It’s the early 1990s, and this pilot fish at a big computer manufacturer is the only field service rep in the office when a customer call comes in.

“You need to go to this hospital and fix their Big Machine,” says boss — knowing full well that fish hasn’t been trained on the Big Machine, having asked for the course and been denied.

“We have to meet the SLA, so just go and see what you can do,” boss continues. “The help desk can talk you through it. You should be fine.”

Fish arrives at the hospital’s computer room, where he finds the Big Machine — it sounds like a small jet with its fans running. The hospital staffer escorting fish tells him, “Please don’t take the system down. It’s mostly working and we can schedule down time for later if necessary.”

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