Do you curse when working? (Warning: Could be baaaad words inside!)

[mrwho]

Agreed with all stated previously - I'm not one to go and say "Hi, I'm here to fix the fucking machine, what the fuck's wrong with the piece of shit?". But when I get shocked I lose control...

[fixthecopier]

You deal with people in the manner they are used to, and adjust for different environment. I do not want to come off as some on who swears all day and can not communicate without cussing. I service churches and adjust my personality for them out of respect for the church and those who work there. In normal life you would have to know me really well to hear the bad words, as I would never talk like that around people I do not know. However, a military base is a little different. I respect ladies and never talk foul around them. The following is a true story...

Before they got the new building, the weapons training people occupied a couple of old buildings and I had a Minolta Di250 in each of them. This class of machine had a stupid step in it. When you opened and closed the top tray, the screen would come up showing what it thought was in the top universal tray. You pressed enter if it was correct, if is was not correct, you could press the screen to change to the correct size or just open and slam the tray shut so the sensors would fall in the correct slot. Now if you had the paper in the portrait position, and the screen said landscape, and you pressed enter, the image would get printed sideways. If it was a different size, it would cause jams. Well this drawer with the movable stop and adjustable side guide was a problem. They would pull the guides back to put paper in and then not push the paper under the feed roller causing false jams. This tray kept me employed my first 4 years. Well these weapons guys would call every few weeks and when I would show up, nobody would be around for me to bitch at. This went on for years until one day they called and when I showed up there was a Sargent there cleaning a rifle. I call him over and give the story and ask how are we going to fix this. He said " we won't use the tray" I ask how he will make that happen and he said he would put a sign on the outside saying do not use this tray. I said "You know who you work with, they will not read the note. " "What should we do?" he ask me. I took a sheet of paper and wrote on it "HEY DUMB ASS THE NOTE ON THE OUTSIDE SAID DO NOT USE THIS TRAY. ARE YOU STUPID? and put the note on the left side of the tray. The Sargent laughed and I left. Three weeks later, I get a call there for a false jam. The note is on the outside and my note is on the inside and there is paper on the right side of the tray, 2 inches from the side and not under the roller. Well there is no one to bitch at this time, so I took out my pen and started writing on the top sheet of the loaded paper.

I started my message with "Hey you stupid fucking morons what the hell is wrong with you." Are you too goddamn dumb to put paper in a copier" I filled up the whole page with such lines and statements. Then I left. A month later when I was delivering toner, The note was on the outside of the tray, when I opened it the note was on the left side of the tray, but more importantly the nasty letter I left on the right side of the tray was still there, and they had removed the misloaded paper from under it. I had finally got through to them buy talking to them the way they were used to being talked to when they screwed up.

At another location a 7th group combat company had just got their new copier. After 4 weeks I get a call for dark line. Someone scratched the UFR. I came back changed the roller and handes the Sergent Major a bill for $125 and he flipped out. Sorry but that is abuse. I came back a couple of weeks later to drop off tone and there is a note taped to the document feeder, written by the Sargent Major. It said

We know you are great
We know you training told you you could do anything
But when you fuck up my copier and I gotta pay the Goddamn copy guy to fix this piece of fucking technology, I get pissed and when I get pissed , I will make your Goddamn living hell.

As long as that man was in charge of that unit, I never had another work order. When he left , they pulled the note off, pushed the machine out in the hall and I was there every 2 to 3 weeks. Sometimes cussing gets the job done.

[Stirton.M]

You deal with people in the manner they are used to, and adjust for different environment.

I couldn't agree more, being a vet myself. Use the language the audience is used to.

Truth be told, there are days I would love to use "colorful metaphors" (as Mr Spock called it in ST: Voyage Home) with some customers to drive a point across, get their attention, so to speak. But I simply have to bite the tongue and use the politically correct approach, which more often than not, does not drive the point across and get the customer's attention as to how much they have pissed me off with their blatant stupidity. Thankfully not all my customers are so thick headed, so I have plenty of time to cool off with the odd one that when I revisit them, I am not agitated like I was the last time.

[DAG COPIERS & COMPUTERS]

Very interesting details from 'fixthecopier'. I haven't yet been blessed with an opportunity to work on a " military" copier, but it would be interesting exposure, to physically interact with those guys in their camp and learn how they behave! We only know that they live a tough, rough & dare-devils life. I have relatives though who are serving in our country's armed forces and when we interact with them at family or social functions they 'behave & talk normally', though if u r a careful observant, u will notice some peculiarity about them;for example they are impatient to see that things are done quickly.
Anyway, CRIMINOLOGISTS tell us that, " when men first came into contact with crime, they abhor it, as they continued to be exposed to it they eventually accepted it and adopted it as normal way of doing things". In short, the mind will adopt to anything (situation) it is continuously exposed to, although it can be controlled. So i don't really blame the tech who adopts the 'military' language over time as he works for them.

[Stirton.M]

Very interesting details from 'fixthecopier'. I haven't yet been blessed with an opportunity to work on a " military" copier, but it would be interesting exposure, to physically interact with those guys in their camp and learn how they behave! We only know that they live a tough, rough & dare-devils life. I have relatives though who are serving in our country's armed forces and when we interact with them at family or social functions they 'behave & talk normally', though if u r a careful observant, u will notice some peculiarity about them;for example they are impatient to see that things are done quickly.
Anyway, CRIMINOLOGISTS tell us that, " when men first came into contact with crime, they abhor it, as they continued to be exposed to it they eventually accepted it and adopted it as normal way of doing things". In short, the mind will adopt to anything (situation) it is continuously exposed to, although it can be controlled. So i don't really blame the tech who adopts the 'military' language over time as he works for them.

Been there, done that, have a few t-shirts, olive green, black and maroon to remember the fun.

[fixthecopier]

I am of the opinion that if you own a GPS devise like a Tomtom , at some point you had called it a lying piece of shit as you throw it across the interior of the car or truck.

[KEVIN900]

Yes, I agree. Much prefer the old-school Hagestrom Road Maps to GPS. You plot out a course, plan a more scenic route, and not have some device telling you to turn back, or "re-calculating". It's like driving with the mother-in-law. It's probably good for tourists, but a road warrior knows his way.

[mrwho]

The reason I use GPS even when I know my way is because I keep it updated with the various hiding spots where there could be radars.

[WOETC]

Had a very abusive customer,complaining about the f#@$ing machine was a F^%$ing lemon, and there was now a big black line on everything they scanned. I suggested it might be "White out" and got a fresh mouthful of abuse. Opening up the feeder, i pointeed out the big blob of White Out and said "Oh look some bird , Shit right in your machine"