Thursday, July 12, 2012

Bonus Blog: Another funny job story

When I was working technical support as the supervisor, I had two more amazingly weird things happen.

The first started pretty normally: a woman called and had trouble with her game client download because she'd lost power and the download had stopped. Power was restored, and she needed help getting started again. I helped her.

A few calls later, she was back; power had been out again. I gave her the appropriate instructions, again, and she hung up.

The third time she called, I asked her what was up. I told her that it was bad for her computer to be exposed like this--stops and starts can fry things. She told me she was fine because she had a "power controller." I eventually found out she meant surge protector. I explained that most surge protectors were good for 3, maybe four power outtages and she should contact her electrical company about the outtages.

That's when she laughed and told me there wasn't anything they could do: Tropical Storm Andrew was responsible for the outtages. I asked if she was in the middle of a hurricane, and she said it wasn't a hurricane yet, and could I give her those instructions again? The room behind me went silent as I explained that it was very, very dangerous to operate electrical equipment such as computers and PHONES in a hurricane, and she should stop doing that and find shelter. I explained that lightening can sometimes travel through phone lines, and for both of our safety, she needed to get off the phone; I was pretty sure that, in the unlikely event her lines were struck my lightning I'd be okay, but it was the fact she could be putting me in danger that finally got her off the phone and the computer, and scurryng around unplugging all her other electrical devices. She was grumpy because she was going to "miss her shows" and I cheerfully wished her good luck, reminded her that 911 was an available emergency option, and got her off the phone. The stunned silence that had surrounded me erupted in clapping and laughing as people started repeating, "You mean you're in a hurricane?"

I already knew that people could be clueless, but it was reinforced that day, as well as the fact that people can actually DIE from being clueless.

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