Please submit your request in writing. Ya bastards!

The BBQ Pit
1

I work for a company medium sized company, and we have a small (4 people) IT department that supports about 180 local users and lots more people working from home.

So we’re usually pretty busy. As the newbie in the IT group, I’m really busy. Anyway, on to the rant:

I’ll try to convey this experience that I have about every fifteen minutes to you. I’m sitting in my cube, which of course is on the main hallway of the cube farm, across from a couple of offices which store a couple of speakerphone-loving managers. Here is what I hear over and over again:

Step, step, step, step, step, shuffle, shuffle… step, step, "Hey Slack can I ask you something?"

No! You can’t! What is it? Oh, good - something we have already discussed that I told you I’d get to as soon as possible. No, it’s not possible yet - move it on out!

Step, step, step, step, step, shuffle, shuffle… step, step, "Hey Slack can you come by my desk when you get a minute?"

Sure! Hows 3 weeks from Tuesday for ya?

Hey the phone is ringing! Joy of joys! I won’t answer it (natch) so lets listen to the voicemail this person will undoubtedly leave…

Hi, Slack. Give me a call as soon as possible. My number is blah blah blah…

Thanks for the detailed message! I don’t know if you need a password change, which I can do in an instant, or help with your shit DSL connection and the VPN client software which will take all friggin’ day. I’ll call you back sometime between 7 and 4 in the next month. Wait by the phone or I’ll leave an even less detailed voicemail on your end. Enjoy!

As I was writing this I had to get up and run to the other side of the office for a minute - when I returned there’s a sticky note on my monitor. Someone can’t get into the network. Bummer! I’ll file this under “R” - for arrivederci.

Ah. I feel better. Thanks.

2

So I don’t understand. Are you pissed off because people are asking you to do your job or are you pissed off because people are not following proper procedures when requesting you to do your job?

3

I suggest the latter. Intensive work is not made easier by people attempting to circumnavigate the systems.

pan

4

Sounds like in your situation I’d be pissed off because of the inadequate staffing.

5

Actually it’s usually not that bad. I can only do one thing at a time - so I just get stuff done and don’t let the list of projects ahead stress me out. It’s just when people bombard me with stupid questions while I’m trying to work it irks me. The same people would be livid if I stopped working on their problem to do something else, yet they expect me to do the same thing to other people cause their problem is so friggin’ critical.

6

sounds like SOMEBODY needs to read their set of BOFH again…

:smiley:

7

I hated getting stopped in the halls. “Oh, it will only take 5 minutes”… When I did desktop support for a largish company I would not stop to help anyone and I had no problems telling people “no” when they called my personal extension. I printed up the calls from the queue and would only work on those. Besides, when the boss is looking at your “call-closed” numbers in the queue those little 5 minute jobs cost more than the users think.

We used to use business cards with the helpdesk extension and the helpdesk email address printed on them. The techs would hand them out to anyone who stopped us in the halls or came into the work area. They were also helpful when you visited a PC and the owner was nowhere in sight, even though you called 5 minutes earlier to confirm they would be there. Instead of ranting and raving you drop a card on their keyboard and not look at their call for another 2 days :slight_smile:

8

Four people to provide IT services to 180+ users . . . I think you must work for the government agency I used to work for.

Yes, I know you’re busy. Yes, I know you’re overworked. But I cannot do my job until you fix my rachin’frachin’ computer! So while you’re racing around, doing your best to put out fires, I’m playing with my slinky, staring at the ceiling, and trying to explain to clients why, no, the thing I promised would be done today will not be done today, and tomorrow doesn’t look good either.

Result: I will continue to bug you, in the politest way possible, until you fix my computer. I will not go away, I will sit in my office and wait until you get around to me. I will realize that when resources are stretched too thin and you cannot do everything, it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. So I will be the squeaky wheel. Beaucoup apologies if this pisses off you tech support guys, but there it is.

9

That should read “I will NOT sit in my office . . .” And I even previewed. :rolleyes:

10

Man, I totally agree. I get residents who just call and leave this message:

“Hi, this is Dr. Foreign-Guy. My pager number is 5227.”

Yeah, right. Maybe you could tell me what your computer problem is, when you will and won’t be in your office, and what your phone number is, because I don’t feel like paging you and waiting for you to call back. If you would just tell me what the actual problem was, I could fix it from here, or at least know how long I should blow you off for. As it is, I just ignore those messages.

11

But how could they send their request to the queue if their computer won’t work? :d&r:

12

One thing I’ve noticed is that if I make a request by voice-mail or e-mail, it’s much more likely to be totally ignored than if I make it “live.”

I have no idea what things are like in slacker’s department though.

Perhaps all voice-mails and emails are responded to promptly, even if the complained-of problem cannot be immediately corrected. If not, you’re only making the problem worse, since people will become annoyed and frustrated and start feeling that they must pester you to get anywhere.

13

lol I’ve read that bastard’s stories about a hundred times. Couldn’t hurt to check 'em out again though :slight_smile:

Actually - we usually get any critical problems fixed pretty fast. It’s just the minor things that people bug me about that irk me.

I loathe to admit it, but you’re probably right. Voicemails almost never get returned promptly (if at all). Especially those like the Dr. Foriegn example above.

14

Sounds to me like you could use a trip to the Internet Help Desk.

15

Squeaky wheels, especially polite ones, are a needed reality check. No one should fault you if you have gone through the correct channels and have not seen timely results. The people who deserve my ire are the ones who barge into the room and demand someone look at their PC right away, because everyone knows that they are the most important person around and deserve to jump the queue. :rolleyes: