On my blog recently (nytimes.com/pogue), I've been making fun of bad tech-support reps. Actually, not just recently—they've been one of my favorite topics for years.

Deep inside, though, I have a lot of sympathy. By definition, the tech-support job entails talking all day to angry and unhappy people, which surely can't make you feel like skipping home from work. Meanwhile, at most tech-support centers, you have to fulfill an hourly quota of calls processed—so the job is stressful, too. No wonder the burnout rate is so high (and so many of these jobs are moving overseas).

So today, equal time. It's time to place half of the tech-support blame where it belongs: at the feet of Them. The Users.

Several years ago, I had the chance to visit a tech-support call center for one of the big computer companies. The technician gave me a second pair of headphones so I could listen in on his conversations with the hapless users.