Day Four in the SharePoint Spiral:

Send Whiskey, Tequila, or an espresso martini so I can drink it at work.

Hi Besties.

It's Day Four.

Four days deep into a SharePoint spiral so intense I’m starting to wonder if I’m the metadata or if the metadata is me.

And honestly? The funniest part (if we’re calling trauma funny) is that this whole nightmare started almost two weeks ago.

On Friday the 13th.

Because of course it did.

That morning, my colleague called our IT company and said,

“Hey, my stuff isn’t syncing right.”

And you know why it wasn’t syncing?

Because he was saving everything to his desktop.

Not to SharePoint.

Not to the cloud.

Not to the meticulously organized folder system I sacrificed my soul to maintain.

THE. FUCKING. DESKTOP.

Naturally, I assumed IT would handle it.

I even let myself believe—for a brief and delusional moment—that the professionals would step in.

But no.

Of course they didn’t fix it.

Of course your girl had to save the day.

Because when it comes to IT, I am the infrastructure.

Me. A woman with a caffeine addiction, anxiety, and a spreadsheet grudge.

So here I am. Two weeks later.

Four days into a full-blown document management exorcism.

Trying to untangle a SharePoint mess I didn’t create but am now legally and emotionally responsible for.

I thought I was just cleaning up a few files. Just a little digital declutter. Be a helpful little legend. And now I’m knee-deep in document libraries, learning about metadata tags like I have any business being in this realm.

Let me ask you something.

What the actual fuck is a managed property?

Why does everything have a content type?

Why is there a column called “Title” when the file name is already right there?

Why does SharePoint hate joy?

Every time I think I’ve untangled a folder, another one appears like a hydra with a new file path that’s 378 characters long and just barely within Microsoft’s arbitrary limit of 400.

Also, I made the mistake of googling “best practices” and now I’ve got SharePoint consultants on LinkedIn trying to slide into my DMs like:

“Have you considered a hybrid taxonomy and term store strategy?”

Sir. I haven’t even had coffee.

Meanwhile, my coworkers are asking me things like:

“Can we make it so we just search 'elevator pit' and it shows up?”

BABE. I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF I’M GOING TO SURVIVE THIS WEEK.

Apparently, the answer is yes — if I tag every. single. file.

Individually.

Manually.

With my own two hands.

And what did IT suggest to fix this mess?

A Band-Aid.

“Let’s just throw you guys on Cove,” they said.

A syncing backup platform that promises to magically fix everything — your files, your emails, your SharePoint.

Like sweetie, isn’t that what SharePoint was already supposed to be?

A cloud-based solution that syncs and backs up your work??

I’m sorry, but you don’t get to duct tape a new tool onto a broken system and call it innovation.

And that’s just one SharePoint.

Because I don’t just manage one nightmare site. No, no. That would be too easy.

I manage multiple SharePoints, each with their own special brand of folder chaos.

So when I say I’m spiraling, I don’t mean metaphorically.

I am physically, emotionally, and spiritually being dragged across the jagged terrain of Microsoft’s folder structure.

So yeah. If I seem a little unwell this week, it’s because I am.

If you see me muttering the word “metadata” in the corner, just know I’ve seen some things.

And when I do finally survive this spiral —

When the sync gods show mercy and the folder paths align —

This mess will be immortalized forever as Chapter 31 of CTRL+ALT+SHE.

The IT survival guide you didn’t ask for but absolutely need.

Erica.

Still writing. Still spiraling.

Still haunted by the desktop files of Friday the 13th. Still fixing things IT forgot. Still filing away chaos for Chapter 31