Today we credit Chip O. Shoulder from the Intellectually Challenged department with frustrating the heck out of me. He called requesting that my department give three users in his department "access to a network folder". It sounded as though these users simply needed to be added to their department's group in Active Directory. Simple enough, right? When I called Chip and asked him if he had talked to Jerry Blueberry, who works in his department and normally handles such requests, Chip replied, "Well, I'm the person who normally requests access, so I don't understand why I need to talk to him."
Sensing some intra-office conflict, I decided to do Chip a favor and find out who might be able to help him with this request. When I called him back to explain that I was still trying to get to the bottom of it, he flew off the handle. "I'll just wait until Jerry gets back on Monday because clearly you don't want to grant the permissions for me since I'm not on your special list of people who can put in requests."
"No, Chip, it's not that you can't submit the request. I'm just trying to find out who else can help you with this request besides Jerry because normally he is the one who contacts us with requests. I don't think that our department maintains the folder or server to which you are trying to gain access," I reassuringly replied.
"Well that's not what you said at all. You said you couldn't help me with this because you have to talk to Jerry--he's the only person you will work with."
Sigh.
I went into "I want to tell you where to put your request but I'd like to keep my job in these uncertain economic times" mode. I politely said, "Chip, it sounds as though I have not communicated with you effectively enough and that you are very frustrated. Let me start over." I once again tried to explain to him that without understanding exactly what these people needed to access and where it was stored, I was going to have to dig a little deeper.
Those of you who have had to deal with these people who think you are utterly brain-dead and useless will be glad to know that upon further investigation it appears that he wanted to grant permissions for people to access a shared folder...on a machine that belongs to one of HIS coworkers, specifically Jerry Blueberry. This fills me with glee. I know...I am evil.
Yep, all's well that ends well.
Sensing some intra-office conflict, I decided to do Chip a favor and find out who might be able to help him with this request. When I called him back to explain that I was still trying to get to the bottom of it, he flew off the handle. "I'll just wait until Jerry gets back on Monday because clearly you don't want to grant the permissions for me since I'm not on your special list of people who can put in requests."
"No, Chip, it's not that you can't submit the request. I'm just trying to find out who else can help you with this request besides Jerry because normally he is the one who contacts us with requests. I don't think that our department maintains the folder or server to which you are trying to gain access," I reassuringly replied.
"Well that's not what you said at all. You said you couldn't help me with this because you have to talk to Jerry--he's the only person you will work with."
Sigh.
I went into "I want to tell you where to put your request but I'd like to keep my job in these uncertain economic times" mode. I politely said, "Chip, it sounds as though I have not communicated with you effectively enough and that you are very frustrated. Let me start over." I once again tried to explain to him that without understanding exactly what these people needed to access and where it was stored, I was going to have to dig a little deeper.
Those of you who have had to deal with these people who think you are utterly brain-dead and useless will be glad to know that upon further investigation it appears that he wanted to grant permissions for people to access a shared folder...on a machine that belongs to one of HIS coworkers, specifically Jerry Blueberry. This fills me with glee. I know...I am evil.
Yep, all's well that ends well.
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