Monday, March 21, 2005

Helpful Remarks in the Workplace

Let me preface this by saying that I like my job. I really do. I don't mind the fact that occasionally I have to deal with office politics, managerial doublespeak, and the tech holy wars of Microsoft vs. The World on a daily basis. But this past week I've heard a couple of conversations that are just so dumb that I have to share them.

Conversation #1: Status Update
Moderator: "I see that this project's status has been changed from 'In Progress' to 'Deferred'. What's the reason for this change?"
Helpful Person: "We're moving it to a later date."
Moderator: "Excellent."

Next time I mark a project as "Cancelled", I'll make sure to report the reason as "No longer doing it."

Conversation #2: Requesting Access
Guy Who Needs Login: "I need access to this database so I can troubleshoot something."
Helpful Person: "Other people have confirmed that they have access to that database, so we know IT'S not the problem."

This is like saying:
"I need a dollar for a soda."
"Other people have soda, so we know that soda isn't the problem."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, all of this comes together to tell a good story. To leverage existing resources to reprioritize our synoptic views of strategic and tactical quick hits. You know... with the work that you've done, Dave... and... and.. the work that others have done... we need to kind of fit in to the infrastructure and show that we can plug in and redirect any queries. A good story, to be sure.