19 June 2007

So I get a call at my office. I pick up and it’s one of our company’s support personnel.

“Good Morning Kevin, what’s up?”

“Mornin Tom. Listen, i’m going to need you to stop telling people about Firefox.”

“um, excuse me?”

“Yea, we’ve had several calls about getting Firefox installed on people’s machines and we can’t just install it for everyone. I need you to stop telling people it’s better.”

Of all the stupid phone calls and requests I’ve received this has to be a new low in stupidity.

First of all… I’ve never told anyone “use firefox”. I’ve demo’d sites and used firefox. People have asked what i use and I told them. Anyone i’ve told specifically to look at a page in fireox, i’ve installed it on their machine personally and told them not to call support about any questions they might have.

As an support professional, you should WANT to install firefox because there’s a much better chance that browsing WON’T infect the computers for which you are responsible.

I understand the concept of corporate standards and “herding the chickens” and all, but rather than try to gag another person, why not say something like “that’s not something my manager will allow me to spend time on, but you’re more than welcome to install it yourself.

Welcome to corporate America.