NobodysHome |
I will never understand some people's obsession with product names.
NobodysHome: Why didn't you use end user territory management in this step?
Co-Worker: What's that? Is it a new feature? Is it documented? Can we have a meeting so you can tell me what it is?
NH: It's where end users manage their own territories. Remember? It's been around for years.
CW: But is that the new official name? Did you make it up? Where did you get that name? Should I be converting all of my training to use the new name?
NH: It's the same thing it always has been. I just didn't bother looking up the formal name and gave you an accurate description instead.
CW: But I need to know whether that's the new product name! Who can I check with? What should I do about it??!?!?!
I swear. If I'd called it, "Fred's Method" I'd understand. But when what I call it exactly matches what you're doing, I just don't get it.
It's kind of like calling that thing across the top of Microsoft Word a "toolbar" instead of a "ribbon". Yeah, I can figure out what it is, thanks. And I don't need a formal training course teaching me that one thing can have two different names, or that some people might never use the formal name to refer to it...
EDIT: And while yes, I understand that in our formal, published training the legal names are important for copyright, trademark, or other purposes, I feel that in informal emails between co-workers we ought to be able to use a term that actually describes the thing we're talking about instead of whatever nonsense word Marketing made up for the feature.
NobodysHome |
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Why is competence so hard?
As curriculum developers, we have to go through all of our labs and lessons with every release and confirm that everything's still working the way it's supposed to, because tons of stuff gets changed without being documented.
The tech writers wait to be informed of any changes.
So there's a s***storm this morning because the docs for our latest release are out-and-out wrong because nobody told the writers about some product changes.
So the PM's in trouble for not telling them. They're in trouble for not doing the legwork on their own.
Me? I just provided everyone involved with all the information they needed to solve everything, because I did all the necessary legwork weeks ago.
Yeah, there's a reason I'm not too worried about job security...
Drejk |
Drejk wrote:Orthos wrote:I've never held a job anywhere near that long. My record is 9 years, at the job I just left so I could move to KS. Before that was 3, from 2006-9 and lost because the office I was working at closes when the AZ economy took a nosedive.Neither had Nobody, if I remember correctly. As far as I recall, they know each other from previous work.Nope. This really is 16 years (not 18) at a single job.
In June of 2000 I resigned from a tenure-track teaching position with no employment prospects because of the toxicity of the department. Within 2 weeks a tech company had picked me up as a technical trainer. From June of 2000 to roughly March of 2003 I enjoyed the best job I've ever had, until the most incompetent manager I've ever seen took over our department, drove us from a 43% profit margin to a 28% loss in a single quarter, and we all got laid off. I spent an amazingly enjoyable year as a contractor from 2003-2004, where I didn't make much money but I got to spend HUGE amounts of time with Impus Major as a toddler, then in May of 2004 a former co-worker from the layoff recommended me for my current job.
I got hired in June of 2004, and I've been at the same job ever since, with the same manager.
We did get acquired by Global Megacorporation in 2006, but we're still doing roughly the same work we were before. I just don't get to teach any more, which is sadness. But a stable job that lets me work from home 100% of the time and that pays the bills? That's priceless.
Ah, I mixed up the post-uni technical job (was that programming the real-time OSes?) and the co-worker who recommended you with the period before of acquisition of the company by GMC and the manager.
NobodysHome |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ah, I mixed up the post-uni technical job (was that programming the real-time OSes?)
Yep. That one.
I've been blessed with two incredible managers in a row, both female, both of whose names start with L, so even my friends get confused when I talk about the previous manager and they say, "Wait! Isn't that your current manager?"
"No, that's L..."
"But your previous manager was L...?"
"Yeah."
"Confusing!"
Vanykrye |
Drejk wrote:Ah, I mixed up the post-uni technical job (was that programming the real-time OSes?)Yep. That one.
I've been blessed with two incredible managers in a row, both female, both of whose names start with L, so even my friends get confused when I talk about the previous manager and they say, "Wait! Isn't that your current manager?"
"No, that's L..."
"But your previous manager was L...?"
"Yeah."
"Confusing!"
If I start listing out the first names of some of my family members, you'd swear there was a ton of incest happening. There isn't, but 4 names (again, first names only) keep showing up.
My mom's sister and my dad's sister both share the same name. My ex-sister-in-law also shares that same name.
My dad's sister married a man who shares the same name as my dad.
My dad has a cousin who married a man who shares the same name as my mom's brother. My mom's brother was married to a woman who shares the same name as the previously mentioned cousin.
Going another generation back, my mom's uncle shared the same name as my dad's aunt's husband.
Freehold DM |
I have fond memories of lying on a white beach with a laptop working but the reward was not worth the stress.
Also, freehold, how can I send you a picture of myeslf in a bikini with a laptop taking calls. To cheer you up.
My email is in my profile, email me and I will send you my phone number along with the fastest way from JFK Airport to my house(I am surprisingly close to JFK airport).
Limeylongears |
NobodysHome wrote:Drejk wrote:Ah, I mixed up the post-uni technical job (was that programming the real-time OSes?)Yep. That one.
I've been blessed with two incredible managers in a row, both female, both of whose names start with L, so even my friends get confused when I talk about the previous manager and they say, "Wait! Isn't that your current manager?"
"No, that's L..."
"But your previous manager was L...?"
"Yeah."
"Confusing!"If I start listing out the first names of some of my family members, you'd swear there was a ton of incest happening. There isn't, but 4 names (again, first names only) keep showing up.
My mom's sister and my dad's sister both share the same name. My ex-sister-in-law also shares that same name.
My dad's sister married a man who shares the same name as my dad.
My dad has a cousin who married a man who shares the same name as my mom's brother. My mom's brother was married to a woman who shares the same name as the previously mentioned cousin.
Going another generation back, my mom's uncle shared the same name as my dad's aunt's husband.
ALL (DE)'s mother, sister and daughter all have the same first name. They seem to get on alright with it.
Vanykrye |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This is not our problem.
You're still talking.
This is not our problem.
Hmmm...Das ist nicht unser Problem.
No?
Let's try this...este não é o nosso problema.
(Editor's note: All translations are Google's fault if they're wrong.
Ok, partially my fault for not learning German or Portuguese, sure, but still I blame Google.)
Manager emails one of my techs and I that they opened a ticket. Great. It went to someone else that's not in our department. "Well they're not even in the office!" Fine, I'll have someone take a look at it, but this is more than likely not going to get solved immediately.
This email is what just got sent back to the manager by my technician, verbatim (names removed).
Thanks, [Manager]. Just got off the phone with her.This could be one of two things:
1. The people’s house she is at just changed internet service providers, so the physical location of the router may have changed. These thin clients have a very weak antennae to pick up Wifi signals, so it may just have been out of range.
2. The Wifi adapter on the thin client went out. This would explain why no Wifi broadcasts are being displayed from the thin client.She is going to test this when she gets home by seeing if she can pick up her home Wifi’s broadcast without issue. If she can’t, then we know the Wifi adapter on the thin client went out and she’ll just need to use an Ethernet connection. If she can pick up her home Wifi broadcast, then we know the location she was at previously just moved the Wifi router out of range for the thin client’s weak antennae to pick up.
Thank you,
[Technician]
We specifically tell the people who have received this particular model of computer (it's a thin client, for those who care) that even though it *can* connect wirelessly, it's really bad at it. We don't recommend trying to use it to do anything with any reliability. It's so bad we don't even buy models with wireless capability anymore, just to force them to use a wired connection.
So...
1) We've told you not to trust the wireless on these things. Repeatedly. For years. This is no longer our problem.
2) You're at someone else's house, trying to use their wifi. Your company's IT department does not support your friends' and families' home internet. We don't even support YOUR home internet.
3) You work from home. Getting connected is on you. Always has been.
4) My tech had to spend 25 minutes investigating and reporting on this. That's too much time.
5) The tech found out from the user that she's going back and forth from her house to this friend's house to do dog-sitting. And she's taking her computer and dual monitor set up every time, going back and forth. And apparently her manager knew about this ahead of time.
And yet they still seem to think this is IT's problem.
Vagrant EruDad |
9 people marked this as a favorite. |
The infant has said three words: hey (which she will announce repeatedly until you reply in kind), Mama, and as of a couple days ago, Dada.
I don't care how low your life gets, hearing it first person just makes you love life with all your heart for a while.
I have a great family.
Things have been rough...Rougher than rough, frankly. But it's worth it.
NobodysHome |
3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Living Vanykrye's Life:
Lab Instructions (In a giant red font): Do not do this lab. It will not work in the classroom environment. This is an informational reference to show you how we created the data you are about to use. Once again, DO NOT DO THIS LAB.
Bug comes in today: "I tried to do this lab and it failed."
And it got escalated all the way up to me, because the student insists she cannot proceed with the course and will demand her money back if she can't do the lab. To set up the data. That's already in the application because we seeded it there.
Icyshadow |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well, after the disaster that was last month, I feel better. Got a new PC, trying to find a post-uni programming job (though I do like my current work as IT support), and am trying to get my projects forward. I also finished up an AD&D second edition Maztica game (I was the DM), and as per a deal with my roommate, he'll run Spelljammer for our group in return.
Drejk |
Living Vanykrye's Life:
Lab Instructions (In a giant red font): Do not do this lab. It will not work in the classroom environment. This is an informational reference to show you how we created the data you are about to use. Once again, DO NOT DO THIS LAB.
Bug comes in today: "I tried to do this lab and it failed."
And it got escalated all the way up to me, because the student insists she cannot proceed with the course and will demand her money back if she can't do the lab. To set up the data. That's already in the application because we seeded it there.
Check if that big red font hadn't covered/displaced skip lab/next button.
Woran |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This is not our problem.
You're still talking.
This is not our problem.
Hmmm...Das ist nicht unser Problem.
No?
Let's try this...este não é o nosso problema.
(Editor's note: All translations are Google's fault if they're wrong.
Ok, partially my fault for not learning German or Portuguese, sure, but still I blame Google.)** spoiler omitted **...
uurg
Freehold DM |
Freehold DM wrote:Its absolutely amazing how different it feels coming in to work when the boss isn't here.We had that with one of the VPs in our company (she's now retired). Everyone under her simply worked better when she wasn't around. They simply weren't as stressed out.
indeed.
I'm still mentally dealing with what work is going to look like with two people leaving, and a third looking at the door. Said third is going on vacation tomorrow. I dont know if she will be coming back.