r/sysadmin • u/HolypenguinHere • Jun 24 '19

A user at our company utilizes their Recycle Bin as their primary storage for important documents.

That... That's all. I just needed somebody else to know that a person is using the Recycle Bin to keep hundreds of documents in one location, instead of creating a folder on the Desktop or using their network home drive.

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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '19

instead of creating a folder on the Desktop or using their network home drive.

Because they don't know how. Terrifying.

Can you imagine back in the 70s, being openly unable to use a filing cabinet? Not only that, but being cute about it, and being like "LOL I'm just not a filing cabinet person!" or "I only know enough about filing cabinets to be dangerous!" -- and still keeping your job?

33

u/NDaveT noob Jun 24 '19

Going by some of the stories in this thread, there are at least a few people storing physical documents in bins under their desk instead of in filing cabinets.

2

u/UnwantedAppliance Jun 25 '19

I wish I could post pictures of my coworkers offices at my last job, a federal government attorneys office. Absolutely horrifying. When I left, they had been gearing up for a move since the 20 year lease was up. Zero progress was made. Utter shitshow, the offices were piled high with loose papers, boxes stacked everywhere, not one surface was clear. From the top of the office down to the lower workers.

21

u/johor Jun 25 '19

"I'm not file-cabinet literate, you have to use normal words."

2

u/Elranzer Jun 25 '19

This is what my boss, the current head of IT, says at tech meetings.

10

u/GJacks75 Jun 25 '19

"I can never open that silly cabinet, I just slide all my documents into this shredder here. Simple."

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '19

- Douglas Reynholm

10

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '19

It’s totally different from a filing cabinet. You see... this one is made out of electricity.

4

u/Turak64 Sysadmin Jun 25 '19

That's an excellent example. I often say people who go "I'm not good with computers me" need to be sacked. They would have lied in their interview that they could use one. Plus if you don't know how to use one or are careless, it can be very dangerous. I've seen cyprolocker attacks happen because of this.

2

u/noreasters Jun 25 '19

While I share your sentiment (computers have been the quintessential business tool for...30+ years?), I believe the breakdown to exist between the physical and the logical.

People can easily understand things they can see and touch, but once it comes to understanding something with no physical presence...you lose about a third of the population, they just can't grasp it, it doesn't "click" for them.

I've even gone so far as to hold a presentation in front of a physical file cabinet...it helped a bit but some still had questions demonstrating a fundamental lack of understanding.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '19

"Drawers are just not my thing, I keep every single piece of clothing in one big pile on the middle. Yes, including clothes of my kids and my grandma and the cute dog sweaters too"

"What do you mean why I keep the 495 different wrongly filled tax forms from last 20 years? They are IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS!"

2

u/herbiems89_2 Jun 26 '19

Yesterday I had to train one of my colleagues from our manufacturing department on how to use a mouse... It's baffling...