Worker on phone: Hi, Amy*, this is Emily* in editorial. Are you new back there?
IT chick: Yeah.
Worker: Okay, well, I’m having a problem with my phone. I just got a new phone with a caller ID screen on it, but when I get calls the screen is blank. Is there some button I have to push, or…?
IT chick: Well, why don’t you try unplugging the phone and then plugging it back in. I’ll stay on the line.
Worker: Um…
120 West 1st Avenue
Mesa, Arizona
Overheard by: Big Ideas
CSR: I just took a look at the survey and noticed that at the very beginning it says “this survey is design”. Shouldn’t that say
“designed”?
IT: Probably…I cut and pasted.
CSR: Can it be changed?
IT: No, I etched that survey directly into your screen. To change it we would have to buy you a new monitor.
1 Woodland Hill Drive
Babson Park, Massachusetts
IT guy: I don’t know about your god, but my god says it’s okay.
Stamford, Connecticut
Programmer #1: Do you watch Maggie and the Ferocious Beast?
Programmer #2: [Silence.]Programmer #1: Well, Hamilton is the pig. I don’t know his last name, but he’s the pig in the show.
Programmer #2: [Silence.]
100 Larrabee Road
Westbrook, Maine
IT guy: Hey, Kelly* just showed me her slingbox.
Boss: Reeeally?
It guy: Yeah. It works fine and everything, but I wouldn’t pay for it.
Boss: If you get her drunk she’ll give it to you for free!
It guy: Ohhh… I think we’re talking about different things…
Boss: Reeeally?
Bay Area, California
Overheard by: Would get sick of it anyway…
IT guy: I feel for teachers, because it’s not like the good old days when you could take kids under the stairwell and pummel them.
Bush Lake Road
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Overheard by: just trying to finish the day
Technician: We don’t make mistakes. We may create new opportunities and challenges, but we don’t make mistakes.
645 Paper Mill Road
Newark, Delaware
Tech support person solving printing problem: First I'll put his end in her slot, then I'll try putting her end in his slot, and we'll see what happens.
Office
Oregon
[Technicians installing a new system]Technician #1: Ok, well it looks like we need to go up to the ceiling.
Technician #2: I’m going to go up the ladder.
Technician #3: You’re going to go up the ladder?
Technician #1: You’re going to go up the ladder?
Technician #2: I’m going to go up the ladder.
[Technician #2 goes up the ladder and takes some stuff apart]Technician #2: Ok, so I think this one is the heating hose.
Technician #1: That one’s the heating hose?
Technician #2: Yeah, this one’s the heating hose.
Technician #3: Ok, I?m going to activate it. Whoosh.
Technician #2: Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!
[Technician #3 turns it off]Technician #2: Ok, that’s the heating hose.
Enterprise Drive
Oak Brook, Illinois
Techie: You know you’ve been working in a computer store for too long when you go to throw out a piece of paper in the trash and are like, “I’m gonna delete this now!”
119 West 23rd Street
New York, NY
