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Admin
I showed this article to my company's executives. They want to defend their brethren, but they're still waiting on the electrician.
Admin
For being the most useful person there, the electrician probably gets paid a tiny fraction of what the executives make.
Maybe the electrician should have a tip jar?
Admin
I suppose there will always be the lowly paid grunts that do the actual work. I mean, these execs are brilliant men, that get paid for brilliant thoughts. They can't be bothered with silly things like actually understanding how things work in their business.
Admin
To be fair, some meeting rooms have unnecessarily complicated setups with lights and/or projectors and they all seem to work differently. Walking into a meeting room that (presumably) none of the executives had been in before and not knowing exactly how that system worked isn't a WTF. Not being able to work it out is a WTF.
As an aside: I went to a computer science conference a few years back and I was shocked by the same level of technical incompetence from some presenters who couldn't get projectors to work. I even sat through talks given with old acetate sheets and marker pens. So it's not just executives - academics are just as clueless.
Admin
It's extra amusing that Scott himself couldn't figure out any of this and still sent in a story. About himself failing, along with the rest of his colleagues.
But I suppose it's like those of us who can calculate the exact time distortion at a specified distance away from a singularity of a specific mass, but can't do basic arithmetic without a calculator.
Admin
The electrician missed several golden opportunities to mess with those executives....
He could have had one of them holding the projector at full arms-length.
He could have had one of them hold each end of a snipped high voltage wire in each hand in order to provide extra power to the lights.
He could have had them pressing all different "secret" buttons around the meeting floor in a vain attempt to get the magic combination that activated the elevator.
PHB's torture all of us all the time. When the tables are turned, it is our privilege, neigh obligation to reciprocate!
Admin
In the non-profit volunteer board that I work with, I am that electrician. :-(
Admin
"The fourteen attendees were handpicked for not only their extensive business knowledge and expertise..."
and later:
"...twelve executives are definitely not enough to change a light bulb."
What happened to the other 2?
Admin
They were electrocuted trying to work the projector, of course!
Admin
They were calling up consultants to help them.
Alternatively: They were standing somewhere else, looking important.
Admin
Sorry it took so long to comment, I had to call an electrician, my keyboard didn't work.
Anyway, us executives are known for our ability to synergize business goals with real time strategies to increase corporate throughput, we don't know how any of this stuff works, that's why we hire people.
Admin
This reminds me of something I deal with fairly frequently... I'm in grad school and the department recently invested $60k in a conference room. Fancy pants projector, video conference, interactive white boards, etc. No one in the department actually knows how to operate the system so whenever I've been in there after hours I get to watch people crowd around a laptop. Fantastic use of tuition money if you ask me.
Admin
And these are the people with the mega-bonuses and truck-loads of stock options.
Admin
I didn't know how to comment so i called the electrician.
"the electrician" by order of "the executives"
Admin
and salaries of 1 dollar a year...
Admin
So TRWTF was Scott then? Who managed to slime his way up the greasy management pole with no more clue than any of the other 12/14* people at the meeting.
Congratulations!
*delete as applicable when the submitter responds, defending his inaccurate story and apparent inability to turn on a light bulb. I'll have £5 at 7/2 that he claims he was playing "Devil's advocate" in order to submit a WTF.
Admin
No, TRWTF is that they had an electrician doing an IT man's work.
Admin
Same role, different title based on gender: Since a man was helping them, they called him an "electrician." If it was a woman, they would have called her an "assistant," or "secretary."
TRWTF is that they called this person "the electrician," because they would not have had any idea who that guy really was. I bet his real role was a "technician."
Admin
Admin
Seems more likely that the "electrician" is the one who submitted this WTF. Also, Scott is a prick, obviously, which is why he's mentioned specifically by the "electrician."
Ed. Note: The story was submitted by Scott who, obviously, isn't above poking fun at himself.
Admin
I hate it when this happens... apparently people have a hard time right clicking the desktop, selecting properties, going to the settings tab, and checking a few boxes/setting the resolution properly. On a college trip last year, one of my project partners and I were treated as demigods for somehow being able to configure laptops to use presenter mode in powerpoint. Even the first time I set that up, it only took maybe three or four minutes... it's not exactly rocket science, just some settings.
On the other hand, my company laptop has two conflicting methods of setting things like this up. The windows one, and the semi-redundant, completely incompatible configuration applet the video card manufacturer bodged together so they could put their logo somewhere else. God help you if you configure ANYTHING via the windows applet, then the manufacturer's applet flips out and doesn't work randomly. A reboot is required to re-synch it properly, else neither one will work. As long as you are REALLY careful to never use the built-in one, it "works"...
PS: "funny" comments that mimic the story are not funny. Can we stop this retarded trend yet? It's nearly as worn out as wooden tables and captchas.
Admin
I've never heard a horse neigh, "Obligation."
"It is our privilege--nay, our obligation--to reciprocate!" FTFY.
Admin
So this is why, I believe, the company I work for is still open for business; our competitors must have as dumb 'executives' as our we do.
I've been to countless board meetings, booked to be hosted at many, many countries worldwide. Loads of money spent on trips, meals, cabs, etc. I can guarantee to you - it is the same everywhere.
Admin
The entire time I was reading this my only thought was "where did Scott go?"
Wasn't he supposed to be the one who had climbed up through the ranks of the technical side of the business?
Admin
Admin
What is the name and contact information for the electrician. I would like to make him/her an immediate offer.
(to replace the dozen engineering and scientist types around here who - while being able to design a nuclear reactor - waste 20 minutes of every meeting trying just to get basic facilities to work)
Admin
Maybe he was messing with their heads. Perhaps he was the one to turn the ringer down, turn the dimmer switch down and failed to remind the exec to plug in the video cable.
Admin
You realize that in one post you explained why people treated you as demigods for knowing how to work it? A projector should just work by plugging it in. Most people don't know how to change their display resolution, why would they think to go to those settings to setup a projector?
Admin
It was dark. They were probably eaten by a grue.
Admin
Yes. Yes they are. Your point?
Admin
Nothing worthwhile has ever been said in a powerpoint presentation, nothing.
Admin
The submitter is usually the one in bold. No reason to suspect otherwise.
In soccer terms I believe he just scored an "own goal".
Admin
Something is clearly amiss here - you can't actually dim fluorescent bulbs.
Admin
You lost my attention at "PowerPoint"...
Admin
Actually, you CAN dim at least some fluorescent bulbs in some way. I have no idea how, but I've not only seen them work, but have operated the dimmer button..
Admin
There are newer, more expensive fluorescent bulbs that will work with a dimmer. Pretty nifty thing!
Admin
Nope, it's not. They've been around for a few years. This one is new to me admittedly.
I've seen a church with 2 foot high dimmable fluorescents in a church in Brockley about 2 years ago. Impressive things
Admin
I know it's cool to laugh a users, we all do it, but come on...
It's perfectly feasible to be an absolute genius in your field, even a technical one (as in biochemistry, mechanical engineering, financial analysis, whatever), and still be hopeless with computer technology (or A/V equipment or dimmer switches). As amusing as it is, it's not a WTF. Is it a WTF if I don't understand credit default swaps, nickel-resist casting, thermodynamics, or astrophysics as an IT guy?
Admin
All of them are enough techical to know when they need help
Admin
Way to bring feminist victimhood into things. I didn't notice them mentioning the gender of the electrician, although my image was a scruffy old codger with a toolbelt.
Admin
laughs at Madball for not understanding credit default swaps
Admin
Admin
Admin
Yay, let's bash all the people that aren't competent and current in the minutia of our jobs and hobbies!
I encourage everyone to take a second from gleefully bashing every CEO, professor, grandma, and general Luddite that can't hook up a projector or resolve other basic computer problems to consider 3 things:
How many of you have every paid someone to change the oil in your car? bought prepared food? hired someone for home repair? paid for childcare? Paid for any service you could easily do yourself after a few days of research/practice? Do you consider yourself an idiot because of that?
Just like on atomic, cellular, and other scales - society is capable of much greater things when it's members specialize. It's stupid and destructive to deamonize expertise and specialization. Pick what you like best and do it the best that you can. Depend on other people to do the rest, and respect them for what they can do, rather than deride them for what they can't do.
This type of article just isn't appropriate for thedailywtf - for the same reason student mistakes aren't posted. If someone is a professional developer, sysadmin, or support provider and they fail epically at their job - then it is fair game. Someone that is paid to be a programmer, calls themselves a programmer, and can't write good code is an annoyance we can relate to, and someone we should ridicule. Someone that is paid to be a farmer, calls themselves a farmer, and can't write good code is a farmer. Before we ridicule them, we should go look at their farm.
Admin
Odd... we haven't yet had the mandatory meta-comment on whether the purported WTF is actually a WTF.
I'll bite. This is a very odd article, because it's funny but it's not an actual WTF. I would never look at a team of highly-paid visionary executives fumbling with elementary technical functions and go "WTF?" That's like watching fish flop around on shore and marveling at their poor land-swimming skills.
And yet, I can laugh at the follies of these giants of industry. Laugh at them, not with them, because, you know, I don't wanna offend them by presuming to be "with them".
Admin
The dimmer switch: As difficult to understand as astrophysics.
Admin
Blue, now. At least, partly, because "grue" rhymes with "blue".
Admin
Clearly, this company needs to review its executive recruitment procedures. Instead of worrying about whether a potential executive has experience running similar operations, they should make sure to ask how, exactly, a candidate would debug a malfunctioning light fixture. Maybe, they should also ask how, exactly, the candidate would have a spot removed from the carpet in the hallway. Or maybe not. I am sure I do not know how to perform the duties of a janitor or an electrician; I am also sure that enough people are capable of performing those duties that I can throw a nickel on the floor and watch as peasants scramble for the opportunity to do them. And I am equally sure that the lucky scrounger feels superior in the knowledge that he, and he alone, knows how to provide light to the building. And, of course, he feels resentful, that such a clever fellow makes so little compared to those he serves.
Admin
Admin
I was about to make a comment, but I'm still waiting for the electrician to press the necessary key to submit this.