Clients and Clues

VSarkiss on 2004-09-21T19:06:05

I've always said that, as a consultant, it's my job to help the clueless. Complaining about them is like a doctor complaining about seeing sick people all the time. But some clients -- well, some people at some clients -- make it very hard to stay quiet

Case in point: Outside of my main taks, I've been asked to help a particular individual who seems to be completely lost. I'm not talking lack of technical knowledge, but lack of plain common sense. A typical exchange this morning, as he walked up to my desk:

Client: "I just emailed you copies of those spreadsheets."
Me: "Oh, ok."
Client: "They should show up in your inbox soon."
Me: "The output from the programs we ran yesterday?"
Client: "Yeah."
Me: "Does the email say what they are?"
Client: "Oh, yeah."
Me: "Anything I need to do with them?"
Client: "No, I don't think so."
Me: "Um..." *blink*

He emailed me documents I don't need, that I would see in a couple of moments in my inbox anyway, and then walked over to tell me about them.... And they wonder why he's not getting his job done.


He's just...

jdavidboyd on 2004-09-23T15:51:30

being careful to make off-site backups of his data!