User Error

Recently, I've had more than one person tell me how entertained they are with the thoughts in my head.  Wait a second.  Is Selbouez friends with mind-readers?  No.  I just have a tendency to, when I'm telling a story, add asides of what was going through my head at the time.  The thing is, I'm terribly afraid of confrontation.  So I just say mean and sarcastic things in my head.  Then they become verbalized as annotations after the fact.  Whatever.  Like we don't all have strange quirks.

Anywho.  I thought maybe I'd write and share some of these instances with my web friend(s).  Hey there!  

I work at a place that makes websites for people.  I've been here for almost a year.  I've learned a lot.  And a big chunk of my job is "analyzing" things that people claim are broken or quirky.  For example, you (either a client or fellow co-worker) will submit a ticket describing how you can't see a button on a website.  Or how when you click that button, you get an error.  I then go in and try to reproduce this.  Often, I can't.  Now, I'm not saying everyone in the world is an idiot; but sometimes they are.  So if you have an "issue" that ONLY you can see and create, my guess tends to be "you're the issue, my friend."  I always try to be diplomatic about the situation.  I use a lot of question marks, like "Have you tried refreshing your screen? I know sometimes that helps me?"  My strategy in these instances is: little red riding hood.  I'm just an unsuspecting little girl innocently suggesting that you may need to clear your cookies.  Within the past month, this strategy has failed.  Instead, two people, separately, explained to me how they've been doing their jobs for quite some time, so I shouldn't patronize them on their potential user-error.  To which, I never know how to respond.  Seriously, what would you say?  "I'm sorry that you've been doing your job for so long, yet still suck at it"?  No, that would be rude; and possibly unfair.  In both of these instances of "pulling-rank", I ended up being in the right.  In summation, my thought is this: please don't ever assume that you haven't made a mistake just because you've been doing the same thing for a long time.  Actually, I'd say you're more prone to make that mistake because your task has become automatic.  And never underestimate the value of a "fresh pair of eyes."  Apply this lesson sparingly…to friendships, marriage, fixing your car, whatever.  

Thanks for reading.