When someone refuses to listen, it doesn’t matter how clear the instructions are.

What would you do if you got a late-night emergency call and the manager could not identify a bright red device sitting right in front of them?

Would you keep repeating yourself? Or would you ask to speak with someone nearby?

In the following story, one IT worker finds himself in this situation and realizes the dishwasher would be more help. Here’s the story.

Know your colors.

This happened while I was working for a 24/hr restaurant chain in the Pacific Northwest many years ago. We would get overnight pages when something critical was down, so I returned a 2 am call.

Manager: “So our network is down, and I can’t run credit cards.”

Me: “Oh, I see your watchguard is down.”

He tried to explain what it looked like.

Manager: “Should I know what that is?”

Me: “It is the device that manages your connection to the web. It may just need to be rebooted. Simple fix. Reboot it now.”

Manager: “Ah, I don’t know what is what here!”

Me: “It is simple, it is a red box on your shelf right above where you sit in the office.”

The manager still wasn’t getting it.

Manager……

Me: “On the shelf, it is a fully red box, says Watchguard on it.”

Manager: “Ah… I don’t get it.”

Me: “RED box… You don’t get it?”

Frustrated, he asked to speak to the dishwasher.

Manager: “I don’t know tech terms. I am a manager at a restaurant.”

Me: “Can I talk to the dishwasher?”

The manager hands over the phone to the Dishwasher

Dishwasher: “Yeah?”

Within minutes, everything was back up and running.

Me: “Can you reboot the Watchguard? It is a red box on …..”

Dishwasher: “Done.”

Location was back up in 3 minutes.

I guess I should have said “Watchguard – in color #FF0000.” What was I thinking?

Eek! Sounds like the manager stopped thinking too soon.

Let’s check out how the readers over at Reddit relate to this situation.

This reader can relate.

They probably did.

Yet another person who gets it.

It’s very possible.

At least it was easy.

And the good news is that the manager will know what it is next time.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.