How To Lose Friends And Infuriate People

Today a guy from work in the same Project Management role as me but for a different project from the same government fund, asked whether I'd like to grab a coffee in the Staffroom and talk some shop. I dutifully agreed even though networking is possibly my least favourite part of my job.

After talking about where we were both at with our projects and reporting etc etc blah blah, the topic swung around to other education related chit chat. That is where things went downhill for both of us. The conversation went a little like this:

Me: So you didn't go to [Insert name of the conference I recently sweated blood to organise]?
Him: No, I was at [Insert name of another education related conference that happened to be on at the same time]
Me: Oh, right. Was it good?
Him: Yeah, it was. I hear it was better than [Insert name of the conference I sweated blood to organise]
Me: {pregnant pause while I imagine his head exploding}. Mmmm. Really....
Him: I am supposed to be using [Insert name of the software that my conference was about and the system I have been working with for the past 2 years and pretty much know inside and out] for my project pages but I am really new to it. Are you familiar with it?
Me: Yeah, I know it pretty well...
Him: Oh good, perhaps you could give me a hand sometime, show me some tricks?
Me: {pauses again as she imagines the sweet revenge that could be had here} Sure thing! Just give me a call.

I can see it now....

"Oh no, you can safely delete anything whenever you like...even if you think you'll use it again. You see there is a special archive area where you can retrieve anything you've ever deleted....I'll show you that tomorrow. That silly little configuration setting? Nah, you don't need that, that warning is a bug. Been there forever it's so annoying. Oh and if in doubt use your web browser Back button as much as you can...especially after typing a really long message...after all, you wouldn't want to lose any of your work."

Do your research dude.