A Midsummer Night's Malaise

Work is wearing on me.  But it's not the "work" that is driving me insane.  It's the people.

I'm not sure how some of these people dress themselves.  Let me run through some fun facts for you:

-Not being able to type quickly is a computer issue.  Not being able to find the letters at all is not.
-Not understanding where to type your name is a computer issue.  Not knowing how to spell your name is not.
-Not understanding how to change from lowercase letters to capital letters is a computer issue.  Not understanding the difference between them when they're printed on a page in front of you is not.

Also, when did "auwruh" become a letter?  Apparently it comes right after Q now.

Don't get me wrong, I love the physical part of my job.  I love fixing computers and playing with new hardware/software.  I get geeked when a new piece of software comes out and it's my job to play with it and see how it works.  And I love working with an overwhelming majority of the people at my company.  But some of the people that I have to deal with make me question whether it's worth it.

Notice how I said some of the people.  I don't dislike people who know nothing about computers.  In fact, these are my favorites.  Give me a 50 year old man who's never touched a computer any day over a guy who skims Lifehacker once a month and thinks he knows everything about computers.  I have issues with the people who either refuse to listen or are entrenched in what I call Willful Ignorance.  And this adherence to their ignorance has nothing to do directly with computers.

I get it though.  Nobody wants to call me.  I'm PC Support.  I'm the Helpdesk.  No one calls these people by choice.  Has any tech ever gotten a phone call saying "Everything is working great here.  Keep up the good work."  Of course not.  It's the same reason why I don't call my cable company to say the same thing.  That's our job.  Make things work and fix them when they don't.

But for anyone who's ever been on the other side of the phone when someone calls for help they know exactly what I mean.  Every time you talk to someone is invariably one of the worst parts of their day.  And as long as they can hang up feeling better than when they first called then I feel like I've done my job.  Even if the problem is not something that can be immediately solved, the person should leave the conversation confident that it will be resolved.

And once I'm no longer concerned with this positive outcome then I'll know the malaise has won.

But until that day I will remain the honest, friendly, helpful nerd who helps you fix your internet connection so you can tell your Facebook friends how lame I am.