Every profession will have a Mission Statement of some
description - like a doctors vow to save lives or a Police Officers vow to
protect the public, yet they will also have an 'unwritten' law which they abide
by, kind of like the law which gave the Marines the right to perform a 'Code
Red' in the film "A Few Good Men". Below you will find that
unwritten law that many Tech Support staff live by.
It's a rare insight for Lusers into the motivating factors
for that condescending smile that you can see when your Sys Admins come to fix
your (oh so common) screw ups. For Sys Admins it's a refresher paragraph
to remind you what the company won't allow you to print out and stick to the
wall of your Support Department. Adapted from the Ray Nietzsche Style of
Tech Support, we present for you the Tech Support Staff Manifesto.
Tech Support - Manifesto
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Guidelines:
When a user is calling in need of help, don't forget that he is a weakling.
Only a loser would need to come groveling to you, begging for crumbs of help
that may fall from your godlike lips. And he KNOWS that he is a loser in the
race of the weak and the strong, and that his kind is doomed to extinction.
Therefore, show him no mercy. Treat him with the utter contempt that he deserves. It is the law of nature that you should do so.
Key Phrases:
"You aren't very smart, are you?"
"I can't believe you call yourself a programmer!"
"Our product is obviously too complex and advanced for you. Please desist from using it - you are soiling it."
Nevertheless, there may come a time when you actually must help the user, even though he is sucking away your magnificent intellectual
vitality with his grotesque shambling confusion. He is a lower form of life and you must
make him feel it, lest he take on ambitions of evolving to your level.
Key Phrases:
"Now I will read aloud the section of the manual that you failed to comprehend."
"You have ignominiously blundered on line 35, committing an error that a Mongoloid programming an abacus would be ashamed of."
"What you've done in your function fool is the coding equivalent of failing to empty your colostomy bag."
Alas, upon occasion there comes a time when it is obvious that the compiler is at fault. This is no reason to let the user feel superior to
anyone, however. The design of a compiler is still far beyond his limited mental
capacities.
His duty is to worship, not criticise.
Key Phrases:
"The inner workings of the compiler are far beyond your antlike comprehension."
"That behaviour is described in ANSI specification 21.11.45.7.3.8. You are familiar with that section, I assume..."
"Our software can behave in that manner only if it has been corrupted by long exposure to users of your caliber."
And finally, a user may eventually want you to code something for him, or send him an example. The user has asked something that is
against the laws of nature. Such creatures as himself exist to serve you and not you him.
Therefore such a request is impossible and against nature, and does not exist, and therefore never happened. Response is
not possible.

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...there may come a time when you actually must help the user, even though he is sucking away your magnificent intellectual
vitality with his grotesque shambling confusion. He is a lower form of life and you must
make him feel it, lest he take on ambitions of evolving to your level... |
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