Tricks of the Trade

Tricks of the Trade from the Morning News shows how various professions have clever occupational secrets. The reporter asked readers to send in secrets from their jobs and he compiled them in this fun list.

I began to wonder what tricks I do with my job. Like the Desktop Support person in the list, I have acronyms for various things. “Error ID-10-T” is one we’ve all been using for years. “FGI” (F-ing Google-It) is a new one that I’d like to use with certain people. Wired magazine has their monthly Jargon Watch list that’s a good source of offbeat words to use in the workplace.

Another trick is when people ask you to fix their home computer, I often act like I don’t know the answer. It’s a tricky maneuver since I don’t want to jeopardize my credibility. With practice, I’ve become quite good at pretending not to know a thing about what’s going on with someone’s home computer; while proficiently fixing very similar problems at work - where I get paid to do it.