A couple from last week

[Tigress]

Story 1:

(Go to fix a computer that's boot-looping in the lab.)
"Hey, can you bring me a new monitor? This one is ancient."
(It works fine, but okay. Bring her a new monitor.)
"Can you get me a new keyboard, too? This one is too old."
(Again works fine. Ugh. Fine. Bring her a new keyboard.)
"This monitor is too small and hurts my eyes. Can't I have a big one like the one beside me?"
(W. T. F. Go get her one identical to the others.)
"The screen's too dark..."
(Brighten the screen as far as it will go and look at her, DARING her to ask for anything else she doesn't f'n need.)
"(EW's Neighbor) That good enough for you Ms. Queen?"
(Entitlement Whore shuts up. Turn to walk away. Path is blocked by another person.)
"Hey, there's another old monitor like that needing replacement."
"Is it broken or interfering with your ability to work?"
"No."
"Then it doesn't need replacement. I'm going to lunch."

Story 2

My workplace uses high volume thermal transfer label printers to print labels for our specimens. They are pretty easy to service, but they can be a little temperamental.

So I checked the voicemail after coming back from lunch and the lab manager needs me to look at a printer. I went over and opened the printer to look at it.

Problem 1: The ribbon is torn. Wait, I take that back. Not torn... shredded. The ribbon breaks occasionally if it's not put in correctly, but it's rare. This looks like Edward Scissorhands touched it. Installed a new ribbon, tried to test print, still acting funny. Then I find...

Problem 2: Some labels are wrapped around the roller, horribly jamming it. It's so bad that I'm surprised the technician didn't call me immediately to clear it. I sigh, pull out my knife and cut out the jam. Test print again. Still funny.

Problem 3: Okay, let's check the settings. WAY off. To my knowledge, only the night shift uses these workstations. I also serviced this printer last night and it was working perfectly when I left. Why did the dipwad mess with the settings after I constantly tell them not to?

Then, I overhear the other technicians going, "Gee... I wonder why the printer's messed up... I guess she really didn't want to do labels tonight... She never does..."

Right, then. There's no way all three of these problems happened all at once by accident. While I was on my lunch break.

Oh, lab manager... Time for a chat...

[lordlundar]

Oh, lab manager... Time for a chat...

Clue by four, sledge, or fence maul?

And Story 1 should have ended with a resounding NO! when she wanted the monitor replaced because the one she had was "old".

[RealUnimportant]

Sabotaging expensive work equipment to get out of doing your job? Smooth move!

[earl colby pottinger]

Story 1 - Just say No!

Story 2 - If somehow the print-head got damaged (hard to do to thermal units but not impossible) that could have turned into a very expensive repair.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Story 1:

My friend Tom used to do that kind of service work at an office. As he put it, "They wouldn't call it in right away. It'd come to the point where one person would call for us, and as soon as I got up to that floor, I'd get stopped with a million other things that needed fixing too." He actually bought one of those "No, I will not fix your computer" shirts to wear to work (apparently he was allowed to do so) because of it.

Story 2

Ooh, time to bust out The Gif again!

[Tigress]

Clue by four, sledge, or fence maul?

And Story 1 should have ended with a resounding NO! when she wanted the monitor replaced because the one she had was "old".

I don't mind doing the occasional courtesy replacement if the equipment is affecting your ability to do your job, especially in the lab where the equipment breaks all the time and the employees are working in near-sweatshop conditions.

But when they take advantage of me like the entitlement whore did, we're going to have a problem. If she wanted that much equipment replaced, she needed to ask the manager to either move her or put in a ticket.

Story 1 - Just say No!

Story 2 - If somehow the print-head got damaged (hard to do to thermal units but not impossible) that could have turned into a very expensive repair.

Or expensive replacement. If the equipment is damaged enough, we just replace the thing entirely. At one point, if a technician wanted a new printer, they'd just keep saying it was broken until the manager insisted on a replacement, since we kept putting them out like candy.

Now that upper management has ratcheted down the budget (without needing 50 signatures from upper management) to almost nothing, the lab staff is starting to take better care of the equipment. But not by much.

My friend Tom used to do that kind of service work at an office. As he put it, "They wouldn't call it in right away. It'd come to the point where one person would call for us, and as soon as I got up to that floor, I'd get stopped with a million other things that needed fixing too." He actually bought one of those "No, I will not fix your computer" shirts to wear to work (apparently he was allowed to do so) because of it.

It got so bad for our Deskside team that they've enacted a policy that they won't even talk to you unless you've already submitted a ticket. When they realize they have a submit a ticket and *gasp* wait 30 - 60 minutes to get a new mouse, well, suddenly their mouse works again.