Monday, September 24, 2007

So You Think You're Crazy!?!?!?

After 4.5 years of hard work I have finally made my way into the University Common Computing- Student Worker Book of Legends. My story will be passed on down through generations of young students as they sit around and wait for a productive moment. Yes, I will be remembered along side the guy who was arrested for unseemly behavior while viewing unseemly material on the internet, and the idiot student who gave himself a serious concussion against the marble counters the night he lost his senior project. After all the times that I have passed these stories onto my young trainees, I now have a story of my own.
Tonight, as I sat planning my lesson on atomic structure for Wednesday, a woman in her 40s (at least) approached a new TC (technology consultant, as we're called) and demanded to see his supervisor. He pointed to me and she demanded to see my supervisor. No background on her problem or a request for help, just a very abrupt, "Who's your supervisor?" Taken aback by her, rather, aggressive tone I stumbled over his name for a moment. "Uh, uh, Jared..."
"Where is he? I want to talk to him." I began to suspect that she was likely to come over the counter at me.
"He's out on a tech call. Is there something I can help you with?"
"I want to talk to him, what's his number?" I took this to mean that she wanted his cell phone number.
"I can't give you that number, but perhaps..."
"Then I want the building number."
"We don't have one." We honestly don't. Each office, cubicle and support center has it's own and there is no central number.
"There's no number for this building at all? I want the help desk, give me the number."
"Ok, but the help desk has been out sourced to an off campus location." Her anger was beginning to rattle me, so I was fumbling a bit as I searched for paper and a pen. Both of these items were right in front of me, but I didn't see them right away.
"I want the number, right now. I pay tuition here. Get the number. Ten seconds, or I'll call the police!" That stopped me dead. All I could do was stare at her. I wasn't sure what to think. Would she really do it? Was she out of her mind? At the same time I was thinking what a waste it would be to use an entire sheet of paper for one phone number, and maybe I should call campus police myself. Seriously, this lady was some kind of lunatic!
"One," she began counting as if I was an unruly 5 year-old, "two..." Somewhere between 2 and 3 she lost interest and stormed off with her bags swinging behind her.
A few minutes later, a coworker of this crazy lady came up and apologized to us for her behavior. Evidently, she fell off the crazy train some weeks ago and has been having these outbursts at everyone, including her boss. He assured us that the cop thing was an empty threat. I am beginning to wonder if there isn't some kind of a drug issue with this woman. I understand that radical personality changes can be a sign of drug abuse. This lady was so nuts, she makes me look sane.

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