There can be a fine balance in IT between offering assistance and insulting the user. Some of the users are actually pretty savvy on PCs and others are not. Even the better users still miss the basics. We have found we have to risk being insulting sometimes. I like to let people make their own mistakes sometimes as they learn better, but sometimes you have to protect them from themselves. The cartoon today has never happened but we have come close. It amazes me no matter how many times a reboot fixes issues we have to ask every time “did you reboot yet?” About 90% of the the time the user has not tried rebooting yet.
As an IT Manager for a contractor operated Army facility, I have experienced the same behaviors out of my users. Keep up the great job Barry.
Clever cartoon, Barry. Newspaper comic strip quality humor. Really, it’s like something I’d see in the funnies.
This is so spot on.
At a prior role I bumped into one of our regular helpdesk nightmares and commented on how we hadn’t heard from her recently. Her response was “well all you tell me to do is reboot and I can manage that without phoning you guys”.
My answer was to inquire if the reboot actually fixed the problem. Her positive reply was all the answer I needed.
Stuart, I love that story. I may use that in a future cartoon. That one practically draws itself.
I just wish I had someone around to show me the ropes. It is hard learning it all by trial and error because sometimes the errors are doozies. I ain’t quiet as stoopid as the guy in your strip though.
(There might be some disagreement among my friends and family.)