New York City IT Helpdesk Guy Disciplined After Insisting On Talking Like A Robot
Ronald Dillon, a New York City Health Department worker, has gotten in deep trouble for a second time, because he answers the IT helpdesk phone in a robotic voice. This might be pretty funny to his co-workers, but it’s not that funny if you’re the caller whose computer has locked up.
Callers have said they can’t tell whether the voice on the phone is a real person or a machine. Dillon was disciplined for impersonating a robot back in 2013, but apparently he just can’t resist using his android voice and has been up to his antics again. Now a judge has ordered him to be suspended without pay for 30 days.
Judge Ingrid Addison wrote that Dillon “stated in a slow, stilted and monotonous voice, ‘You have reached the Help Desk. This is Mr. Dillon. How may I help you?’” As evidence in the hearing, Health Department personnel played recordings of Mr. Dillon answering the phone and sounding uncannily like Siri. Dillon has worked for the city since 1976 and the judge implied that he seems to feel that the helpdesk job is beneath him.
