Fish has dealt with this engineer before and asks, What's the problem?
"I was working on a presentation for my boss until 2 a.m. this morning!" engineer howls, in a voice obviously fueled by large quantities of coffee and cigarettes. "I had three weeks of work in it, and when I turned on my computer this morning, I heard a clunk and the screen says 'hard drive error'! I need that file for a presentation at 10 a.m.!"
Did you back up that file to the network? fish calmly asks.
"No, I did not!" engineer replies. "But I need that file!"
Fish takes a deep breath. "I gently informed her that if the system gave a clunk sound and the screen said 'hard drive error,' more than likely the hard drive was dead and the file was lost unless we sent the drive off-site to be recovered, and we would not be able to get the file in the next two hours," says fish.
"At that point, her eyes rolled back in her head and her knees buckled and she slid to the ground. I had to pick her up off the floor while she began moaning 'Nooooooooooo!'
"As it turned out, her boss was not upset by the loss of the presentation, and the engineer was sent home to rest, since she had worked so late."