Fear me, Tech People. I have a computer and I don't know how to use it.

This is actually from a few weeks ago (maybe a month?).  Hmm.  When did the new bridge open?  Okay.  It's from September 18th.

I've mentioned before that there are two main aspects to my job.  The first aspect is monitoring phone calls for representatives and scoring the calls.  This is huge for me because I absolutely adore customer service.  I think customer service is the most important thing that we can offer stock owners and dagnabit - people better be providing it. 

The other aspect is that I update our Electronic Resource (it's a library housed on our intranet site.  We call it Libby) - where the reps go to find information about companies that we work with or how to assist a stock holder that wants to sell their shares, etc.  This is also important because the reps really can't provide excellent customer service if they don't have the information they need.

So my day is divided up between these two tasks with distractions as I answer questions from just about everyone about how to score calls and where can I find this information in Libby and what should I do about this call that I'm on right now and everything else.  It can get a little hectic.

Now I, for some reason, thrive on stress.  I don't like to be bored, I like to have something to do at all times or I can find myself getting distracted and sneaking off to bloglines to find out what my favorite bloggers are writing about (that would be you, gentle reader) or reading the latest news (which is not like me at all because I typically avoid the news like the plague but the new home page that we use at NABABNA has MSN headlines every day so I'll find myself going "Oh, the new bridge opened today?" or "Good Lord, what was McCain thinking?" and then I have to read the article and will find myself reading other articles).  So hectic is a good thing - it keeps me going and I'm not bored so I am less likely to fall asleep at my desk. 

However, this Tuesday I had a little more stress than I wanted.

Here's some background.  Back when I worked for NABABNA's main call center, I was updating something in one of the shared drives.  I don't really know how a shared drive works but I have a vague idea that it is something that I can view on my computer and other people can view it on their computer.  And then I see something that I don't need in my folder (statistics from 2000 or something like that) and I delete it.  It doesn't dawn on me that this could cause a problem for everyone else until the following day when Main Tech Guy (we'll call him Bob Partridge) shows up at my desk.

I don't know Bob Partridge very well.  I've seen him around a few times and I have no idea what to do about the fact that he is glowering at me.  The following is a loosely based transcript of our conversation (because I don't really remember that far back).

BP:  You.
DM:  Me?
BP:  Did you delete Excel Program Blahdeblah?
DM:  Um.  Maybe.
BP:  Do you know what happens when you delete something from a shared drive?
DM:  Um.  It's not on my computer anymore?
BP:  It's not on anyone's computer anymore.  And then I have to fix it.  Don't do it again.
DM (meekly):  Okay.

I don't know how much time went by, maybe a couple of months, maybe a year but one day Bob shows up at my desk again.

BP:  You did it again.  ARGH!  You are so stupid!  You should never touch a computer again, you spawn of Satan!   (No, he did not actually say this part but I am pretty sure he was thinking it)

DM:  What?
BP:  You deleted something from the shared drive.
DM:  I did?
BP:  Yes! 

And then he goes into a long description about why I should never do this and how this caused a ton of work for him and he would break all of my fingers if I ever did it again (okay, he didn't say that either but if looks could kill, I would not be typing this right now).

I don't deal well with lectures.  I might have a small problem with authority.  Just a small one.  So I am not going to put up with this anymore.

DM (snippily):  Bob, I understand this.  You don't have to keep explaining it to me.
BP:  I don't think you do.  Because if you did understand it, you would stop doing it!

Needless to say, that shut me up.  I listened to the lecture quietly, knowing that my boss was sitting right there.  Laughing his fool head off.  Bob went on his way and our paths rarely crossed again.  Although he always seemed confused when I would greet him with "Hi.  Please don't yell at me."

So Tuesday.  I'm working on Libby.  I have to add some information about a new company.  Somehow and I am not quite sure how this happened because I'm not supposed to have delete capability in Front Page (Windows Application that lets you work on websites.  That's about as much as I know about it), I manage to delete an entire folder of updates.  This is the R folder.  I was working in the F folder to add the new company, Fairly Small Company.  How I managed to delete the R folder when working in the F folder, I don't know.  The only thing that I can think that might have happened is I was going to change the name of my document and instead of using rename, I used delete.  You know, because these commands are so similar.

We have a lot of companies that are housed in R.  A lot.  Tons.  Many large companies.  So you can imagine how I felt when I went to update some information about Really Large Company and saw that I had a Q folder and an S folder but no R folder.  There was a lot of cursing involved.

Fortunately I was able to call Jess (one of the Tech People).

Jess:  Hi, this is Jess.  How can I help you?
DM:  Help.  Oh, help.  I accidently deleted one of the folders in Front Page.  I don't know how.  Please, please, please tell me you can restore it.  Please.

Jess:  Well, I can't but I can have someone take care of it.  It should be fine.
DM:  I love you!
Jess:  Um.  Okay.

And then, of course, I had to send an email out to my entire phone center and explain that they wouldn't be able to access R because of a glitch (right, like I'm going to tell everyone that I deleted it).  I think it was figured it out anyway because after I send out the email telling them that it was fixed, I got several responses:

From Co-Worker Beau:   Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
From Co-Worker Annette:  Yeah… my truck was called T-OY while R was missing….
(Apparently her truck is named Troy after some guy from Montgomery Gentry.  I believe that is the name of a band but don't quote me on it).

From Co-Worker Christine:  Thank you for returning my R…R was so very missed.
(Accompanied by a picture of Ernie from Sesame Street pulling a rabbit out of a hat)

From Co-Worker Jessica after I said Dagnabit about something that was thwarting me:  Did you delete R again?

As I told Beth, I will never live this down.  And her response was "You'll never live it down unless you stop doing it!"