Keyboard joy
I used to work for a major high-street bank and my final 18 months was spent as a network administrator within one of its departments. One day I answered a call from one of the clerks who reported a problem with his keyboard, specifically that he couldn't get pound signs to appear. Aha, thought I - he's got his keyboard set to "English - US" or something, so I went to help.

When I arrived at his desk I asked him to show me the problem so I could confirm my suspicions. "Well, whenever I try to get a pound sign I keep getting a number 3," he said. "You *are* holding the shift key down when you press it, aren't you?" I asked. He looked blankly in my direction, turned to his keyboard, and lo and behold a pound sign appears on his screen.

It gets better though... As I walked away, head in hands, somebody ran over to me. "Do you know what he's been doing to get around it? Whenever he's had to put prices in letters he's either put 'You will be charged 15 GBP for this...', 'You will be charged 15 pounds for this...' or, more often than not, he's left an extra space, printed the letter out, and drawn a pound sign in in black pen."

I left a couple of months later. I couldn't stand it any longer.
(nasalhair The Twix guy!, Mon 29 Dec 2003, 9:03, Reply)