provocative maintenance

provocative maintenance  [common ironic mutation of
   `preventive maintenance'] Actions performed upon a machine at
   regularly scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in
   a usable state.  So called because it is all too often performed by
   a {field servoid} who doesn't know what he is doing; such
   `maintenance' often *induces* problems, or otherwise
   results in the machine's remaining in an *un*usable state for
   an indeterminate amount of time.  See also {scratch monkey}.