From when I worked in IT:

-In your ticket, do not give a vague description and a time you want the problem fixed and then expect anything to get fixed. Often times we very much need to work with you directly to understand your problem thoroughly to investigate and fix it thoroughly.

-If you have some weird problem, it might be just as weird to us when we first look at it. We are not omniscient. What we are good at is researching possible fixes, applying them, and measuring the effect they have in actually solving your problem.

-If we didn’t install it, don’t expect we know anything about it. You might really like to install and use Fusion 360 over AutoCAD or something, but that doesn’t mean I know where Fusion 360 is storing its configurations, or that I have a phone number to call to get support from that company as a vendor, or that I have ever troubleshot this application.

-If you’re really nice to us, we might be able to offer you suggestions for problems on personal computers, but sorry, we cant usually touch it, especially if we are outsourced IT. The moment we touch your personal computer it opens us to a shitload of liabilities and it could lose me my job.

-We understand very much that typically the only time you’re talking to us is when you’re mad because some shit is preventing you from working, but we don’t want that either so don’t be mad at us about it, we would prefer you never had to put in a ticket for anything except configuration change requests.

-Pay attention to our recommendations. If we say you have to have your laptop on at a certain time of day weekly for updates, we aren’t just asking for our benefit, we’re asking this because if you ignore it, eventually when you power on your laptop, windows is going to force all those updates to push at once and suddenly you’ll be without your computer when you’re supposed to be doing an important presentation because its going to take 4 hours for a years worth of updates to apply. We have little control over this.

I’m in the museum sector.

Never pick something up to move it until you’ve seen the place where you’re moving the thing and it’s clear of junk.

It’s safer to make two trips instead of one. It’s safer to make three trips instead of two.

The best thing you can do for something old that looks like it’s slowly falling apart is usually to leave it alone.

Tax Accountant in U.S.

You don’t need a CPA (and I say this AS a CPA). Don’t get me wrong, if a CPA’s primary experience is in tax, they will do just fine. But you don’t NEED one. Even if your tax situation is complex. An Enrolled Agent (or EA) goes through a rigorous testing process and is run by the IRS. A CPA also goes through a rigorous testing process but it’s 4 parts and only one is tax. An EA exam is 3 parts and it’s ALL tax. So if your tax situation IS complex I recommend one or the other…but an EA is highly qualified and often times less expensive.

All that said… neither is necessary but make sure your tax preparer is at least certified and either is required to take annual continuing education or does so regardless. Tax laws change all the time. EAs and CPAs have CPE requirements…so if ur preparer isn’t one of those, make sure they’re still learning the new stuff. All a person needs to file another persons tax return is a number called a PTIN and literally anyone can pay a fee and get one.

And if you can handle filing yourself (which the vast majority can easily do, and I would rather they do so because why throw your money away if you don’t have to) the IRS is expanding their guided free file program for 2024 to the whole United States (it was in limited testing for 2023) and many states are expected to sign on so you can get fed and state taxes filed for free. IRS.gov has more info on all that.

Nursing/Psychiatry: here’s what to pack for your friend in the psych hospital!

• T-shirts, logos fine, avoid anything explicit/vulgar
• stretchy pants, no drawstring or that can have the drawstring removed and don’t need a belt
• a sweater without a hood or zipper
• socks
• slide on shoes (no places)
• a puzzle book with more than one type of puzzle
• a book in a genre they like
• a coloring book
• a notebook to write in
• crayons
• a stress ball
• one of those silicone bubble popper toys
• snacks/food that are still sealed or that have one of those doordasher stickers fast food places use sometimes.

DON’T bring:

• anything with long strings or cords
• anything sharp or pointy or made of glass or ceramic
• plastic bags
• bedding/pillows
• anything valuable or sentimental other than maybe a smartphone, and ID

Software Engineer:

Make a junk email for junk signups and accounts, if you can. Don’t accept the cookies. If the product you’re using is free, the information you enter is what’s being sold to someone else.

Ctrl+Shift+Tab reopens the tab you just accidentally closed.

Corporate IT: I see nearly everything you do on your computer. I can see exactly how long what application is open. If I ask you to restart your computer, you don’t, and you somehow get me in front of it, restarting it better not fix it or your next ticket is gonna be low priority no matter what. If you want in with IT, always open a ticket and include as much info as you can clearly convey. Snacks and bribes won’t always work with those of us who are very antisocial.

HVAC: Don’t shut your air vents to give you better heating or cooling in certain rooms/floors. You’re adding pressure to your system and reducing its life. If it’s AC then you’re turning it into a freezer. That’s why doing so freezes the coil, not enough air flow to move the cold air out and keep it from freezing. For heat it literally can overheat the control board frying it since the blower also helps cool the electronics. If you have hot and/or cold rooms (this is normal per floors) ask about adding dampers. Most of the time it’s not possible without major drywall rework and it isn’t cheap. Your builder sucks (basically). A lot of companies won’t quote the work because it can’t be guaranteed. You’re essentially stuck with the crappy design the builder got approved. One potential is minisplits. Again, not cheap per room and not pretty but they will fix your issue.

Can’t imagine this is relevant to a lot of folks here, but corporate event audio visual:

Don’t use the audio visual company that’s “in house” at a hotel. They’re paying nearly 50% commission for the privilege of being there and getting business shunted to them, so only half of what you pay is going to goods or services.

That said, make sure your hotel contract leaves you free to bring in an outside vendor without having to pay too many fees. Cross out any lines related to things like “load in/out liaison,” paying for polytak floor covering, or paying some percentage of your outside AV bill to the in house company. It might help to include a proactive clause like “client will not be charged any fees for bringing in our own audio visual partner”. Include a line that you won’t be required to pay surcharges like “event technical support” which is just a “we’re charging you a fee” fee.

You will still have to pay the in-house AV vendor for any power, internet and rigging. For internet, confirm what your rate will be before signing the contract. We see a lot of cases where they’ll say “the meeting room wifi is discounted (free) if you use us for AV too, but if you don’t it’s $20k” (actual number, and could be even higher) Once you sign without negotiating they’ve got you over a barrel.

If you already have a contract you may be able to mitigate these issues by leaning on your hotel salesperson. Trying to negotiate with the in house AV rep will usually be ineffective (sometimes they’re cool). The hotel is the in-house AV vendor’s number one customer, so if the hotel says they need to do something, they’ll do it. Usually leaning on your hotel salesperson after signing a contract only works if you have some leverage like potential for future business.

IT

Scripting menial tasks isn’t that hard. You can learn basic shit pretty easy. It’s a nice little dopamine hit when you get even something small that works. Make your computer work for you, not against you.

Also, Excel. If you have to use Excel at all in your job, learn the basics of formulas, formatting, and tables. It will take you maybe a day, and your excel shit will look 100x nicer, and work 100x better than whatever the fuck you are doing now.

Tech, specifically AI automation. My LPT is that most services are just using GPT4 in some capacity. Automated workflows are not plug and play, credentials expire, variables change, limits are exceeded, etc. Rather than pay a random company to build and maintain something for you, you can save a shit ton by just hiring someone in-house who knows Zapier or Make and having them build the workflow you need.

I work at a gas station—take note of your damn pump number.

I’m a truck driver.

• You are far safer behind me than in front of me. It can take me over two US football fields (200 yards or roughly 180 meters) to come to a full stop and it takes more distance if my trailer is empty. The average car can stop in half that distance. Most cars turn into tin cans when hit by a rig at 25 mph.
• If you see a number of trucks all moving into the same lane, might consider getting in the same lane, behind us. Odds are pretty good we either saw something in the lane ahead or we heard about something over the CB.
• I can see you playing on your phone while driving. Cops in some states have been known to hitch rides with truck drivers in order to catch distracted drivers.
• Learn zipper merging!

Report dev/data analysis/data engineering: if you think data or a report is wrong tell us exactly what information is wrong, exactly what report/code you ran, exactly what filters you selected, and exactly what you are using to compare that information. Second thing: no we can’t just ”make the data different", we pull the data in the database. If it is “wrong” it is upstream of us, we need to find the root issue.

I’m a philosopher, nothing matters, so stop worrying about it and live your life the way you want to live it.

I work in information security.

Don’t use biometrics to secure your devices. Biometrics are a convenience feature to make it easiest to access your device. Biometrics are NOT security. You can be compelled to unlock your device by having it pointed at your face or your finger forced onto the reader. Don’t do it.

Use 2FA/MFA everywhere you can. If it’s an option, turn it on.

Use a password manager that generates strong passwords and use a different password for every service you use.

Update, update, update. Allow your devices, OSes, and software/applications to update automatically.

Talk to your parents about safe surfing. Tell them that their bank won’t send them an email or text asking them to send personal information. Set a password with your family to identify them if they are in trouble and need help. Tell parents and grandparent not to send you bail money to get you out of jail in Morocco.

Teach your kids that everything they post on the internet is public and permanent. Teach them that if they do something that they think will get them in trouble and sometimes it’s blackmailing them that is better to tell you and ask for help than to give in to the blackmailers.