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  • Make solid objects pass through each other

    This woman was a complete bitch through the whole job. The perma-scowl on her face just let us know what we were in for and made it just such a pleasure to deal with her or just to have her eye-balling you while she paced around. We had a couple of issues come up and her bitchiness made it virtually impossible to see the solution.

    One such problem came with the CPU holders. They were designed to be screwed under the desk perpendicular so that they'd run beside your legs. But these desks had a metal bar running across their entire length. It was impossible to get the solid metal of the CPU holder to pass through the solid metal of the metal bar. This is simple physics, simple reality, not much room for argument here, as a matter of fact, absolute zero room for argument. Try to get this bitch to understand this reality. She spent a good five minutes trying to get the 18 inches of the CPU holder to fit into one of the 10 inch spaces that was availalbe. She finally concluded that this was impossible, or at least decided to give up the futile battle. Another 10 minutes was spent explaining to her how the metal bar was vital to the structure of the desk, if it was removed, the whole thing would fall apart. This 10 minutes was spent having blame hurled at us because of the engineers who created it and the designer who chose these products. Somehow we were to blame for that.

    Okay, I've had enough of this bullshit, shut the fuck up and listen. I think I said that, but it may have come out as: okay, well we can come up with a solution. There are products out there that will work, she'll have to talk to the designer and find one of these products that will work. Well this won't do. She needs these products put in now. It will be a disaster if they have to put the CPU's on the floor until suitable CPU holders are found, ordered, and installed. Why you ask? Because the whole system was designed to have nothing on the floor so that the cleaners could clean the whole floor. I couldn't agree with her more here that this was a good plan, but it will take less than a week to take care of the problem, how much dirt will accumulate that can't be cleaned once everything is off the floor? No no no, that won't do, it has to be fixed tonight! She goes back to trying to make it fit in the slot / gettting solid metal to pass through solid metal.

    I had to walk away from her at this point and left it in the hands of the supervisors to try to get her to accept reality. They got her on back to the realization that her efforts were impossible, and she came up with the idea of cutting a notch in the CPU holder to make it work. Okay, we're in reality now, but into the virtually impossible. We don't have the cutting tools to do that. WHY NOT!?! Because we don't bring speciality tools to ordinary jobs. ** listen to her bitch and whine ** Second, we're on pace to be finished at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, even if we had the cutting tools, we couldn't take on an extra 4 to 6 hour job of cutting each one. ** listen to her bitch and whine ** Plus we don't even know if these things will still work and/or be safe if such a notch was cut in them. The only option is to find and order something else and get it installed at a later time.

    Some more bitching and whining ensued plus a couple of final efforts to make them fit before she finally gave up.
    D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.
    Quoth = Crossbow "EvilHomer, Irv, Gravekeeper, and Seraph: the Four Horsemen of the Dumbpocalypse."

  • #2
    Quoth evilhomer View Post
    They got her on back to the realization that her efforts were impossible, and she came up with the idea of cutting a notch in the CPU holder to make it work.
    WTF? Cutting notches in the system unit (not CPU) holders? Since system units come in fairly standard sizes, I'm assuming (without having seen the holders or system units) that the holders are sized so that the system unit will slide in and out with a minimum of clearance. If you notch the holder to accommodate the beam under the desk, then the system unit won't slide in. Of course, she'd then suggest notching the system units, and then complain that the computers no longer worked. Lack of feces, Mr Holmes - you've just cut into the computers without taking account which components were in the way.

    Of course, if you installed spacers to lower the system unit holders far enough that they'd be below the beam (the solutions you mentioned probably involve either this, or system unit holders with built-in spacers), then everything would work fine.
    Last edited by wolfie; 11-17-2013, 02:04 AM. Reason: Forgot to add what WOULD work
    Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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    • #3
      The dimensions mentioned suggest that an entire 8-inch notch would have to be cut. That's pretty extreme. At this point I would either whoever chose said desks in the knowledge that computer holders were required, or whoever *didn't* tell that person that rather crucial information.

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      • #4
        Quoth evilhomer View Post
        One such problem came with the CPU holders. They were designed to be screwed under the desk perpendicular so that they'd run beside your legs. But these desks had a metal bar running across their entire length. <snip> She spent a good five minutes trying to get the 18 inches of the CPU holder to fit into one of the 10 inch spaces that was availalbe.
        Quoth Chromatix View Post
        The dimensions mentioned suggest that an entire 8-inch notch would have to be cut. That's pretty extreme. At this point I would either whoever chose said desks in the knowledge that computer holders were required, or whoever *didn't* tell that person that rather crucial information.
        The way I read it, there was no need for an 8 inch notch. My understanding is that the desk is 20 inches deep (kind of shallow, wouldn't work with CRT monitors, but OK for flat screens - if you don't mind bumping your knees against the wall - this is why Ikea has the 2/3 depth cardboard computer mockups, so you'll THINK their furniture will work with a computer when it actually doesn't). The beam (probably 2 or 3 inches high) runs down the middle, and the system unit holders are 18 inches front to back (conveniently enough, this is roughly the front to back dimension of my system unit). The idiot was trying to make this fit into the 10 inch space behind the beam, and the 10 inch space in front of the beam.
        Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

        Comment


        • #5
          The surfaces were actually 24 inches wide. The dimensions under between the legs was about 20 inches. I guess that's why she was spending so much time trying to make it work; she was hoping for just the right angle that would allow these to go in. If we were to cut the notch, it would have been 2-3 inches wide and about 4 inches deep, but there was no way we could have accomplished this task the night of the job. Even if we were to do such a thing, it would still have to wait, so why not just use that time to get something proper??? Oh right, customers always expect the impossible to just magically happen at the snap of a finger.
          D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.
          Quoth = Crossbow "EvilHomer, Irv, Gravekeeper, and Seraph: the Four Horsemen of the Dumbpocalypse."

          Comment


          • #6
            Listen, I didn't even know CPU holders were a thing! Mine's on the floor (at work). Cleaning the floor?? HAHAHAHA...wut?

            Guess who's supposed to clean that floor...once a year when we have "office cleaning day" aka Good Friday?

            Yeah, not happening.
            When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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            • #7
              Ugh. I hate CPU holders. They take up room under the table, and I'm always banging into them.
              They say that God only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, God thinks I'm a bad ass.

              Comment


              • #8
                Quoth Sapphire Silk View Post
                Ugh. I hate CPU holders. They take up room under the table, and I'm always banging into them.
                That sounds worse than those stupid keyboard trays they mounted under our desks during the fiasco of a remodel they just did at my job. And they mounted these equally stupid mouse trays to the left of them. At least they did with mine. Why the hell would they assume that someone is left-handed? I tried putting it on the right-hand side, but when I did that, it banged into the edge of the drawer.

                The mouse tray just snaps right off, so that's sitting in a drawer now. They won't let us remove the keyboard tray, so the best we can do is fold it back and tuck it under the desk. I'm always banging my knees of it, and also those stupid oversized brackets. I already have a bad knee to begin with, and I'm afraid one of these times I'm going to move the wrong way or try to get up too quickly and seriously injure myself. If that happens, someone is getting thrown under the bus. I'm sure our insurance carrier will be very curious as to how someone could get injured just by sitting at their desk.
                Sometimes life is altered.
                Break from the ropes your hands are tied.
                Uneasy with confrontation.
                Won't turn out right. Can't turn out right

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                • #9
                  Quoth MadMike View Post
                  I already have a bad knee to begin with, and I'm afraid one of these times I'm going to move the wrong way or try to get up too quickly and seriously injure myself. If that happens, someone is getting thrown under the bus. I'm sure our insurance carrier will be very curious as to how someone could get injured just by sitting at their desk.
                  Would you like to see the indent in my skin where my keyboard holder bit me? It's 8 years old.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth MadMike View Post
                    That sounds worse than those stupid keyboard trays they mounted under our desks during the fiasco of a remodel they just did at my job.
                    Reminds me of the new desks that showed up at my office. For about a month, the center drawer (the one above the chair 'slot') would get caught on my chair's arms. When I'd move back, or turn, I'd end up pulling the drawer out. Every damn time. I put up with it as long as I could. But, when the boss decided to go on vacation, I smuggled in my trusty cordless drill...and removed the blasted thing. The drawer itself was useless--way too shallow for things other than a few pieces of paper--and I'd tired of hitting it. Can't really say I miss it either. And no, I'm not the only one. I've already made several other drawers "disappear," and the boss hasn't said a thing.

                    As for CPU holders, I can't see the point. It's not like a tower can't stand up by itself But, when I set up my office at home, the desk I had...came with brackets to hold the CPU. Cheap, aluminum brackets, both of which were *not* up to the job!
                    Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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                    • #11
                      I believe the CPU holder has one job - to raise the machine off the floor far enough to reduce the dust in its air intakes. As a tradeoff, it makes it harder to service the machine, and (depending on design) can permanently block some of the air intakes.

                      I don't use them for my own machines at home. Several of them are so tall that you couldn't raise them off the floor without hitting the desk anyway.

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                      • #12
                        evilhomer, you should've just mounted the CPU holders sideways under the top of the desk. I'm sure they would've fit that way, and it would've kept the computers well away from the floor. People probably wouldn't have been able to sit with their legs under the desk any more, but hey, you can't have everything...

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                        • #13
                          Quoth TheSHAD0W View Post
                          evilhomer, you should've just mounted the CPU holders sideways under the top of the desk. I'm sure they would've fit that way, and it would've kept the computers well away from the floor. People probably wouldn't have been able to sit with their legs under the desk any more, but hey, you can't have everything...
                          That was actually a solution we offered. The desks were wide enough to accomodate this, it just would have been uncomfortable, inconvenient and just plain stupid. (but hey, when a solution ABSOLUTELY MUST be made immediately, you go into stupid territory). Of course this was just a horrible idea, so much so that WSIB (Workplace Safety & Insurance Board) would shut the whole building down if this were done (her words, not mine).


                          I don't understand the issues you guys are having with keyboard trays. I mean, I totally get that you don't like them but I can't understand your management's refusal to have them removed. I'm in places all the time taking them out because someone didn't want it. Ditto for any other obstructing pieces of furniture.

                          Put in a written complaint detailing why you want it removed then they're in deep doo-doo if something bad does happen as a result. Or at the very least, when they come to give you crap over the mangled chair-arm, point out how you tried to resolve the problem months ago.
                          D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.
                          Quoth = Crossbow "EvilHomer, Irv, Gravekeeper, and Seraph: the Four Horsemen of the Dumbpocalypse."

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Quoth evilhomer View Post
                            I don't understand the issues you guys are having with keyboard trays. I mean, I totally get that you don't like them but I can't understand your management's refusal to have them removed. I'm in places all the time taking them out because someone didn't want it. Ditto for any other obstructing pieces of furniture.
                            One possible cause for this--someone in management has a bit too much power for their own good. Management thinks that their employees "need" these things, and tend to get annoyed when they get removed. Do I care about piddly things like that? Hell no. I tell management that the drawers are useless and have to go.
                            Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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                            • #15
                              Quoth evilhomer View Post
                              I don't understand the issues you guys are having with keyboard trays. I mean, I totally get that you don't like them but I can't understand your management's refusal to have them removed.
                              Before the remodel, the desks came without them, but they'd install one if you wanted one. Most people didn't want them, but a few people did.

                              This time around, we're stuck with them whether we want them or not. I'm tempted to come in after hours some night with a screwdriver. I doubt anyone would notice, since you really can't see it when it's folded up and tucked away like I have mine.
                              Sometimes life is altered.
                              Break from the ropes your hands are tied.
                              Uneasy with confrontation.
                              Won't turn out right. Can't turn out right

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