Crazy-but-true stories from the tech trenches

Readers share their professional tech experiences in InfoWorld's Off the Record blog

Got amazing or amusing IT tales, lessons learned the hard way, or war stories from the tech trenches? Do you have a crazy-but-true tale about managing IT, developing apps, or supporting users?

These are the questions we ask to get InfoWorld readers thinking about their personal adventures in IT. We then publish those stories in our Off the Record blog, keeping the writer anonymous. In the Comments section, readers react to the "been there, done that" aspect of the stories, and often weigh in with further insights.

[ Want to cash in on your IT experiences? Send your story to offtherecord@infoworld.com. If we publish it, we'll send you a $50 American Express gift cheque. ]

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Got amazing or amusing IT tales, lessons learned the hard way, or war stories from the tech trenches? Do you have a crazy-but-true tale about managing IT, developing apps, or supporting users?

These are the questions we ask to get InfoWorld readers thinking about their personal adventures in IT. We then publish those stories in our Off the Record blog, keeping the writer anonymous. In the Comments section, readers react to the "been there, done that" aspect of the stories, and often weigh in with further insights.

[ Want to cash in on your IT experiences? Send your story to offtherecord@infoworld.com. If we publish it, we'll send you a $50 American Express gift cheque. ]

In April, the collection included a story about an employee's problematic print job that ended up getting her fired and a tech tale about a shockingly mismanaged stock exchange.

We look forward to reading about your own IT experience. Send it to offtherecord@infoworld.com.

• "How to print yourself out of a job": When a techie gets a call for a print job that won't print, he finds a basic error made worse by the user's unprofessional behavior.
• You think your colleagues are bad? See how one company's employees mistreat their computer equipment in "How workers use and abuse company computers."
• In "The mystery of the psychotic printer," a techie turns detective to crack the case of why the warehouse printer sporadically spits out illegible documents.
• An investigation into a customer's high failure rate on computer components uncovers shocking incompetence through the ranks in "When management plays the tech blame game."

This story, "Crazy-but-true stories from the tech trenches," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the continuing craziness of the life in tech in InfoWorld's Off the Record blog.

Read more about adventures in IT in InfoWorld's Adventures in IT Channel.