Kvetchin' Korner

[muckefuck]

This has been one of those weeks where I actually earn my salary instead of just sitting here comfortably on my ass collecting it.

I hate those.

monshu calls it "being nibbled away at", when one person after another comes by with a petty problem that you can ignore because, darnit, you wanted to be the one in charge. But, every once in a while, there's a request so jaw-droppingly idiotic that it makes you stop and cackle at the absurdity of it all. Very refreshing!

There's an employee who followed me here from my previous place of employment. Her "qualifications" are a joke; there, we called her la Vache or "the cow" for her bovine stupidity. But she's actually topped herself: She came to me and asked, "If I wanted to create a document in Excel, how do I do it? It's a question so basic, I didn't even know where to start. "I didn't see it on my computer," she added. I followed her back to her PC and asked, "So, you didn't see it under the 'Start' menu?" And she replied, "Oh, I didn't look there. That would be a good idea." So what she meant was that she didn't see a shortcut to Excel on the desktop and she had no idea what to do next. Now I know that my reply should've been, "Well, first you take your HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS!"

She is considered, by the standards of the profession, to be a "professional". Well, if I just stopped messing around and got my degree, I too could be as smart as her!

Comments

[lhn.livejournal.com]

She came to me and asked, "If I wanted to create a document in Excel, how do I do it? It's a question so basic, I didn't even know where to start. "I didn't see it on my computer," she added. I followed her back to her PC and asked, "So, you didn't see it under the 'Start' menu?" And she replied, "Oh, I didn't look there. That would be a good idea."

Welcome to my world. :-) (Seriously, being able to deal with questions like that without losing patience, along with generally being able to translate between Computer and Human, is probably one of my major qualifications for my current job.)

Though some of the people who don't get the simplest basics about computers (and don't really want to) know a lot more about other critical library functions than I do, in addition to serving as critical industry contacts and our institutional memory. I don't really look forward to the day we have to try to replace some of them, even if their replacements have a less cargo-cult approach to the computaplex devices on their desks. (Granted, it sounds as if your co-worker doesn't add any redeeming qualities to her technophobia.)

She is considered, by the standards of the profession, to be a "professional". Well, if I just stopped messing around and got my degree, I too could be as smart as her!

Even before you discussed your reasons for not getting the degree, I think it's safe to say that no one ever thought it was because the intellectual challenge would be too much for you. :-) I actually found my MSLIS program to have a fair amount of practical use (plus the usual amount of pointless busywork), but it wasn't exactly the most daunting academic program I'd ever faced. (Though people who chose their library school for its academic reputation rather than its geographical proximity may have had a different experience.)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

This is why I haven't posted kvetches like this before: Given my readership, most people can top me with clueless user stories. But I don't want to be welcomed to your world. There are good reasons that I've never taken a job in desktop support or anything akin to it.
Actually, I do volunteer at the front desk for two hours/week, but that's more to remind me why I work behind the scenes in the first place. (It's also different when you're expecting to get a barrage of stupid questions.) Plus, it gets me away from my stupid co-workers.

And the "professional" stuff is just some latent bitterness. She wears her professional status like a pair of fucking epaulets, but she's not professional in either level of knowledge or behaviour. It's a reminder that I could increase my pay for the exact same work by about 50% if I just sunk my free time into some bullshit courses. Of course, it's not continual or powerful enough to actually motivate me to do that, but I've been given the out of just ascribing that to general generational characteristics and not any specific moral failing on my part.