That's twice!

Priceless!

I will probably get sued or something for repeating this further demonstration of techie ineptitude, but...

DBH and another colleague are in charge of the school timetable. It's a huge business, with almost 200 hundred staff and 4 separate schools, each with their own timetables, also tennis and swimming coaching.

The Headmaster for reasons unknown at 9.30 last night deleted what took my husband 4 weeks out of his summer holiday to do. DBH and colleague cannot get it back, despite considerable IT skills, a support team has been called in and I am not expecting him home tonight - although he still has to teach... So far it looks as if they will have to start afresh, because the new system the Head insisted they change to doesn't do backups in the same way.

So many questions. What was the Head wanting to do, why didn't he ask DBH to do it for him, why does he have access to changing the timetable at all in the first place?

I do hope he isn't allowed the password in future. I want to go in and slap him, because he has probably ruined next weekend, which was all booked up.

That is awful janerowena. Was there no copy made on a disk or maybe not possible - I always like a hard copy in my hot little hand! I hope they get some help with redoing it.

No, it wasn't possible. They didn't want to change the system, but were forced into it and now are paying the price. It's one of those things where the system is good for school reports and attendances and so on, so the non-techie teachers love it (ie the Head) but rubbish for timetabling.

There are Headteachers who demonstrate the Peter Principle beautifully! He is obviously one of them

I wouldn't mind so much if I thought he would get any thanks, but he won't. How he can politely ask that the Head not be allowed to access the files in future is going to be tricky.

It sounds as though the head needs to "go on a course" before he is let loose on the computer again! I would say that your husband would be fully justifed in telling the head what he thinks of his interference, politely or otherwise. Four weeks of work has to be repeated.

Timetable organisation is a highly skilled operation, even with the computer. My father used to do it years ago with just pencil and paper. Inevitably, after he had it all sorted out, someone would appear with something they wanted to get changed "Could you just shift X from Tuesday to Thursday . . ."

I know - and he has had a huge staff changeover this year. Much of it fairly last-minute. He started work a full week before anyone else. It looks as if the company that runs the programme have full authority from their end, and can probably get back to how it was sometime during that week, so not quite as bad as he thought, but he is very much looking forward to venting! The Head is a bit sneaky. I don't like him.

On a slightly connected note to original post, well it's reminded me anyway, I am finding that each of my friends and acquaintances prefer a different bit of technology to communicate! So to get a reply I have to remember to text one, Facebook message another, email another, and so on! Does anyone else have this problem!

Sense of duty overdrive. Your DH should throw a wobbly and have a 24 hour virus. I knew someone who used to do that and she was treated with kid gloves and enormous respect because the Head was frequently reminded that tho' the school could function without him, it couldn't function without her.

No chance, his mother and aunt and great-aunts were all teachers, the other side are all Forces. He has Duty written somewhere in his DNA.

That's terrible janerowena. Surely he shouldn't have had access?

Yes Starling I do indeed have many friends that all like to communicate in a different way and I have to then remember and it drives me crazy.

DH assures me that it should be possible to run a data recovery programme to retrieve it all.

A big relief to know it is likely to be recoverable.

Out of interest, I wonder what Head Teacher had to say for himself.

roses glad it's not just me!

Yes, it is recoverable, it was recovered back to only a few days back. I keep being asked why it isn't taken off and backed up separately, but of course there's too much private stuff on there so all work has to be done within the system.

The Head didn't turn up to the meeting... How awful is that, he should have apologised. DBH is going to do some sleuthing today and see if anyone knows what on earth he thought he was doing. So only a few modifications will have to be made, late additions to the part-time staff and things. It still means late nights for a couple of nights, though. At least I can stop panicking about next weekend.

Yes, Starling, I know exactly what you mean. In fact I find it really hard now when I have friends who don't have a mobile or email. Yesterday evening I was with someone painstakingly writing down everything I told her in an ancient Filofax, I had to wait for her to keep up and it was so slow.... I just so wanted to send an email!

This brings back memories of when my dad who was a headmaster compiled the school timetable in the summer holidays. He had a board and lots of different coloured little cards depicting subjects which he slotted into it and rooms were along one side and teachers names on another. Then one day a child - not me!!!!! - thought it would be a good plaything.

I don't remember exactly what dad said..............

Last night I gave in and went back to WI (they drive me potty but we don't want it to die out before we are old enough to fully appreciate it) and offered to set up an emailing system for the third of the members who use it, so that I could send out all the information from the 20 zillion sheets of paper that get passed around for us all to sign, all in one go.

'Wonderful!' said our chairwoman. 'But you must let us reimburse you for the paper and ink that you use. You must have a very good camera. I must come down to you and you can show me how to do it.'

I just left it there.

I take it that the chairwoman is not one of those who will be receiving emails?

I can only imagine that is why our branch is the only one in the area that never seems to get its news into the magazine. One of my friends is dealing with that one.

The chairman is only really quite young, in her early 60s. She deals with computers, but for work only to deal with customer complaints, nothing else. The local offices run techie drop-ins, but as yet no-one from our branch seems to wish to attend.

Also, by the time we receive those sign-up sheets - the things we could go to are out of date! We met last night, and of course all the things like archery and going around a Quaker meeting house were in the first few days.

Do you have a secretary as well as a chairwoman? Sending round those sheets of info is more a secretary's job - and if you can find one who can use a computer properly you might get it in time.

Would that go down like a lead balloon with a chairwoman who likes to be in charge of it all?