The nerve of some people

[kenboyles72]

well my boss hires a new secretary friday and she's all talking about hows she's going to "revolutionize" our whole bussiness and redo the whole network (which i did and there is nothing more she could do to it). so im standing there listening and nothing she says is making any kind of sense about what she's going to add here or what she's going to mod there. i told my boss that i dont really think she knows what she's talking about, just making herself sound like she does. monday she calls me and Nick (the boss) in her office. she's been going through all the pcs we got there. we have 4 all the same, brand new, hp pavillions with xp installed. she asks "who setup these pcs?" i said "i did". she wanted to know why i uninstalled the oem version of xp and put a second partition on the hdd. i said what are you talking about. i didnt do anything but plug em up and turn em on(besides setting up network). i said that second partition is the recovery partition, in case something goes wrong you can create a rescue disk from that partition to reinstall xp. she just outright called me a liar. wtf she said she built and worked on pcs for a long time and has never come across a oem pc with a restore partition on it ever and they dont put one, never have and never will. i said yes they do, she says no they dont. this becomes a heated discussion and i called her an idiot. yeah i did, shame on me, she made me do it. so last night i go the hp's website and found this:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/g...00239036&lc=en
which says this:

"This document pertains to HP and Compaq Desktop PCs made after June of 2003.
HP computers that ship with Microsoft Windows XP and Compaq Presario Desktop PCs made in spring of 2003 and later already come with a hidden preloaded recovery partition. This hidden partition can be used to recover all of the original software in the event of a major problem by using a user-created Recovery Tools CD. "

So i printed out the entire page and gave it to her today. she wasn't to happy about it. oh well. maybe she might think about that before she makes a fool out herself again. this aint the first time ive run into people like that. but this one really ticked me off bad. sorry for such a lengthy post, just had to release some of my frustration. i feel better now

[ShawnD1]

Also give a copy of that to your boss. This woman made you look like an idiot infront of your boss, but what you typed gives the impression that you've only shown her that she is wrong. It's even more important that your boss knows she's the idiot; not you. This is not even about trying to destroy her, this is about protecting your own reputation, which she has clearly tried to destroy.

[lhsonic]

BAD POST <ignore>

[lhsonic]

damn. that's harsh dude. Haha, well, at least you got your point across to her in the end... some people are just really cocky ya know? It's like arguements with your mother and even older people, you get no where... I once argued about how colds work and you can't just "catch" a cold by standing outside in the freezing cold for 2 seconds and just develop a cold overnight... all the cold does is weaken your immune system which in turn, if you happen to breathe in the nasty virus, you don't fight it off as well and start to develop the symptoms.

[DragonZero]

as they say Ignorance is Bliss

i personally hate all ignorant ppl (sorry ignorant ppl but you guys are lame)

[cadetstimp]

Bah... just cut to the chase.....Just state the PC is working just fine and that you don't understand the problem she's trying to fix for the user. Act dumb and force her to explain her position in every scenerio.

Partition or no partition... what's the difference?! Right?

Make her always support the premise of her position before getting into details.

What's the problem we're trying to solve again? How does it affect the user's daily productivity?
How is her premise going to benifit the company in PRODUCTIVITY?
Why is what she's saying so important?

The neat thing about this strategy is that it makes you look like a team player ready to help her out and understand her position while, at the same time, showing your bosses that while you ready to try something new and jump right in.... you're not going to waste company time and resources if the idea is not going to directly benefit the company.

Most execs see IT as a COST center and just a tool to making profit. She'll only get a few shots at raising red flags and crying wolf before they realize she's got her head in the wroing place.

Causing problems that don't really exist....bad. Looking like the team player and being the go to guy when it comes to implementing (not talking about) solutions.....good. Talk is cheap......when you're ready and willing to fix a pc in question, but she can't explain how her problem directly affects the user then what's the point right? Even bring in a user to one of these PCs and ask them if they're having any problems with the PC. The user's productivity is the bottom line isn't it?

You always want to be viewed as the solution and not the bringer of problems.

[ShawnD1]

Excellent post, stimp. Everything you said is 100% accurate.

[osprey4]

It's never a good idea to call idiots an idiot.

But even Dell are putting restore partitions on their hard drives, so this woman has no idea what she's talking about.

[Rootstonian]

Get on her pc and send out e-mail to the company with the "I Love You" virus (of course, you'll have the system backed-up first).

She'll get busted, you'll restore the network in an hour and maybe she'll get fired. Also, tell your boss that while you were recovering the network, you found "Hot Aussie Boys", "Super Hung Guys", "Online Shopping Network" etc. in her Favorites list.

[excuzzzeme]

Next time you run across a closed mind, consider closing your rmouth; ypu might look smarter for it.

I do understand why you defended yourself as I probably would have also. She obviously has her mind pre-set. A losing battle in that scenario. Keep you ducks in line and IF confronted slam her with facts (as you already did) . BTW why was she looking for a new job? Hmmmmm?

[kenboyles72]

Get on her pc and send out e-mail to the company with the "I Love You" virus (of course, you'll have the system backed-up first).

well, i thought about something on the lines of that. not necessarily a virus, but maybe delete some core os file that would cause xp to crash. nothing real serious, something i could just easy copy back from a boot disk. then see what kind of explaination or solution she would come up with. my boss agreed about what i said, but maybe i could have said it in a differant way. he's been a friend of mine for a long time and he knows what my skills are and doesnt question anything i say or do(well, maybe some things). ive never boasted about what i can do or done anything that i wasn't sure of. all of this wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't had that cocky, bossy, i know it all attitude. also i learned today that she may not be there too much longer, because of the attitude.

[xelnanga]

I love ignorance. I see it in school all the time!

[evereddie]

Been there, done exactly that. Best advice is to stay far away, she will destroy herself. Why do you think she had to get a new job in the first place. Don't say much to the boss, the groundwork has been set. At the proper moment drop the boss a line like this, just tell him "I am documenting EVERYTHING, just in case, ..hope I don't have to use it." Then give a very suttle wink. (good idea to actually document everything)
Sit back and let nature take it's course.
Been there, done exactly that.

[quantumlight]

didnt get much of the blah blah partition but i meet those ppl all the time lol