"All I wanna do, is have some IT Fun"...

..."I get the feeling, I'm not the only one" sung of course to Sheryl Crow's "All I wanna do".

But hopefully you get the picture. Everyday we crank out the IT grind. Then there's that special someone who deserves the extra special IT attention. They are just asking for it. You know who "they" are. So we in IT like to mess with them a little sometimes. : )

Maybe it's because they left us a zillion voicemails about the "server" (the term non-IT people use for anything that's broken in the chain) being down. Or "My Netscape doesn't work".
You get what I'm saying.

So over the years, there are just some tried and true fun goodies to help share with our special "customers" when we like to give them some attention right back.

I won't let the whole cat out of the bag, but here is a couple of my fav's:

- Loop all email back to sender so they get back every email they send (put in their inbox) without it ever going out. Guaranteed to get you at least 10 "help!" voicemails.

- Change the users voicemail password, and of course the OGM, so they have no control over what incoming users hear, or are saying. For a while at least. Careful, this one has gotten me fired before. But I laughed my ass off.

- Change access rights to users home directory so they cant see it, change it or access it at all.
Then say "Huh, I don't know, seemed to be working yesterday", a little taste of the users speak right back at em. Stall as long as you can, at least until your boss get's involved, then exclaim, "I guess the server was down" "we rebooted it" "should be good now". Then quickly find something else to do.

- Have a little VoIP fun with that special user. Config Follow me calling to do just that. At every number they own or have access to, set to one ring. I once looped calls to a real butthead VP to his desk, home, cell, vacation home, wifes cell, girlfriends cell, kids cell, oh man was it fun. That one got me fired once too.

Anyway, now for the disclaimer. I, Steve Chappell, in no way endorse or state that these above activities are in anyway safe to your own personal welfare. In fact, some state and federal agency IT folk may want to not take anything I say for reality. It's just fun. Well until you get canned.