"I have a maid save all my garbage too ..."
Well, I think we've all heard the story of somebody living out of the Recycle Bin. It's name is rather tame, so some people might be fooled. But storing emails in Outlook's Deleted Items folder? Seriously now, the name alone should tell you something about the folder's purpose.
So, this support call starts rather innocuously. He's from The Other University we support. His problem is his emails are disappearing. My first gut reaction is we set up an auto-archive function and he doesn't know where it's going. But he keeps talking. "And then stuff keeps disappearing out of the Deleted Items folder. And there isn't one in the Archive ..."
At that point, I do something I rarely do: I cut him off to make sure he just said what I think he said. And, yup, he did. He stores his read emails in the Deleted Items. In the garbage can. I try to explain to him that, no, he should not do that, it auto empties and is not backed up. I even use the term "empty the trash" in hopes that he gets the message. Nope. That's not The Way It's Been Done. "When I was in Chicago, they had it set up so I had a Deleted Items folder in my archive. How can we do that so I don't have to 'make a folder and store my emails there' manually?" Somebody actually did that for you? Please, tell me his name so I can kill him. Again, I tell him no, we don't back up your garbage can and if you want to save anything, you have to not put it in the trash.
Sadly, this is not the answer he wants to hear. So he shows the bare minimum amount of gratitude social standards demand and hangs up. He will probably be calling his boss to complain. But, that's pretty par for the course when dealing with the Other university; for all their alphabet soup following their names, their inability to follow simple logic like "don't put things you want to keep in the trash" or "don't pour wine on your laptop" astounds me.
As an aside, yes, I'm no longer super-sick; I'm just a bit stuffed up, mildly headached, but no longer contagious and woozy. Yay me.
So, this support call starts rather innocuously. He's from The Other University we support. His problem is his emails are disappearing. My first gut reaction is we set up an auto-archive function and he doesn't know where it's going. But he keeps talking. "And then stuff keeps disappearing out of the Deleted Items folder. And there isn't one in the Archive ..."
At that point, I do something I rarely do: I cut him off to make sure he just said what I think he said. And, yup, he did. He stores his read emails in the Deleted Items. In the garbage can. I try to explain to him that, no, he should not do that, it auto empties and is not backed up. I even use the term "empty the trash" in hopes that he gets the message. Nope. That's not The Way It's Been Done. "When I was in Chicago, they had it set up so I had a Deleted Items folder in my archive. How can we do that so I don't have to 'make a folder and store my emails there' manually?" Somebody actually did that for you? Please, tell me his name so I can kill him. Again, I tell him no, we don't back up your garbage can and if you want to save anything, you have to not put it in the trash.
Sadly, this is not the answer he wants to hear. So he shows the bare minimum amount of gratitude social standards demand and hangs up. He will probably be calling his boss to complain. But, that's pretty par for the course when dealing with the Other university; for all their alphabet soup following their names, their inability to follow simple logic like "don't put things you want to keep in the trash" or "don't pour wine on your laptop" astounds me.
As an aside, yes, I'm no longer super-sick; I'm just a bit stuffed up, mildly headached, but no longer contagious and woozy. Yay me.