Department of Redundancy Department

[chomiji]

And can anyone tell me what "RSVP" stands for? And why I am removing the "please" that everyone keeps inserting before it on the official invitations to events like retirement celebrations?

I am sure that someone is going to call me sometime and ask why I am making the online versions of the invitations less polite. But people, c'mon! It means

Répondez s'il-vous-plaît   (= "Please respond" in French)

And I don't want "Please respond if you please" on my (OK, our) intranet site, thankyouverymuch.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled non-nitpicky life.

Comments

[theloomofmoira.livejournal.com]

--- the way people can simultaneously be buying into "my computer hates me" and "I hate the IT people" is really odd. ---

of course I thought of this quote for you: "People hate to be reminded of ills they are unable or unwilling to remedy: such reminder, in forcing on them a sense of their own incapacity, or a more painful sense of an obligation to make some unpleasant effort, troubles their ease and shakes their self-complacency."

having to admit their weakness (their ignorance), having to admit they need help, makes many people upset with the very ones who would help them; after all, those helpers are the ones who make the ignorance most obvious. but that is no excuse for their behavior...

[chomiji]

Heh, that's quite a quote! (And of course, at first I typed "quite a quite"!) Who said it originally?

I think what disturbed me about that whole scenario was that when I was doing deskside support myself, people were usually very grateful, and I actually have pleasant memories of that part of my career. So I feel squirmy when I think of someone being that petty to someone who's trying to help. (And of course then there's my INFP Defender issue: anytime I hear about someone I like being given a hard time by another person, I want to go kick some butt ... .)

[theloomofmoira.livejournal.com]

that would be Charlotte Bronte, from the book I just finished :)