It’s incredible how a bad attitude can affect others.

For the past week or so, I’ve been unable to connect to the University’s wireless network. I took my Mac to the computer help desk, and was told that yes, it was a known issue with Macs running Leopard. They would look into it.

I went back again today to see if they had figured out what was up. Nope. No luck. The chief technician had been given a Mac and told to sort it out. There was no timescale given

Going across the road to the Info Commons, I figured that if this was a common problem here at uni, it was probably a common problem on other wireless networks, and thus there must be some info about it on the Apple website.

Off to the website I go, and sure enough, within a couple of minutes I find the answer. It was that security update we had earlier in the week.

The solution? Restart your Mac in Safe mode (shift and power), then, once it’s restarted restart it again in normal mode and Hey Presto! It will work. And Hey Presto! It worked!

Naturally, I was quite happy to have found this out, so off I skip to the computer help desk to tell them what the answer to the problem was. They could then tell everyone else what to do.

I thought they might be pleased …boy was I wrong. As I have since found out, there is an attitude amongst staff there that no-one knows better than them. No-one can tell them the answers to anything, they have to be all patriarchal, never questioned, only obeyed.

“Back so soon?” said the receptionist. I explained what the situation was; “oooh, well done! Go on through and talk to the technician”. So I went on through to the next room, and started to explain why I was there.

The moment I mentioned that I’d found a fix I was pushed firmly by the shoulder back out through the doorway and told to wait. I took a seat. When the technician came back I started to explain what I’d discovered – he refused the look at me, but instead turned so that he was facing the far wall, ignoring me completely!

I finished the explanation. His reponse?

“Yeah, we know all that. Who’s next?”

The receptionist smiled an apologetic smile.

I must admit I was pretty thrown by his attitude. It was upsetting. I guess blogging about it here is part of dealing with it.

Why do people have to be like that? Does it make him feel better to treat people with such disrespect? I doubt it. I guess he felt threatened by me in some way – might have been the blue wooly hat.

Ho hum.

Anyway, it’s another busy day so I’d best get on. Next stop is the Sheffield Graduate Award intro session. The idea behind this award is to recognise students for what they do outside the classroom. I’m told that if you’ve done a year abroad you’re well on the way to getting it, and my work for CILASS and with Japan soc will also feed into it nicely.

I hope they have tea and biscuits.

xxx