Maybe I should have taken the offer…
I recently turned down an employment offer. I would have been in a Linux architect role, far away from my current position that includes heading a department (okay, it’s just me and a junior sysadmin) that supports Windows users. The reasons for turning down this job are varied and complicated, but a point was added to the “bail out” column today upon receipt of a particularly whiny email from a sales droid.
“Whaa, whaa, boo hoo, I want administrative access to my laptop! Boo hoo! Whaa!” Okay, moron. The last time we bent the corporate I.T. policy and gave you access, you installed all manner of crapware onto a company-owned laptop (games, widgets, toolbars, P2P filesharing apps, trojan horses, etc.) and physically beat the same laptop almost to death, requiring us to replace four major parts. I believe I speak for pissed-off I.T. guys everywhere when I say: screw you.
This same droid also complained that a laptop recently assigned to his sales droid colleague, a Dell system, was “unbearably slow”. Mind you, this is a brand-new Dell laptop with an Athlon 64 X2 processor, a gigabyte of RAM, and a clean Windows XP installation. It’s not a dream machine, but it’s no bargain-basement clunker either. Many people, including a number of our own employees, do just freaking dandy on a lot less.
Why must people be stupid? It burns!
Yep, you do indeed speak for us in telling him ‘Screw you.’ FWIW We spec all our systems with 2GB RAM these days, but the extra gig of RAM doesn’t differentiate between fast and slow. If he wants admin access, why not point him to Best Buy and tell him he can have administrative access over ANY personal computer he chooses to buy himself.
I recently had to play the BOFH with one of our new VPs. He complained that our security policies force screen blanking in 3 minutes and standby in 15, and wondered what he could do to change that. I told him, “Nothing. Everybody’s computer does that, from the clinicians all the way up to the CEO.” Him: “What about my BlackBerry timeout setting?” Me: “Same thing.” Him: “Oh…”
Christian
23 Jan 08 at 6:31 am