The Fag Story

My shift was over at eight today, instead of at midnight. I know it's a little stupid that I work less hours now but I just can't seem to get myself ready to work until midnight anymore. There is something missing. Yeah, like I don't know what it is.

I have a story to tell about a call I had, which I would like to name The Fag Story. So here it goes.

Ring Ring - that's my phone - O, joy, it's a Spanish call.
Me: Thank you for calling the Global Service Desk. My name is Nadia, can I have your name?
Brother: Hi, Nadia. I just talked to you about a ticket. This is Carlos Gutierrez again. (Name has been changed for security purposes)
Me: (o great) O, hi. How can I help you?
Brother: I want to open a ticket. Our internet connection is down in a type II site here in Chile. (If you know me, you know I hate Chileans)
Me: Did you do an ipconfig? (since he was a TSR, I assumed he knew what I was referring to)
Brother: Okay, do you know what a type II site is?
Me: ... Yes... (I think)
Brother: Well, it seems like you don't know.
Me: Ok...
Brother: The enlace is what's not working.
Me: (What the freak is the enlace?) Ok, can I put you on hold?
Brother: Look, all I need is for you to create a ticket, give me the number, the name of the Incident Coordinator and send it to someone who can help me.
Me: Ok... just a second.

Now here I introduce you to the hero of the story. Take a good look.


This is Brent Yamashita. He is one of my supervisors at work. Now let's keep going.

Me: Brent, I don't know what to tell this guy. He wants me to tell him who the IC is and then send it up, but I don't know where.
Brent: Ask him for the server.

So I went back and asked the brother what the server was.

Brother: I don't see why you'd want to know that. I'm telling you is the "enlace" what is not working. The server is just fine. Anyways it is ldsscln001.
Me: Thanks, just a moment.

So I went back to where Brent was, and I gave him the name of the server. He checked it on some monitoring thingy and in fact, the server was having problems. So I went back to inform the brother.

Me: Brother, according to our software, the server is having problems.
Brother: Look, I don't know what you're doing. I am telling you I am right next to the server and it is working just fine. I don't know where you're looking or where you're getting that information from. You are just wasting my time here, trying to do something I am not asking you to do. So why don't you just go and ask one of your supervisors instead of trying to look for problems where there aren't any. Just ask someone that knows, because clearly you don't.

I had never felt so useless in my whole life. I stood up while the brother called me incompetent without really saying it. Brent saw me stand up and came to where I was and asked me what was going on. I tried to answer but I lost my voice for a minute, and when I started explaining, I really felt my voice break, just like it does when I'm about to cry. My eyes started getting wet. And I couldn't talk anymore. I think Brent noticed because he said Here, let me talk to him.

I had never been treated like that before at work, nobody had ever made me feel so bad. Maybe I am not as good as I thought I was. If I can't handle someone yelling at me, then maybe I am not that great. And it was definitely embarrassing that the brother made me cry. O man, I am so stupid. I could have controlled myself. Geez, talk about cheesy.

Brent talked to the guy while I tried to put myself together. After talking to him for a while, Brent turned to me and said: It's OK, Nadia. The guy is a fag. I had never in my life heard Brent say something bad about someone. Whenever I tell him I hate getting calls from missions or FMs or stuff like that, he usually replies with a They are probably having a bad day. I guess that's one of the reasons he is not my first favorite person, because he is too nice. I am not like that. I have my evil side... and believe, it can be really evil at times. But he said the guy was a fag, and I felt maybe I was not crazy or overreacting. Even Dan said something like You are one of the best here, how can he say that? I don't think I'm that great. But it felt reassuring.

Maybe, one of these days, Brent will become my first favorite person...











No, not really.