July 5, 2009 at 12:17 am
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Busman's Holiday
July 5, 2009 at 12:18 am
so true 😀
July 5, 2009 at 4:01 am
Oh, how that sooo rings true, the number of times my Mother in Law has invited us to dinner, and somewhere in the phone call the words "My laptop wont" creap in.
Yet if you utter the words "I work in IT" at a social gathering everyone either goes to sleep or, as you say, brings out a faulty bit of kit totaly unrelated to your actual job. :rolleyes:
Assumption is the mother of all F***ups
July 5, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Tell me all about it. I found a way to make my family understand that I am a software developer and that hardware is not my thing and sorry, I won't be able to help you or Ok listen can we have a look at it after the party etc. By that time I discreetly make my way home before they can corner me. So, they have kind of given up asking me to fix their computers. I hate making misuse of family's abilities like mechanics etc. I'll rather discus what I can pay them to do something for me.:hehe:
:-PManie Verster
Developer
Johannesburg
South Africa
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. - Holy Bible
I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times. - Everett Mckinley Dirkson (Well, I am trying. - Manie Verster)
July 6, 2009 at 1:20 am
I use the same lines as Manie - I don't do hardware but it's also somewhat of an advantage being a middle aged woman as people don't believe you really know anything about this modern technology anyway 🙂
My son and my nephew are much better with hardware so I can usually suggest they look at it but as they are barely out of their teens, they're not old enough to be regarded as "trustworthy" with the expensive computer and we all get out of fixing the problem!
July 6, 2009 at 1:36 am
You've got it lucky. In my day we used to get asked to fix household appliances, rewire houses and mend video recorders. Thats if we were lucky:hehe:
July 6, 2009 at 7:19 am
SO TRUE!!!! To help alleviate this (at least for me), I've had my daughter work with me on some of these 'family issues'. So now when they ask me, I refer them to my daughter!! It's a win-win for both of us...let's me enjoy a holiday and it allows her to learn more about troubleshooting various IT issues (it will look good on her resume - high school grad on her way to college)! 😀
July 6, 2009 at 9:59 am
I went to a friends wedding and someone from the wedding party was attempting to run a presentation from a laptop through a projector during the reception. I noticed it wasn't working and did my best to hide. Unfortunately someone who knew I worked in IT pointed me out and I was asked to "fix it". Unfortunately, I fear as computers and other devices proliferate there will be more requests for IT and we will be less able to hide at social events.
July 6, 2009 at 10:00 am
My father is turning 90 this year. He got his first PC about 15 years ago. He did really well with DOS. Windows threw him for a loop. Not long he got his new Windows pc, he called me on the phone to ask for help in deleting a file. He had read an article how you have to keep your PC "cleaned up" or it would run out of space.
But he didn't create any actual files that he needed to delete. He didn't use his pc for spreadsheet or word processing or anything like that. He used his pc for email and to watch the stock market. He lives far away. He wouldn't accept the fact that he didn't need to know how to delete something, and he was insistant that I help him. So over the phone I told him that first we were going to create a file and then we were going to delete it.
It took 30 minutes for him to convince me that he really needed and wanted this information. It took me 1 and 1/2 hours of time to help him create the txt file in order to delete it. In the middle of that 1 1/2 hours of time I briefly thought about self inflicting a wound to take me out of my misery, covered the phone, and said to my spouse - "hide the knives". Finally, at the very moment I had him select the txt file and was in the middle of the sentence "ok, now - press the key on your keyboard that says delete", my dad said - well, I'm tired now and I'm going to go to sleep, bye. And hung up. Without ever deleting the file. :crying:
Now I only help him in person. Which means if he needs help faster, he has to unplug everything and take it to the shop where he bought it and then drag it back and hook it up again.
July 7, 2009 at 9:39 am
Somehow I'm the expert both in computers and anything technology based. It doesn't help to tell people "I write software, it doesn't mean I know how to use every software ever made". From teaching random family members how to use software that comes with an instruction manual to attempting to help my grandmother learn to use picture in a picture on her new TV from 1500 miles away, it comes in all forms and sizes.
Even being a female doesn't help me in this department. All it does is make it difficult for other IT professionals to take me seriously. The one time I wouldn't mind a gender stereotype is with family and friends wanting IT help. :w00t:
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