Yes, I am being intolerably smug – because I ignored you and saved the project

Nina, a tech support professional, shared a story about a challenging maintenance task at a local government authority's datacenter. During a scheduled maintenance window, she was responsible for organizing the cabling while her boss maintained the server software. The critical moment came when they needed to disconnect the council's WAN, but neither of them noted which port the WAN cable was connected to. After the maintenance, they struggled to restore the WAN connection, leading to a tense situation as the maintenance window was closing.

Nina found a tape labeled "WAN" above one port, but connecting the cable there did not restore the connection. Her boss spent time trying to remember router commands instead of troubleshooting directly. Frustrated, Nina decided to trust her memory and plugged the cable into a different port, which successfully restored the WAN connection almost immediately.

She felt a sense of smugness for having solved the problem despite her boss's earlier instructions against her approach. This incident not only saved the client relationship but also earned her boss's respect for her attention to detail. Nina concluded with a reminder to always check the basics first, as it can save time and prevent larger issues.