Why You Never Ask the Designers For a Favor

Usually there is nothing funny about a missing pet, but the tale of Missy the lost cat is hilarious. It serves as an example of just how clueless your fellow employees can be, and why you should never ask the designers to drop what they're doing, and help with a personal matter.

Comments

What a dick

[Anonymous Coward]

While that is decidedly fake, it's also an excellent example of someone being a complete fucking dick.

Captcha: ethical.

The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[Gordonjcp]

Look at his first reply, about the cat possibly being lying injured somewhere - what a pointlessy cruel and horrible thing to say. The owner of the cat is most likely upset enough without this moron winding her up with a comment along the lines of "oh hahaha isn't it funny, your cat is probably lying hurt and needing help lol". No, it's not funny.
I get the idea that he's trying to hit back at people trying to "waste his time" by asking him to do freebies. So, why did he waste over a day tormenting the owner of the missing cat?

What a noxious little prick.

Re:The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[Surt]

Yeah, definite asshat of the year nominee. Here's how a human being responds:

Option 1:
I'm sorry, I don't have time today, there is a client presentation due. I hope you find your cat.

Option 2:
Creates appropriate poster to help fellow human being.

Asshat response:
Spends time more than sufficient to help fellow human being instead acting like an asshat.

Re:The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[Anonymous Coward]

So, why did he waste over a day tormenting the owner of the missing cat?

Its a fucking cat.

She could have easily made her own poster at the copy shop/photocopier she was going to use anyway.

He should have done a poster showing how Missy might look now after being run over, made into chineese food, mangled by a stray dog etc.

Re:The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[Anonymous Coward]

I get the idea that he's trying to hit back at people trying to "waste his time" by asking him to do freebies. So, why did he waste over a day tormenting the owner of the missing cat?

For every minute of my time you waste, I'll waste 3 times that amount of yours. People will fuck off and leave you alone in short order once they realize you are wasting their time. Problem here is that the woman was too daft to realize it. In his shoes, would you have done anything different? No, you wouldn't have. Its human nature to push a joke if the other person is too daft to realize its a joke in the first place.

This is likely a case of some woman who does nothing but text, check Facebook and stare blankly at a screen all day asking someone who is actually trying to do work to do something she should have been able to bang together in 5 minutes with MS Word. She deserved to have her time wasted, missing cat or otherwise.

This man is a hero, and I hope he continues his good work. Someday, idiots will learn to do things for themselves... someday...

Re:The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[epp_b]

Yep I never understood the point of this other than pointless cruelty.

Because it's not pointless cruelty, it's a rather... extended manner of telling people that his skills aren't worthless. People (particularly businesspeople) are to quick to assume that artistic work is simple and worthless (fun fact: simplicity and minimalism are more difficult than complexity).

You're paying for the talent and skill I've been developing since birth, not necessarily just my time. Just like I pay you a cut for the talent and skill for business and networking that you've been developing since birth, regardless of whether the sale took a minute or a week. By the way, do mind you selling my livingroom furniture for me? Oh, yeah, can do it for free? You're a businessperson, so it'll be be easy for you!

I love this guy's site. It's comedy gold.

Re:The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[JakiChan]

Can I make up a funny story about the owner of that website getting cancer and slowly dying in agony? I think that would be very funny.

Re:The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[LearnToSpell]

Sure, that's the beauty of both the internet and humour. If you think it would be very funny, some other people might too.

Re:The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[jeffmeden]

Can I make up a funny story about the owner of that website getting cancer and slowly dying in agony? I think that would be very funny.

Post a link! I will read it. But it better be funny, or tomorrow you just might find a satirical blog post about a certain jerk who criticized another jerk and then couldn't back his claims up.

Re:The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[soliptic]

No, really it's not being nasty for its own sake. It's being nasty for the sake of humour. This is FICTION. Satire, comedy, sketch, vignette, etc.

You might not find it funny, which is fair enough, but at least file the author under "bad comic" instead of "cruel sociopath".

Re:The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[Nursie]

I get that all the time. I either explain I'm a programmer and don't really deal with that sort of stuff, or I give them a hand if it's something simple and I have the time.

There's no need to be a dick about it.

Re:The guy is a nasty, vicious idiot.

[flappinbooger]

"or: You are in IT right ? can you fix my computer for me please ?"

As with anything, it depends. Helping someone with a computer problem, when you "know what you are doing" and do it every day (such as, for money), can bring pain.

Yes, it is always nice to help people. Certainly. It is better to give than receive.

That said, there are some people that you just should NOT help. There are people that are annoying to you regardless, or people that are simply needy. These people will absolutely suck the life out of you, and if you help them with their computer then you become the source of every answer to every question, and if anything looks, sounds, smells, or feels "strange" then you get called at all hours of the day and night, and emails regarding the strange appearance, sound, smell or feel. And, when you mentally refuse to answer said email or phone message for any amount of time, as a method of sanity retention, then the emails and phone calls become blatantly passive-aggressive, containing such off-handed comments as "I know you're really busy and your time is valuable, but I was wondering if you might know why my computer takes so long to reboot on tuesdays when it's raining, but not on wednesdays, and not when it's sunny, but especially that one day when I was standing on one foot and my cat was outside looking in the side window it just took forever. Any ideas?"

Or, "I know you told me to use XYZ antivirus and even though I haven't had any problems I see a review on some obscure website about abc antivirus which comes with total-uber-super-fixit-suite and I want to put it on, and my mouse is hovering over the download button right now and I need you to tell me if this program is good, and I have lots to do but my life can't continue unless you answer my question right now because I need to know whether to download this program. I've emailed ten other people the same question but none of them will answer me anymore so I know your time is valuable, can you answer my question? Please?"

The problem is, you don't necessarily know whether the person will end up being a valuable client, or will be a nightmare. I've had people ask me if they can "watch" me fix their computer, and I've begun telling them that it will cost more because it will take longer. That said, I value my clients and I am definitely patient even with annoying customers. You know why? Because deep down they know they are annoying and if you are patient with them, they will know they can trust you and you will, eventually, usually, develop a good customer that appreciates your patience with them.

Re:what a fucking douche

[TheKidWho]

Sorry but his replies were priceless.

It's a joke!

[91degrees]

People who are taking this seriously - Do you really believe that someone snowed under with work would spend so long composing email responses, or spend so much of his time putting together silly posters?

Do you really think that the woman asking wouldn't have got the hint and done it herself? Or even if she didn't, she might have talked to someone else who would have explained things?

Re:It's a joke!

[Divide By Zero]

What, next thing you're going to tell me is the Bastard Operator from Hell never existed! Bollocks! Hogwash! I refuse to believe it, Fellow Internetizen.

Re:what a fucking douche

[EdZ]

Or if the loss of your pet is that important, and making a poster is so simple, you could do it yourself, perhaps?

Re:what a fucking douche

[Anonymous Coward]

What a fucking douchebag,

I couldn't agree more. The only thing I find funny about him is knowing people would likely stand in line, in the cold rain, for a chance to punch that idiot in the face.

Now that's funny!

Fiction?

[oldmac31310]

I assumed that this was fiction based on the kind of things that do happen in real life and then exaggerated to humourous effect. Are we supposed to think this really happened and that the Thorne guy really delights in being so nasty to stupid people? Who in reality would waste so much time on something like this?

Re:Meh

[Darinbob]

No, in this fictional story, the asshat is clearly the villain of the piece.

When I first read it awhile back, that's what I thought was the intent. The "haha, let's make fun of the idiot graphical designer" story sort of fell apart when I read his other stories, which seemed to be more about "I'll prove how cool I am by pranking other people."