My idiot co-worker (who I've successfully avoided bitching about thus far) raised another one of his inane complaints the other day, this time not to do with the software. Apparently the fan on my PC case is disturbing the dust on his desk and making him sneeze more than usual, and could I do something about it. As we work in a Quasi Autonomous Non Government Organisation and they have all the usual touchy-feely workplace practices in place, I thought I'd email the Helpdesk Manager about it, given that he's the one you go to for ergonomic chairs, keyboards, mouses, etc.
G'day L*****,
I've had a complaint from one of my colleagues that the case fan arrangement on my PC is disturbing the dust on their desk and causing respiratory difficulty. A quick survey of the PCs around indicates that mine is the only PC which presents this issue, and must be due to it being a faster/hotter running configuration.
The co-worker in question would like something to be done about this, so I thought I'd ask you. One attempt made by us involved introducing a plastic binder to the inter-desk crevice to occlude the direct airflow, however this caused the plastic on the binder to heat up and became a fire risk, as well as producing a smell which was equally unpleasant to my colleague.
My immediate suggestion was to procure some 3″-4″ ducting hose with which to redirect the air off the side of the table. There's some on eBay, here.
Are you able to suggest & implement a solution ?
Thanks,
Jason
He appeared in about 45 seconds, wanting to know what it was all about, and when I explained it in English he rolled his eyes and said I should just put my PC on the floor. When I suggested that would be a Bad Idea (the best way to harvest loads of dust and fluff and jam it into your PC case is to put it on the floor), he sorta shrugged his shoulders and said “Well you take care of it”, and walked off.
I've spent most of the morning moving my PC about, lining all the cables up into the cabling duct under the desk, and now have a generally superior setup to before – at the expense of half a day's coding.
Shaun, the Oracle Guru from the other end of the floor, wandered by and wanted to know what all the activity was about, so I explained about my colleague's delicate sinuses, and the distress the situation was causing. Shaun's reply was quite succinct:
“I'd have told him to f*ck off”.