This is one the mails that was sent to the general mailbox of a MNC’s Desktop and Server Support.
Don’t bother where it came from and just read on.
>———- >> From: Incompetent Boss >> Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 5:43:40 PM >> To: Desktop & Infrastructure Support >> Subject: Sound cards on PCs >> Auto forwarded by a Rule >> >> Admin A, The sound on Moron’s PC does not seem to work. Please take a look. He also requested for all PCs to have this configured. This is needed to play sound recorded presentation. Thanks. |
Cast:
- Incompetent Boss – Head of the MNC’s Desktop and Server Support section. Rank: Vice President.
- Moron – Head of the MNC’s Application Support. Rank: Vice President.
- Admin A – One of the two admins of the NT Server Support sub-section. Rank: Associate
- Admin B – The other admin of the NT Server Support sub-seecto. Rank: Analyst.
- Admic C – The admin of Unix and Linux Server Support sub-section. Rank:Analyst.
- Support D & E – The desktop support guys dealing with the general whines of the rest of the staff in the MNC. Rank: 1x Analyst, 1x officer.
* names are remove to protect the reputation of the people involved, and of course, the rice bowl of the person who forwarded this dumb mail to me for a good laugh.
Just what is so wrong with this email?
First of all, this email is specifically sent to Admin A but for some odd reasons understood only by the Incompetent Boss, was sent to the entire team. Perhaps he wants whoever available to look at the problem, but then if that’s the case, why address it to just Admin A alone? Obviously he lacks the common sense and the blasted email etiquette and just send to Admin A!
Next, there is no relevant information given at all. The mail is about as informative as the emails Ah Kow the mailing boy sent to request for IT support. Had it been an email saying that all the basic troubleshooting was done, and a request for suggestions on how to get it resolved, it wouldn’t be so bad.
Looking at this email caused me to wonder if is it common place that lots of IT staff everywhere are actually headed by managers that are not IT savvy! It not just give the general impression that both of these vice-presidents don’t even have the basic troubleshooting skills, it also gives the impression that they are either plain incompetent, or they felt that such tasks are far beneath them. Whatever the case is, the admins and the support guys of this MNC are a really sorry bunch when even their own IT people needs to be spoonfed. I mean, if the things are spoilt and they needed the support guys to replace it or call in the warranty, that’s fine. But to actually have these guys do the basic troubleshooting stuff for their own IT department? Come on, show us some team spirit and leadership qualities, man!
So how was it ultimately resolved?
As Admin A was away offsite to deal with some more pressing matters along with Support D to help him out, Support E decided that this was really low priority. So Admin B was dragged into Moron’s room to look at the issue in the morning, 2 days later. And it really didn’t take Admin B very long to figure out what was wrong. Moron has plugged the headphones of a video equipment into the headphone/speaker jack!! No wonder there was no sound coming from the PC speaker even when the volume was set to maximum! And guess what? Support D told Admin A that this is probably what is the problem when he read the mail offsite, and Support E told Admin B the day before at lunch that if Moron has any brains at all, he would put out everything until only the keyboard, mouse and monitor is connected to the PC, and try again!
Wanna hazard a guess whic genius who plugged the headphones in? Who else but Moron himself?!
The entire team doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Either way, the matter was resolved and of course, such stupidity and (lack of) good management gets an honourable mention.