We tend to overlook how invasive today’s technology has become in the workplace. When it’s functioning properly it is nearly invisible. When it fails our efforts come to a grinding halt. I found myself wide awake at 05:00 so I figured I would get a jump start on my day. The golden portal to my working world (the laptop) had other ideas. Once it groaned and whirred to life, I tapped in the series of secrets that would navigate through various firewalls, VPN’s, and software checkpoints. The first indication that something was amiss happened as Lotus Notes slugged unsuccessfully through the replication process. That was followed shortly by the universal symbol for “Today’s Not Your Day”: the old faithful yellow caution triangle emblazoned with an exclamation point. (Kinda looks like someone flipping you off!)
“Unable to find path to server,” the box said. I closed everything and went through the welcome routine again thinking just maybe my sleepy fingers had wandered off course. “Unable to find path to server,” was the response to the second probe.
I let it rest for a moment and swiveled around to the home desktop, wondering what the work-around would be if I couldn’t electronically reply to all those I owed a response. Used to be this business of equipment sales was done face-to-face with a day-minder book and a notepad.  There is still a large element of personal interaction but once the relationship is established it is largely supported electronically by email and cell phone: the Blackberry. The lifeline of modern business. Without it I’m lost. I can certainly make the personal calls that are so vital in this business but all the administrative support work and the electronic replies I had promised are on hold until the server comes back on line.
Here’s the punch line: my only access to our IT Department is through the electronic help desk. You guessed it – submit a request via email…
There’s a relevant quote by Homer (Simpson) that comes to mind: “Doh!”
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