Really, truly.  If you’re in a job and don’t know what you’re doing or continuously “get it wrong” (and you know who you are), please, please, please just quit your job so the company can find someone competent to do it.

I’ve been having a computer issue this last week, so I sent in a ticket to the Help Desk and the oh so helpful reply I got after about a day was, “Is it working now?”  Why, no, no the computer fairies did not magically appear and reconfigure my computer, but thank you for asking.

Three days later I get, “What about now?  Still not working?”  (And a suggestion about what might have caused the issue which would be counter to my last five years’ experience dealing with this company and their VPN.)

So, rather than take the hour needed to download new software to fix the problem, this person decided that I’m now going to get a new computer.  Fine.  It was about that time.  If they want to give me a new computer, so be it.

But in the meantime I still needed access.  Getting paid happens to be nice…

So this person sent me a link to a site I can use.  Except that site has twenty possible downloads and I am not downloading twenty random Citrix files to my computer in the hopes that one of them lets me do the discrete task I need to accomplish.

Then I get an e-mail.  “That site can be pretty confusing.  Here’s a data extract.”  No shit?  Of course, the extract doesn’t come with instructions on what information to enter as it runs. (Like, you know, the URL it needs to work…)

I’m now waiting until I can be sure this person will not be available to help me so I can call in to one of the people I know who are competent to get this sorted.  I tried.  But incompetence does not suddenly fix itself anymore than my computer did.

Who knows?  Perhaps this person is an absolute genius with computers.  But they should not be working a help desk, because they are not prompt nor can they communicate clearly, which are essential skills for that role.

This is the second time in the last year that someone’s incompetence has caused me hours of frustration.  And the last person cost me a hell of a lot more than that.

So, if you hate your job or you can’t do it well, pay it forward and quit.  Find something you can do or enjoy.  Please???

And as a reward for having to listen to me gripe, I’ve finally figured out how to post photos again.  May I channel the serenity in the photo…