Tech Overload

It had been one of those weeks from hell! Anna turned down Friday night drinks with the office crew. She usually enjoyed the banter, but her tolerance level for shop talk was absent. She felt she might slug the first person who used a buzzword. She’d heard them all week, and she was done!

The sales team had been in this week, throwing buzzwords around like confetti. Anna gritted her teeth when they talked of leverage, circling back, synergy, and deep dives.

Being a liaison between the sales and the IT teams was a nightmare. Sales often asked the IT department for unrealistic or impossible things.

IT had no patience for the sales folks. They threw around their own jargon, sustainable technology, datafication, cyber security mesh, and AI. Terms that completely flew over the heads of the sales folks.

Anna was exhausted from listening to both sides. She had to interpret for both of them and explain what needed to be done, what could be done, and how quickly it could be accomplished.

The sales team always wanted things, “yesterday.”

IT countered with, “do you want it done fast, or do you want it done right?”

Anna’s role was to help them reach a realistic timeline for the completion of the project.

On the way home, Anna stopped at the market and selected a nice bottle of Pinot Noir, a small wheel of brie, a little blue cheese, Hungarian sausage, mixed olives, water crackers, and cashews. The cashier asked if she was having guests. Anna told him it was just a treat for herself. The clerk smiled and said that self-care was important.

At home, she changed into cozy PJs and poured a glass of wine to enjoy while preparing her personal charcuterie board. Anna set the board and wine on the coffee table and settled in for a night of binge-watching a series. She opened the app and put in her password. She tried again, carefully entering it, but it was rejected.

Frustrated, she unplugged everything, plugged it all back in.She tried again with no luck. Anna knew it was the correct password, but she followed the link to change it. The screen asked her to input her old password which she did. The app said password not found.

Bring trapped in a technology loop from hell was not the way she wanted to spend her night.

She punched the number for the helpline and explained to the mechanical voice what her issue was.

She drank another glass of wine and ate most of the meat and cheese while listening to repetitive acid jazz music, which wasn’t remotely soothing.

Finally, Brett came on the line. She gave him her details.

Brett said, “Oh, I see Anna. Have you tried…”

Anna cut him off. “Yes, Brett, I have already tried all the things you are going to ask me to do, so let’s not waste each other's time.”

Brett hesitated, “Well, okay. Now I’m going to need you to reset your password.”

Anna held back the desire to scream and calmly said. “As I told you and the mechanical voice, I can't reset my password. Your system wants me to enter my old password before I can change it, but it won’t accept my old password. Are we clear on this, Brett?”

“Oh, okay, I can certainly help. I’ll reset your password from here. Do you have a pen and paper handy?” Anna confirmed that she did, so he continued, “Your password is Reset1234! You will be prompted to change it once you sign in.”

Anna thanked him, hung up, and followed his directions. After logging in, she entered a new password. It was unacceptable, she tried another. It was also rejected. A notification popped up that this was her last attempt.

In frustration, she entered, Stuckinhell1! It worked.

She finally pulled up her series, drank the last of the wine, and munched on a few remaining olives.

Twenty minutes later, she was asleep.