You know what I'm sick of? I'm sick of those instant messenger pop-up windows that shows who just signed on. No, I don't have an issue with it on my side, I disable that little punk first thing after I install or update my IM client. What I have a problem with is the pop-up on everyone else's screen.
You see, I don't use IM to keep up with my friends and family, I use IM almost exclusively at work. So as soon as I sign on, people (customers) around the world get a pop-up saying "Adam just signed on". And you know what, that pop-up must be irresistible, like a monkey trained to hit a button in order to get a banana, my customers all think that it's a really good idea to pester Adam with their early morning requests (I'm NOT a morning person, in fact I fantasize about drugging morning people with valium in order to make the whole world sleep in like me).
And they must think that they are crafty and subtle when their first line is "Hey buddy, how ya doin'?" Like they really give 2 cents about how I'm doing. That's just a preface to them asking for some favor that's always "real quick", when they should call our receptionist and put in a proper trouble ticket (I work in Customer Service).
This wouldn't even be a problem if it was just one customer, I'd just block them and never worry about it. But it's almost all of them.
Now I'm not saying that they can't IM me and ask a quick question. That's no my intention at all. What I want to stop is the 2-10 IM's I get the instant I sign in. It's frustrating to have that much to do in the first few minutes of being at work. Why can't these people give me 5 minutes to get the rest of my software loaded and ready to go? Is this their only chance to reach me? Do they forget about me when that pop-up window goes away? If they are that feeble, maybe I should add them to my block list anyways.
This morning it was a customer in Africa. I love these guys, they took very good care of me when I was out there training them, but it still gets on my nerves
So in review: Do NOT IM co-workers, customers, and vendors so shortly after they sign on. This should be added to some official "netiquette" rule. It's not big deal to do this to friends, unless you are asking them a work related question. In that case shame on you for abusing your friendship.
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6 comments:
Not that I disagree, but perhaps if you just didn't sign in until you've been at work for a while. Is there a pressing need for you to be logged in if you don't want messages?
You are the smartest computer guy in the entire universe, so I guess it's not a matter of adjusting IM settings. My work computer would sign me in to MSN the second I woke the machine up for the day. So I had to fix that, you know, so I could manually sign in when I felt it was a good time (e.g. nobody was around to see me IM'ing at work). On my home computer, for some reason I have it set to show me as "offline" when I sign on. That way, nobody can bug me, I can get my other stuff done, and I can still see who's online before I let them know I am.
If you just gave yourself a half hour to settle into your day, it'd still be irritating once you signed yourself in, to have people pounce. I would cringe every time. I think it would be fun to make bets with yourself who would be the first, and how long it would take them.
You remind me of Peter on Office Space. This is like your combination of the doorknob shock, Nina from Corporate Accounts Payable, and Lumberg. All rolled into one. Sooo annoying.
My boss unofficially uses that pop-up as her way of knowing when I get to my desk. Some days when I am truly late and I want very few people to know, I intentionally sign in late and see who stops by to check on whether I've shown up for work today. Without fail, those are the days she stops by and makes some spur of the moment (quick goat-thinking) comment on how she thought my messenger was broken. In reality, she thought I hadn't made it to work that day.
One time I even heard her (over the cubicle walls) ask our receptionist to call me and see when I was coming in. I really wanted the receptionist to call, but she spent 2 calories and stood up to look over the cubicle wall and saw that I was here. I guess technology and laziness can make us horribly inefficient as well.
Hi Linds, nice to meet you.
Linds, you have to take advantage of morning people, or just find ways to punish them.
I suggest making them use that happy and cheerful morning time to clean your place or prepare your day for you.
If they won't do that, at least do the reverse to them: be all kinds of cheerful and happy when they are tired and ready for bed. Then make them feel like they are sleeping their life away by hitting the sack at a mere 11 pm. Sorry you had to learn this early on that I'm so evil.
What's with these people and their fricken double standards? I was just talking to two co-workers about this on Monday. They kinda have a "you're wasting your life away by sleeping in" attitude. Oh yeah? Well you're wasting your life away by going to bed so early!
Morning freaks!
I like the word feeble
I like feeble, but I LOVE using it as a verb, like when I threaten someone: "I'm gonna feeble you boy".
I need to verbify more words, and let my depredation of the English language spread forth.
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