Not baby related but sadly this is what I deal with...

I wanted to just take a minute to give you a quick peek into an IT guys life. Many people make comments about how us people in IT can be arrogant or have an attitude and there is truth to that statement. But, in our defense let me tell you or show you why...

The initial incident took place a few months ago but I didn't get a chance until today to take the pictures. This story involves somebody with a Sr. management title but I am going to be a nice person and keep their identity secret.

One day as I return to my office from a meeting I find a laptop sitting on my desk with a note that states the user is having a problem with plugging a mouse into the usb ports and that the DVD player is acting funny. Also in that request the user states that it is a great laptop and would like to know if we can fix it.

So this is how the laptop is left on my desk. Something looks odd so I lean to the left to check for the usb ports...

As you can see in the picture above the keyboard is lifting away from the notebook. This is usually a pretty tell-tale sign that the laptop has been dropped, spiked like a football or used to break the fall of a piano from a third story window. As I reached to turn the laptop so that I could see the right side I realized something is really wrong....

The entire right side of the laptop case was missing it had been ripped off the side of the notebook. Needless to say my jaw hit the floor. In 15 years of doing this kind of work I can't remember seeing many laptops that had ever been thrashed the way this one was.

As I let loose a barrage of words that you would normally see edited to look like @!#$ and enough to make a group of truckers or sailors blush. Just as this is happening in walks the user and luckily for him I did not have any items capable of inflicting severe bodily harm within arms reach. As I took a moment to do some quick breathing exercises and regain my cherub-like demeanor I looked at the user and sort of calmly asked, how did this happen? I couldn't tell you exactly what the user said because the steam pouring out of my ears seemed to have created some much needed white noise. I cut the users story short by blurting out "you destroyed this laptop"!

The user then preceded to inform me that the laptop is not destroyed because it still works. I think it was one of the few times in my life was speechless. I asked how with 1/5 of the laptop missing you could possibly argue that it is not destroyed? He looked me square in the eyes and said "that doesn't matter, can you fix it"? I proceeded to laugh so hard I think I might have peed a little. No I didn't fix it but we did give him a new laptop and I did keep the old laptop as a trophy!

Just for the record in less then two years the same user has gone through 5 laptops, 7 blackberries, and 4 bluetooth headsets.

So I guess being in IT is like being a parent... Nobody ever knows how item x got broken, the person that uses it all day long has never done anything wrong, and you get to hear every excuse in the book. So please, pardon my attitude. =)

Eric