Boss: “X piece of software needs to be updated on terminal server”
Me: “I’ve never troubleshooted or even used that software before”
Boss: “Ring programmer there and he’ll tell you what the story is”
Me: Hangs up & sighs loudly knowing full well it’s the start of yet another one of those conversations.
Me: “Eh, boss there said some software needs updating on terminal server. He doesn’t know if the version is up to date or not. User in other office cant login.”
Programmer: “Ah that was updated already. User in other office knows how to login but got error message and didn’t tell me what it was”
Me: “Ok, so I’ll talk to boss and see what the story is”
Me: Hangs up again, redials boss and places head in hands
Me: “Programmer said software is already up to date, user knows how to login but didn’t let programmer know what error message was”
Boss: “Ah, login to user account and try to login”
Me: Logs into server fine but encounters completely nondescript error message
Me: “Error message appeared” (reads error message over the phone)
Boss: “Hmm, don’t know what that is. Talk to programmer”
Me: Hangs up, looks for suicide pill in top drawer. It’s gone.
Me: “Error message appearing here” (reads error message)
Programmer: “Ah, setting is wrong. Change it and try again”
Me: Changes setting, tries, fails. Changes again, works now.
Me: “That seemed to work”
Programmer: “Grand, see ya!”
Me: Hangs up and redials boss
Me: “Changing a setting seemed to do it”
Boss: “Good, ring user in other office and explain how to login correctly”
Me: “But I’ve never used or troubleshooted this. When user asks a question I won’t know the answer”
Boss: “That’s ok. When user asks you a question, come back to me or programmer”
Me: “… ehh.. So I’m just relaying messages between you, programmer and user?”
Boss: “You’ll be fine”
Me: Starts to wonder what life is all about while dialing users extension..
Boss and Programmer are no more than 20 feet apart, separated only by a partition wall. Where’d I put that CV?
God help me…
