deer in the headlights

[kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com]

Does this happen to anybody else? I'm a decent typist, and a fairly
self-confident guy. I'm pretty good at what I do (or just really good at
surviving layoffs - that's admittedly a judgment call).

So why is it that when somebody stands behind me, looking over my
shoulder, and asks me to do something - anything - on my computer, I
freeze up?

Suddenly I'm typing like I have mittens on. My knowledge of my computer's
operating system vanishes. Mouse accuracy plummets.

This response seems completely independent of the task with which I'm
charged. Somebody could say, "Go to this Web site" and reel off a URL, or
they could ask "Can you crank out a couple paragraphs about our
architecture?" and either way, I become Instantly Ineffective Man.

This also has nothing to do with where I stand on the food chain in
relation to the person making the demand/request. It could be my boss, or
a mere developer. <g>

It's weird. Sometimes I'll go so far as to ask them to leave and I'll
e-mail them in 5 minutes. The second they leave the cube, I'm fine. A
virtual Andrew Plato among men. <g> But when somebody's looking over my
shoulder, I just lock up.

Is it just me, or do I have a support group out there?



 - Keith Cronin
_____________________________________

 Tech writers. Chicks dig 'em.


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