free glitter pens for all who actually take the time to read this... i'm pretty close to having a nervous breakdown here

where you're at work... you get given a lot of work, you think "sure i can handle this, i mean either way it has to be done, doesnt it? There are only 2 other people in the entire company who can handle stuff like this so sure i'll pitch in.

just put yourself in my shoes for a moment... i'll leave out a lot of the computer jargon but rest assured it's quite complicated when you are 1 out of 3 people on an internal computer help desk support team for a company comprising 150+ people.

Then things go downhill from there.

One of the other people who you rely on decides that he's going to go on holidays for 3 weeks, leaving you solely responsible with his workload. Then despite the fact that nothing has actually caused it, about 10 of the companie's resources go down.

For example: your boss has a wicked idea to make a solution because a department is having problems. his "solution" only creates more problems, he has no idea how to fix it. then random things start happening all over the building at once - 3 people's entire email accounts go missing, your boss is the only person who may know anything about this, however you can't talk to him because he's too busy trying to fix his first problem.

You have recently been approved by the company director to spend approx $3000 of the company's money. not terribly much given the amount that they make and the fact that they give you shit all of it despite what you do. you buy a laptop computer for him. after spending 1.5 hours in traffic to pick up said laptop you start configuring it for the company's network, give the boss all his old files etc etc.

The laptop fucks up beyond belief. you format/fix. it fucks up again. whilst attempting to fix up this little box you call the company who sold it to you and complain. you agree that you will call them back tomorrow (mainly coz you're far too stressed to be thinking about this)

Then comes a phone call. some of the people upstairs need a 3rd party or generic account to be set up on a machine, this is no problem. however the email and network access for that machine are not working properly due to the way that the account was originally set up. you make all the necessary adjustments that you can think of, none work, you try one other thing, they say they'll get back to you. now you think to yourself - "wow, theres a lot of shit going on right here" in the time that you spent thinking that while sucking down a cigarette so fast that it would make Krusty the Klown blush, you receive approximately 8 voicemail messages. the people at the other site (which you are taking care of now because some old bastard decided to go on holiday) are having "problems"

"problems" can be described as pissweak insignificant minor issues which you personally can't be fucked dealing with:

"my mouse isn't clean" <-do it yourself
"can you please add this email account to my list" <-referral to someone else who can
"when are you going to get round to importing all my old emails back to my account" <- this is where i shit myself. i was in charge of migrating an entire call centre's old mailboxes to the new site. i did this however 1 person was away on jury duty when i was meant to do this. her old email was on a hard disk which is now being used by my boss in his new "solution" ~ no doubt it has been formatted, and to top things off it appears that my boss has deleted several people's email accounts from the server due to the fact that they "weren't being used any more". My account, and 2 other people's accounts were moved to a new server and now they have gone completely AWOL. now i have no email access where i can bitch to my friends about my day or simply say the word "urgle". A member of the management department's email was not copied from the old machine, and is most likely gone forever which will need to be restored by a backup which will take at least a few days to do.

I am onto my 4th attempt on this laptop, and whilst it takes a lot of things to make my mind snap (and i mean a LOT), i think i have gotten to the point of this day where i could not give a shit any more. hence why i have just spent about 10-15 minutes of my morning having quite possibly the biggest rant of my life.

it is now 11.03am and i have been here for 2 hours, 3 minutes. I am down to my last 2 cigarettes.

how the hell am i going to find a way to cope with the remaining 7+ hours????