I wish I could say I had never met anyone like the guy in this Reddit user's, Gambatte, story. Sadly I would be lying if I said that. I have met plenty of people like this. You really hope Karma takes a nice chunk out of them at some point in time.
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It was a long, long time ago: when we waited a whole week for a brand new episode of Friends; when Ricky Martin would only make vague statements about his gender preferences; back when the dust was still settling after the whole Napster debacle; when I was but a shadow of the jaded husk that I am today.
I'd worked with an unruly School Administrator (SA) previously, but fortunately, he was transferred out to parts unknown. And there was much rejoicing.
A few months later, I was working an overnight shift, which mainly involved playing PlayStation, watching DVDs, and partaking of a single mandatory training exercise to prove that we were maintaining our operational readiness should things go horribly wrong during our shift.
A few months later, I was working an overnight shift, which mainly involved playing PlayStation, watching DVDs, and partaking of a single mandatory training exercise to prove that we were maintaining our operational readiness should things go horribly wrong during our shift.
As luck would have it, I happened to recognize one of the guys pulling front desk duty - essentially, all he had to do was answer the phones and check your emails for up to eight hours at a stretch. He'd been one of the users I'd been supporting a year or two previously, so in order to break up the mutual tedium of our assigned shifts, the Friendly User (FU) and I had a friendly discussion, which dragged on for a while - as there was no pressing business for either of us to attend to, we had little else to do.
Suddenly, SA showed up - from where, I honestly don't know. I think he'd been lurking in one of the nearby offices; I suspect that was where he'd been transferred to.
SA: FU! I need your computer!FU: Uh... Sure, I guess. Let me just log off...SA: No! Just let me use it now!
SA was sufficiently senior that FU hesitated to refuse.
ME: Hi SA, long time no see... What's going on?SA: I've been locked out of my office, and I need to finish some work before I go home for the night.ME: How did you get locked out of your office?SA: I don't know, I stepped out for a minute and the cleaners must have shut the door with my stuff still inside. I guess the door locked automatically, so now I can't get back in until someone else arrives with a key tomorrow.
During this data dump, FU had got up from his desk, and SA dived into the freshly vacated seat. He turned his attention to the screen.
SA: What? This shouldn't be here!
As it turned out, FU had a number of personal photos on his profile, which he rotated through as the Windows background. This was permitted at the time; it wasn't until later on that a mandatory company-wide background would be enforced. These photos were stored (perhaps unwisely) in a folder on the Desktop.
SA promptly opened up the folder, and started opening the pictures.
FU: What are you doing?SA: These shouldn't be here!
And he deleted them.
ME: What... Why are you doing that?SA: They shouldn't be here! I'm getting rid of them!
I was just as dumbfounded as FU.
ME: You realize that...SA: Where's my stuff? It's gone! It's all gone!!!ME: Your stuff isn't gone, it's...SA: What! More stuff that shouldn't be here! (delete delete delete)ME: STOP THAT!
SA was sufficiently senior to me that I theoretically should have been more respectful to him, but he was in full-blownDELETE ALL THE THINGS mode. I had to snap him out of it, and politeness wasn't working.
SA: But... All of my work is gone; all this other rubbish shouldn't be here.ME: You realize that you intimidated FU into allowing you to access the computer using his login credentials, right? You can't do that - it's a breach of security!SA: No,I'Musing the computer!ME: The computer doesn't know that - you need to let FU log off so you can log in! Then you'll be able to access your files, and open your applications and whatnot.SA: Well, what am I meant to do?ME: Go find someone to unlock your office, or find another unoccupied computer to log on to. Just leave FU to do his job on the only computer he can.
SA turned an amazing shade of red, and for a moment I was sure he was going to start screaming, explode, or have a heart attack - none of which I actually wanted to deal with.
Somehow, the moment passed without any of those things happening.
Somehow, the moment passed without any of those things happening.
SA: Fine. I'll deal with you two later.
SA stalked off; I assume to terrorize a small village somewhere.
FU: Thanks, man. Oh God, he deleted so many photos...ME: Let me show you some magic...
I opened the Recycle Bin, selected the recently deleted files, and hit 'Restore'.
FU: Sweeeeeet! They're all back!
As it turned out, some of those restored photos were the last pictures taken of FU with his cousin before he died, and he was very pleased to get them back. Naturally, I advised him to make sure he had a backup, even if it was just emailing the pictures to himself, one at a time.
It wasn't until much later that I realized that SA must have believed that somehow, any computer would "know" it was him, and present his profile. The only way I could see that belief developing is if he NEVER logged off from his office computer - so the idea of credentials, authentication, sessions... All meant nothing to him. This man regularly dealt with budgets running into millions of dollars, and yet anyone who sat at his desk while he was out to lunch or off sick would have had full access to everything.
Some days, I wonder if SA had a brother who would one day become my current CEO. I would not be surprised.
Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/3b589h/encyclop%C3%A6dia_moronica_o_is_for_omnipresent_users/
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