r/talesfromtechsupport • u/bippyz Screaming Makes The Server Work • Sep 05 '12
Only Communists Work On Computers
Remember Mr Suit from It's Raining RAM? He has a sequel.
It took me four months, give or take, from the time it rained in the severer room to the time I started working on the server side of the world, and sadly there was a side trip back to app-support land when we had layoffs (I was told to go back to supporting Windows apps or get fired, I picked the job). But this was a cool autumn day, after a bad week.
My week was epic shit. My aunt had been found dead (heart attack), I hated supporting Windows, and I was having problems at home. So when I was told that someone had trouble getting his software to install on our desktops, and would I please help, I sighed and dragged myself into our testing lab. Usually I got called in to QA everyone else's work, so I never messed with the apps themselves. But some days, when a user couldn't install the software they were an expert on, they called me in.
Oh, shit. It was Mr. Suit.
Clearly the universe hated me that week, but I sucked it up and plastered on a smile. "Hi, Mr. Suit. PHB says you're having trouble installing?"
"No."
I glance over at the room, and no one wants to look at Suit. This isn't good. "Okay, then where are we?"
"Don't you know?" I remember his sneer.
"Sorry, they just handed me the project and I didn't look at the notes since you were already here. If you don't mind, I can take five minutes and catch up." That was my bad, I should have looked at the notes, but generally these things were people not understanding registry settings, or forgetting passwords.
"I don't have the fucking time for this! Just install the shit!"
Count to ten. Do not kill. I pick up the CD and the accompanying paper he was supposed to have filled out to say how we install it. "Sorry, someone must have printed the wrong copy, this is blank. Let me just pull up the file--"
"You're as dumb as the last one!"
Fuck this shit. "Sir, I get you're frustrated, but I'm an employee here, same as you, and if you're not going to work with me, we're done."
He stopped and grabbed the papers. "Listen here, kid. I don't know how to install this crappy software! So you can stop being a fucking communist cunt and install it for me, or I'll have your ass fired!"
He threw the papers at me and stomped out.
I remember standing there, totally shell shocked, while the papers fluttered around me. The room was dead silent. Finally one guy asks if I'm okay.
"No, I'm really not," I replied, dropped the CD and went back to my desk.
I was sitting there staring at my PC, for who knows how long. There was something about the sheer vitriolic way he said it that felt like I'd been punched. Never before, or after, have I run into someone filled with that much anger. It wasn't that he said a lot, it was how he said it. Have you ever fallen and knocked all the air out of your lungs? That's what it was like. Stunned. I remember thinking I was overreacting, but my brain just refused to process things past how inhumane he'd been.
At some point, my PHB showed up and said HR had been informed, and I needed to go home. When I showed up home, hours early, my wife said I looked like there was no blood in my body, and she thought I'd been fired. It took a while before I could explain what happened, and oddly that started us fixing our relationship.
I took the next day off and when I got back I had two priority emails. One was from Suit saying he was sorry, the other from HR saying I was not to speak to Suit. I forwarded them the email and set him up on an auto filter. Suit's manager showed up and apologized, saying Suit was suspended, unless I wanted to file a complaint. I did, and he got sent to anger management.
The end played out that he wasn't allowed to work with anyone anymore. He sat in a cube, filled in his forms or whatever he did, reported to one person, and from what I could tell, never got another raise/promotion. But they didn't fire him.
I should have checked before I left, to see if he was still there, but the only time after that I saw him was once, on the bus (I saw him, our eyes met, and I got off at the next stop), and once in the office (I had to tell my new manager that I wasn't allowed to talk to him).
I remain quite unsatisfied that the shit didn't get fired.
tl;dr Don't waste my time with political correctness.
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u/DealioD Why would you tell anyone to put a Tilde in their password?! Sep 05 '12
I can only sympathize. That's one horrible story. I had a guy try to break down a door to get to me, and we didn't even have a meeting about it. So, at least you were at a slightly better place than where I worked.