back."

"Well, for one thing, it's a liability issue. If you have customer computers out front, they can see what the techs are doing. What about when a tech is working on a customer's computer and porn just explodes everywhere? It's right there for other customers to see. It's only a matter of time until the wrong person notices. Keeping the computers out of sight is the only way to protect customer privacy and keep the porn out of view."

"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem..."

Today I would like to thank someone who made me laugh when I needed it most: Jay.
I had a warranty job that needed getting done. Problem was: customer spoke only spanish and no spanish speakers in the store.
Customer ended up submitting the PC issue through a service that translated. A service that my pal works under. When asked to yield the translated notes, we both became quite shocked that said notes started in english but ended in spanish!!
Luckily for me, Jay was quick to re-submit the notes to finish the translation and we exchanged some funny (HR acceptable) jokes.
Jay, I really needed those laughs today! It helped me get through the day when I was at my worst. I look forward to working with you again!


Oh, I also told Jay about the site and I hope your reading this right now!