Mister Manager’s Got Some Wires Crossed In His Brain

One day, I noticed several large boxes being delivered to our office, and I was soon called into our manager’s office. The boxes turned out to be several thousand dollars worth of smart displays and such that he had seen at some conference and ordered on a whim.

Now that they were here, he wanted the IT group to hook them up.

Me: “Did you let anyone here know of the purchase and impending delivery?”

Manager: “No.”

Me: “Did you confirm that the items were compatible with our systems?”

Manager: “No.”

Me: “Did you ensure that the required peripherals, etc., were included in the order?”

Manager: “No.”

Me: “Do you know that the control room will be out of commission for several days while setup takes place, maybe longer if we have to order additional items?”

Manager: “No.”

After several more questions, he got annoyed and didn’t see why I was being difficult as all we had to do was “run a few wires”.

The system was eventually set up and our go-to phrase for future projects was, “It can’t be that hard; just run some wires.”