Do you remember what Kurt Vonnegut supposedly told graduates at MIT in 1997? (He didn't really). But the point made in the speech/article still goes. Wear sunscreen. Today my very angry shoulders and neck are screaming at me. Of course, I remembered the sunscreen, but someone else 'thought' it was in the car. (It wasn't.) Ouch!
I watched Saturday Night Live last night, now in its 25th season. There's a new sketch they've been doing, which people are raving about and I've caught once. The computer help-desk sketch. The help desk technician makes fun of the other employees, berating and belittling them for not knowing anything about computers. The sketch wasn't on last night, darn it! The terrible thing about good satire is how true to life it can seem. I try to teach our junior personnel that the customer should be their focus, not the technology. I hope I get that across enough. I've had my share of temporarily brain-dead users. But no matter how much someone lacks the ability to apply common sense when sitting in front of the keyboard, I don't think that it's right to treat them with discourtesy. Especially not in our business.