More Info Please

One of my favorite reoccurring moments at work involves people asking me to help fix a problem without giving basic details. For example, a teacher emailing for help with their grade book, might sound something like this, “I have a student in one of my classes whose grade isn’t correct.”

Whatever you do, don’t include the student’s name. I read my student report each morning so I know which one of your 75 students has an incorrect grade. If a student showing a B+ really should be getting an A-, I’ll catch that immediately.

Also, you teach six different classes. Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out eventually. Some other commons examples include, “I’m having trouble emailing a parent” and “my laptop isn’t working.”

So, with mild amusement, I pulled this note off my door this morning:


Since the mysterious note writer could only assume the network might be down, providing their name might have helped since the problem very easily could have involved just their laptop.

Turns out, the network was down, but that’s beside the point.