"Inserting and ejecting DVDs is now IT's responsibility" Tech Support |
- "Inserting and ejecting DVDs is now IT's responsibility"
- I love properly enforced procedures
- The Printer no one wanted to service
- I was looking at the wrong server in my servers list...
- A person needs an antenna for a cellphone.
- The Psychology of Users...
- Call Center Tale #4: The Campaign
- When things almost go Nuclear
- Why would a hole punch even help here
- You're one of them, aren't you?
| "Inserting and ejecting DVDs is now IT's responsibility" Posted: 07 Feb 2020 07:29 AM PST 7 p.m., sitting down for dinner. The lack of ability to bring in any outside food or beverage to the facility I work in has dramatically changed how I view food. Fork and knife in hand, I am about to finally give my body the nourishment it nee --- ring ring OH no. Not this again. It's $site_director. I wait it out, let it go to voicemail, close my eyes, pinch the bridge of my nose. My food now getting cold. No voicemail. ring ring $site_director: "We need you to come to $site right now. We are having an issue with the DVD player in [$core_instruction_area] and we need it resolved by tomorrow or we risk being out of compliance."
Ah yes, favors. I seem to have a collection of those, but they are not always redeemable. So, I arrive to $classroom, $instructor there, visibly shaken. I've rarely interacted with this person, this being a building a bit away from my main area. Their manager is also in their office.
As if finally, magically, understanding that the language I was speaking was indeed their native tongue, $instructor pulls out a gigantic tome of instructional DVDs. With that, were volumes of instructions, written in what looked like manuscript, going back to playing every video form. We'll leave that there for a moment. You see, there was a refresh of technology about 6 months ago, and the DVD drives are now external. This appears to have caused some confusion, despite giving out guides, down to the mouse clicks, of how to play a DVD. Apparently I had missed two small, crucial details. "How do I do it?", asked $instructor. My mind raced with the possibilities. For a moment, I truly did not understand the intent of the question.
$me: "Would you like me to do a trial run with you?" I motioned gently to $instructor to hand over the DVD. I then show $instructor how to insert the DVD, follow with them in their notes - which go back to betamax and VHS instructions in the 90s, with EXTREMELY detailed instructions on which button sequences to use. I'm actually impressed by the level of detail captured. Hundreds of pages. Polaroid pictures. Things circled. There appears to be some snafu in the mid 90's when the VHS unit they had changed and the button layout wasn't the same. $instructor tells me how they've been in this position 41 years. I gain the information that they have simply been a human media exchanger for the classroom for most of that time. I go over with them about a dozen times, patiently, on the entire sequence including the missing instructions (insert + eject). Sat with them for about an hour until they felt comfortable with the whole sequence. Stopped by $instructor's manager's office on the way out. Explained the situation. Turns out, $instructor is retiring, and a new "human media exchanger" will be taking their place. I sorely wanted to ask if we could convert all the media to strips of programming, therefore freeing a slot for another IT person, but I know how well received that would be. Nearly 3 hours later, finally home, with my cold, soggy dinner on my plate. Too tired to even eat. Get an e-mail notification from $instructor to entire management team: "Thank you $pukeforest for making me feel comfortable and sitting with me through the process." I might have gone to bed tired and hungry again, but small victories. [link] [comments]  |
| I love properly enforced procedures Posted: 07 Feb 2020 09:57 AM PST I do in-house IT. I get a ticket, I fix the issue, the usual. I don't deal with clients directly, only through tickets. I may contact them if I need additional information, but even then I do it through our ticketing system. Some time after coming back from lunch yesterday, a Skype conversation opened on my screen. It went like this : $Dude : "Hello" That was all. I had already told that guy what to do, so I ignored that last message and carried on with my day, as I have absolutely no patience for people who try to bypass the entire process and contact me directly. It was a quiet day, and it's a small scale application, so after about an hour or so I was done, no tickets left. It was still too early to leave though, so I started chatting with my colleagues/browsing Reddit/etc, while refreshing the ticket application every few minutes ; every now and then I'd get a new one, so I'd deal with it and then go back to farting around. Not once did I see $Dude's name in there. Eventually, after about an hour and a half of reading TFTS, my Skype window flashes orange. $Dude : "???" I then carried on with my day. He messaged me a few more times, but only to complain that I wasn't doing anything, or to ask me if it was done (which I'd answer with "What's done?", and start the loop again). I kept fixing tickets bit by bit as they arrived ; still no sign of $Dude's issue. Eventually, it got late enough that I could leave if my work for the day was done, and I had not received any tickets for 30 minutes, so I went home. This morning I was greeted by a very angry email from $Dude, about how his issue was still not fixed despite him asking me multiple times, how it was urgent and I was incredibly unhelpful and it was going to mess up our goals and yada yada yada. So I answered : $Dude answered with an angry rant about how he had contacted me about the issue, etc, etc. I ignored it, because I knew my boss was awesome. And sure enough, after a few minutes, there it came : Roughly ten minutes later, I saw a ticket from $Dude arrive in my queue, about his issue. I ended up fixing it before $Boss even came back to me to ask me to prioritize it so we could get him off our backs, as it was still as quiet as the day before. If he had simply opened a ticket right from the start, his issue would have been fixed for a long time now. Instead he lost a day and got nothing to show for it but to look like a fool, as, guess what, he was in the wrong and my boss had my back. PS : It was not actually that urgent. Shocking, right? [link] [comments]  |
| The Printer no one wanted to service Posted: 07 Feb 2020 01:12 PM PST I remembered another incident at work that was some time ago, about a printer, the question who would replace it it, and the ping pong between the various departments because no one wanted to be responsible and no one was informed of changes. Alternative Working Title: Why Information is Key and Quoting Emails at people makes them nervous. $Me: Me of course. $User: The user that calls with an issue. $ThePrinter: It deserves its own mention here. Not for the error it causes, or its fault, but for how much traffic it created. $Department#1: A specialized IT group/departments in the company. Used to deal with defective Printers. $Department#2: A specialized IT group/departments in the company. Now deals with defective Printers. Much to their surprise. $Dispatcher: Someone who should know which departments are responsible for the various tasks, but doesn't, and seems wholly overworked and underqualified with the job. As many big companys do, is there a huge storage of Printers somewhere and when one of them doesn't work as intended anymore it just gets replaced and the old one gets troubleshooted. If at all. Or just straight out trashed and send back. Whatever is cheaper and easier. English is not my first language, yadda yadda, not on mobile. Also, why do all of my stories become so long? --- Its another lovely morning in the office, there have been nary a call and I have been able to enjoy some sunshine while trying to drown myself in OJ. Sadly it doesn't seem to be working just yet, even though it is my fourth bottle by now. That is when the phone rings. Trouble always starts when the phone rings. $Me: IT, this is $Me, how can I help you? $User: Yes, there is a mechanical defect with the Printer Z and one of the Gears inside broke. I got half of it in my hand. Serial Number is 1234-abc-zpk, its in the $Location and the Hardware is Assigned to $User2. Thats the kind of User I love. He got all the neccesary information that I need to create the ticket. Hell, he could've just send it as an email. $Me: Awesome. I have written that all down and send it to the department to get it replaced. Should be only a day. $User: We can live without that printer for a week if neccesary. $Me: Won't be that long, but its good to know. And the Ticket is off to $Department#1 so they can replace the Printer. That stuff has not always been handled by them. It used to be a different department, but when things changed a company wide email was sent to the IT Department and we could change the workflow accordingly. Half an hour later my teamlead walks in while I am in the middle of trying to finish my fifth bottle. $Teamlead: Hey $Me. I just assigned you a ticket about a printer. 1234567. Could you check on it? $Me: Sure. I open up the web browser, type in the Ticket id and its the ticket I created. No comments have been added but at least the system tracks where the tickets has been making it rounds. From §Me to $Department#1, From $Department#1 to $Dispatcher, from $Dispatcher to $FirstLevelHelpDesk and from $FirstLevelHelpDesk to $OurItHelpDeskQue and from there to me. What a trip. And no comment as to why it was send back to the Dispatcher or us. I double check my infos to see if they are still accurate. But yep, they are. At least I haven't received anything that says opposite. I ask my Teamlead as well, as well as some other coworkers, just to be sure. But nope, they have the very same info that I have. $Me: Dear Sir or Madam, according to my information is $Department#1 responsible for handling replacements for faulty printers. If not, please forward it to the new correct Department. Nice, smooth. Covers my ass and if anything has changed then I will be informed and can update my information. After sending the Ticket off to Department#1 to its merry way am I back to taking calls. Another twenty minutes later and my Teamlead is once more in my door. $Teamlead: I just assigned you another Ticket. Could you take a look at it? Part of me wonders what would happen if I said 'No'. $Me: Sure. I check my assigned tickets and... its the same printer from before. But this time there is a comment. From the Dispatcher. $Dispatcher: This is in scope of first level support. Please fix the issue. has any troubleshooting been done? I stare at the sentence. How the hell am I supposed to fix a broken gear in a location around 6 hours away from me from my desktop? $Me: Repairing gears is slightly out of scope of what our group can do, and as far as I have been informed is $Department Responsible for anything with Printers and their mechanical faults. Again, if this has changed, please inform me which group is now responsible and please forward it accordingly. The ticket is off again and within five minutes its back, directly assigned to me by the Dispatcher. A big no no, as he is not allowed to do that. The scathing comment simply can be summarized with: Do your work and do not assign this to dispatcher anymore. But here is where things get fun. If you know which department is responsible then you can always forward tickets to them and skip the dispatcher. These things make work easier. Little exploits for work. If you have the exact sentence memorized, or saved somewhere where you can say who is responsible, that is even better if you have to assign it to the dispatcher If you have the email with timestamp, user name who wrote it, and date at the ready and quote that to them, then they begin to get nervous. That is when they start to sweat. That is when they start to worry becaue you know more than they do. Because you now have an official source. That is when they no longer are able to just ignore what you have written, especially, if said source is someone higher up in the chain than them. $Me: According to the mail I received on 08/17/2017 at 16:57, sent by IT-HeadHoncho and co-signed and checked by the CEO, will all technical support with faulty Printers be handled by $Department. Is this information still correct? I copy and paste the mail for good measure into the comment section and off the ticket goes. Et Viola. I do not receive any new notifications anymore that, but I do keep up on what happens with the Incident. (Actual timestamps may vary of course) 10:12 Incident is assigned to $Department#1 by the $Dispatcher. No comment. 10:14 Incident is assigned to $Dispatcher by the $Department#1. No comment. 10:17 Incident is assigned to $Department#1 by the $Dispatcher. No comment. 10:20 Incident is assigned to $Dispatcher by the $Department#1. No comment. 10:21 Incident is assigned to $UnrelatedDepartment by the $Dispatcher. No comment. 10:35 Incident is assigned to $Dispatcher by the $UnrelatedDepartment. Comment: I am sorry, we are only responsible for the Print Servers, not for physical defects. 10:36 Incident is assigned to $UnrelatedDepartment2 by the $Dispatcher. No comment. 10:55 Incident is assigned to $Dispatcher by the $UnrelatedDepartment2. Comment: We are responsible for Windows Deployment. Sorry. 10:57 Incident is assigned to $Me by the $Dispatcher. No comment. I get a notification that it has been assigned to and just quote my previous comment and send it back to the dispatcher. In walks my Teamlead. $Teamlead: You have a- $Me: I have already taken care of it. 11:02 Incident is assigned to $Department#1 by the $Dispatcher. Comment: Do your job. 11:15 Incident is assigned to $Dispatcher by the $Department#1. Comment: $Department#1 is no longer responsible for servicing faulty printers. This has been decided in and IT Meeting around 2 months ago. We are sorry, but this is out of scope for us. 11:20 Incident is assigned to $Department#1 by the $Dispatcher. No comment. And its break time for me and I take my well earned rest and go the caffeteria to eat becaue you can't deal with this on an empty stomach. Returning refreshed from my break am I intercepted by my Team lead halfway down the hallway again. $Teamlead: I assigned you an incident. Could you take a look at it? Yep. It's the same old ticket from before. But before I take care of it, or even bother looking into it, I need another load of OJ before checking this mess out. Internally I wonder what will expire first, the Ticket or me from OJ Overdose. As expected has the Incident bounced around more times than an unsupervised child that was given two Venti Iced Caffe Americano, an amount of sugary confectionary equal to its bodyweight, and then was let loose into a bouncy castle and told to go nuts. And its always the same. From $Dispatcher, to $Department#1 and then back again before finally arriving at my steps once more. Maybe $Dispatcher hoped that I'd silently accept it again, or some other fool would take it and try to work on it, and he'd be rid of it. But no chance. I, however, am not any wiser than before and hand it off without a comment. If they can play the silent game, then so can I. And the ticket keeps bouncing around, until finally $Department#1 forwards it to $Department#2. Why? I don't know. Maybe they were tired of getting it assigned, maybe they found some documentation that $Department#2 is responsible for it. But again, they just assign it without a comment again. By now its more than curiosity, its sick fascination. Like a car crash where you just can't look away. And I keep hitting that F5 button to stay update. The Incident has reached more than 60 reassignments within the short time span of 2 hours that it has existed. The few comments are burried deeper than the diggit button but all seems to be solved now. 12:32 Incident is assigned to $Dispatcher by the $Department#2. No comment. 12:33 Incident is assigned to $Department#1 by the $Dispatcher. No comment. 12:36 Incident is assigned to $Department#2 by the $Department#1. No comment. 12:38 Incident is assigned to $Dispatcher by the $Department#2. No comment. 12:40 Incident is assigned to $Department#1 by the $Dispatcher. No comment. 12:42 Incident is assigned to $Department#2 by the $Department#2. No comment. What a wild ride! I want to get off. My Co worker is already wondering why I am hammering so often the F5 button and when I tell him the incident number so he can take a look at it himself he just blanches and pales after taking a quick look. Because by now we have reached more than 90 reassignments. All without comments. Finally $Department#2 begins to speak up in the comments, probably all too tired and just wanting to be rid of the incident. $Department#2: This is not our responsibility. Faulty Printers are in scope of $Department#1. $Department#1: According to the IT meeting on <Date> are we no longer responsible. $Department#2: It is also not our responsibility. $Department#1: According to the IT meeting on <Date> are we no longer responsible. $Department#2: We are not responsible for Servicing Faulty Printers. Ever so often in that dialogue between the two departments involves the dispatcher once again, but he just silently assigns it to either group. It is now 13:50. They are still going at it. If I had popcorn I'd be munching it because this is far more interesting than Murder She Wrote. And then the plot twist happens, either Department#2 finally relents, or they have found the documentation or someone higher up finally told them that they are responsibly, but finally they admit that in a different IT meeting they were designated to service faulty printers and that just hadn't been informed! Finally. I update my information, close the web page of my browser where I had the incident open and fire up a mail to my collegues to inform them that the responsibility for Printers has changed from Department#1 to Department#2 according to the Incident1234567. If they care they are free to check it out themself. Another day well spend. And hopefully that Printer will be replaced tomorrow. [link] [comments]  |
| I was looking at the wrong server in my servers list... Posted: 07 Feb 2020 03:09 PM PST This just happened .. all identifying info removed. Background. I work in a hosting company, we supply firewalls when requested so sometimes get asked to help from customers. Customer: " attempting to configure IPv6 on this server. What is the default gateway I should use? " Me: "The default gateway would be ::1" Customer : " Sorry, that still didn't seem to make things work, any other ideas? Do you have a guide on how to configure windows server IPv6 ? All the IPv6 network firewall rules are enabled but I can't seem to see what is wrong " Me: Thinking dark thoughts about the lack of any errors to work with and say " I did just go and take a look at that server and don't see any attached firewall." Customer: Okay hold on I may know what the issue is, think I may have been looking at the wrong server :) Customer: Sorry I was looking at the wrong server in my servers list and added the wrong IPV6! Customer: And now working, thanks guys sorry to mess you about. Me: No problem, glad your all working :) I had a good chuckle at this and awarded my self a coffee to prep for the next ticket :) [link] [comments]  |
| A person needs an antenna for a cellphone. Posted: 07 Feb 2020 12:38 PM PST I worked in tech support at an electronics store. A customer came in and was clearly in a hurry.
The customer leaves saying "I want to talk to a manager!" I go in the back to work on other computers and radio the manager to let him know a customer is looking for him. I can hear the customer trying to explain what he wants to the manager. The manager comes to the tech bench.
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| Posted: 07 Feb 2020 08:50 AM PST I've been reading for a while, but couldn't come up with a good story to post that wouldn't potentially cause me issues in my current job. A few days back I was talking with someone and this story from my university days came to mind, and I figured it might get a few chuckles here... Background: $me = Student A/V tech at a university at the time $PT = Psych teacher that called with an issue The job I was doing was basic A/V tech at a university campus: Deliver carts around with projectors or TVs to classrooms right before the start of a class, plug them in and make sure they work, then go do the next delivery/pickup. Some rooms were being wired for their own projectors/TVs with access via a podium; we only supported these if someone had an issue. We had a dedicated Tech group that dealt with real problems, but we were all expected to do first line troubleshooting on the spot. I'm new to this job because getting in basically required a referral from someone else and somebody graduating, but I'm an upper level tech major (CS/IT) so I'm a significant cut above the average for someone just starting out in the role. This job was considered amazing because you get paid for hours of work, but 40 minutes of every hour you had assigned was typically spent in the break room, hanging out or doing homework. Another important note: this was a STEM focused school. We had other programs, some very well funded thanks to local businesses throwing money at them (predominately around the fine arts), but the majority of the funding/focus went to the Engineering, Computing, and Science colleges at this point. While degrees were offered in the Liberal Arts, they were there because the higher ups wanted to make sure us techies were well rounded and they realized that they could offer the degrees for no real additive cost, so why not do it. On to the story! It's the beginning of the summer session, first day of classes. I wrap up my handful of deliveries quickly and drop back to the office, where they immediately turned me back to go to the Psych building, as a teacher is having issues getting a projector to turn on so that she can play a DVD. She is in one of the rooms that was wired up the previous summer to be a smart room- a ceiling mounted projector connected to a podium with multiple laptop input options, a DVD player, and a VHS player. I roll in and it turns out this is actually a psychology course around technology- one of a few options in the required curriculum for most technology majors at the school, and goes into how we interact with technology from a societal perspective in some pretty interesting ways. The teacher points to the podium and keeps talking to the class while I get to work doing Troubleshooting 101 (is it turned on? Is it plugged in? Etc.) $PT to class: See, this is why I don't trust technology: it always fails on you. With this statement, the classroom, made up primarily of CS/IT/Engineering students just filling out their Liberal Arts requirements, starts wishing that they had chosen a different teacher for this class. I work through troubleshooting and find that the projector power switch on the top of the podium is in the very well labelled "Off" position. I decide that this is a major contributing factor to the projector not powering up, and move it to the "On" position, whereupon $PT is greeted with blinding light from the projector almost perfectly in front of her. I make sure that the projector boots, and the DVD she has on the podium plays in the mounted DVD player, then go to take my leave so that she can get on with her lesson plan. Total time in room: ~3 minutes, most of which was the projector's slow boot time. $me: You're all set! Let us know if you have any other problems. $PT: Like I said, class, this is why you don't rely on technology. Now, what was wrong with it? At this point, I'm stuck. She's making no move to see anything, so I can't just point at things and say that they need to be in this configuration. I need to be honest with her, and I don't want her to call us every time she can't figure out how to flip a switch to the "on" position, so I decide that if she put me in a bad spot then she gets to deal with the consequences. $me: The switch labeled "Projector" needs to be in the "On" position. $me- Exit, stage right. Epilogue: I told my boss what happened and he cracked up. He said she deserved it for trying to put the spotlight on our "unreliable" technology and staff, so there was no blow back on me for not being able to discreetly handle it (which I really, really wanted to, but she gave me no real choice). I also ran into an acquaintance that was in the class a few weeks later, and he said she spent about 10 minutes staring at it before calling, and that throughout the class she was constantly bad mouthing technology while ignoring very obvious, intuitive solutions to the point that nobody in class cared what she said anymore as she was obviously unfit to discuss the subject material. A pity, really, because my version of the class (taken a few years prior with a completely different teacher) was actually quite good and led to me looking at technology a bit differently. [link] [comments]  |
| Call Center Tale #4: The Campaign Posted: 07 Feb 2020 08:44 AM PST It's the same place, as always. This happened between tales #3 and #1. They're not chronological, I'm afraid. It's a call center. It does what all call centers do; take calls. This one had a unique business model; won't get into it because I don't want to out myself. Most of our campaigns involved us being the middle man between the caller and their intended recipient. More or less a switchboard, really. Once we connected the two, our agent dropped out so they could take another call. Most of these worked more or less the same. New client, we're the switchboard, connect to someone else. Each one had it's own little quibbles and requirements, though, so for the most part, they need to be custom built. In Classic ASP, which was it's own unique hell. The amount of hand crafting required was on the insane side. The website needed to be built. It had to be pushed to our webserver. The switch had to be updated with the numbers the campaign would come in on, and pass on some sort of identifier. The master webpage had to grab that identifier and redirect to the correct campaign. And then the real fun started: billing. None of it was standardized, none of it followed the same structure, each client was their own snowflake. Billing was also written in Classic ASP. The original creator had a...less than sane approach when doing so. Billing was a single page. No modules. No subroutines. Not even nicely named variables. The VBScript was a 2,000-3,000 line, single method monstrosity. You had to find the correct area in the code, add in the correct data, do some testing, cross your fingers, and hope. We got it wrong. A lot. I'd've tried to tame it, but there was no time in the day to even contemplate it, let alone even try. Anyways, I digress. The campaign. The other programmer had been working on it since before the first move. It had a few more moving parts than most campaigns. Management had been breathing down our neck for months because they wanted this thing to go live ASAP. In the middle of the move. In the middle of the frantic attempts to keep hastily strung infrastructure from dying until the second move. We had to stop agents from charging their phones because the breakers were that overloaded. Telling management that we literally could not do everything, all at once, went unheeded. But roughly around the beginning of December, the campaign was finally created, tested (for values of tested), and ready to go. Management was happy we could finally get it going, and scheduled the go live date. For January 1. When nobody is available. For the most complicated campaign we'd ever done. We tell management, "This seems like a bad idea" . "We've waited long enough, we're doing it." management responds. "It's a holiday. We're not available, so if something goes wrong, we can't fix it. Can we wait even a day?" says the other programmer. "Your concerns are noted. We're still going live." sigh So we set it so that it'll respond properly, and calls will come in at the start of the year. Our incompetent operations manager (OM), the one that was in charge of the floor, decides they're going to go in that day to make sure it's all smooth. The other programmer's done their best keeping management in the loop in how it works, and what to do if certain edge cases are hit. OM is on these emails. Another small aside for some background: the company had given the other programmer a phone for on-call work. Not a bad idea, for a shoestring call center where everything was held together with baling wire and twine. Problem was, we wouldn't get anything for responding to these calls; no time off, no extra vacation, no overtime, nothing. Management was of the opinion that footing the bill for a phone meant you were on-call at all times, and had to respond instantly to any call. The other programmer would always answer. Their attitude was, "If I don't fix it now, I'll have to fix it in the morning anyways, and we have too much to do already." IT PTSD at it's finest. For the most part, we didn't have a lot of problems with our stuff; it could survive weekends without too much of an issue. But we'd get called constantly. The call center supervisors knew to call us if there was a problem. Problem was, it wasn't limited to tech problems; anything from the thermostat malfunctioning to the building alarm going off got us called. Because the OM wouldn't answer their company phone after hours. We would, so we got saddled with solving everything. Protests to the contrary were ignored. Anyways. Campaign. The other programmer got no less than six calls on New Year's. About things that were clearly addressed in the campaign packet the OM had. We come in the next day, and the other programmer isn't in; they decided they're taking the day off because of all the calls the day before, and management can fire them if they don't like it. Total support from us. Management doesn't respond. They come in the next day, and hand the company phone to our boss. "I'm not doing any more on-call." They got so many calls, they were getting major stress reactions just from hearing the phone ring. Management wasn't sure what to do about that, at all. Right after this happened, I straight up told my boss I wasn't going to take it. It wasn't reasonable to expect that level of work without some sort of compromise. None was ever forthcoming. Aftermath: The other programmer went on stress leave, and ultimately, left entirely. It wasn't worth it for them to continue. And then, we were down to two. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 06 Feb 2020 12:06 PM PST $Boss: The Boss. Newly Promoted and eager to show off what he can do. He has often expressed his displeassement with the laws in the country and not so much breaks them by accident as woefully ignores them because he can't be bothered too follow them and they are, in his opinion, just a hindrance and he could be so much more productive without them. $Me: Me of course. $NewTeamlead: A brand new fresh teamlead, just promoted today and put in charge of Project#2. $Project#1: Our oldest project we have been supporting. I am by a technicallity the most senior person of it because I have been working on it the longest and everyone else noped the fuck away. Might have been a good hint to take for me too. We are basically offering additional support for another IT company which is supporting another company in turn. $Project#2: A new project where we offer support for an Automobile company. We haven't received any training, but the people who wrote the contract insisted on a seperate office because of data security and no one overhearing any internal security stuff that might come up during phonecalls. $User: A user that calls with a very specific old problem and Ticket. $LyncUser: Up to this day I still do not know who it is or what his role in the company is. English is not my first language, yadda yadda, not on mobile. This time its not just one story, but there is also a final ending to this. Lets do this! --- Its a lovely Wednesday morning. The sun isn't shining, my public tram was cancelled because the weather outside is looking like all the angels have decided to take a piss at the same time into the streets of our city, and I have to admit that ankle high water in the streets -is- a good reason as to cancel some trams because they look more like boats rather than trams when they move down the streets. Alternative transportation was taken, I was slightly late to work. Fuck it, that is life and being thirty minutes late is still good time considering the weather. The last few days at least have been relaxed and my presence was not missed for being to late today. In total we had 7 calls since Monday, all shared between 5 people assigned to this Project. NewTeamlead is insiting that we try and solve some other tickets in the system, but we have neither the knowledge, nor the training, nor the access rights to do much more than 'Take call, create Ticket, send off'. Its something he doesn't seem to understand and I have been telling him repeatedly that unless we get the access rights and the training that I will not touch any other system. Unless he gives me in writing that he takes full responsibility for any mishaps that might happen. There was lots of huffin and puffin and posturing and how I should at least try to solve these other issues to make a good impression with the costumer, but even he is not stupid enough to take responsibility in case anything should go wrong. But I digress. As I make my way down the corridor like the fricking Swamp Thing am I intercepted by my boss. $Boss: We need you in Project#1. A few people have called in sick and can't come today due to the weather. Big surprise there. I couldn't imagine as to why. $Me: Sure can do, just let me grab my stuff and move to my old office. $Boss: Why? $Me: Security reasons? I would be happy to explain to our Contractors, when they do another visit today, why I am on the phone and doing support for another Project in the room that is solely dedicated to Project#2. I can see his gears grinding in his head and he simply nods. Good enough for me. I grab some wipes to clean off most of the rain as not to short circuit anything, grab my stuff, say my goodbyes, and move back to my old office to say hello once more. The phoneline is swamped. People are calling en masse with password resets and VPN issues from their hotel rooms or when using it in a tram and similiar things until we come to the juicy part of this story. $Me: IT So-and-so, my name is $Me, how can I help you? $User: Yes, hello this is $User, would you be able to take a look at the Incident #123456 ? $Me: Of course. Lets see. This has been created around 4 weeks ago, its priority 4 and you can not print. I am sorry that no one has gotten back to y- I can hear the user sigh on the other end. Its the pained sigh of someone that explained something in detail, but which has not been written down properly and now he has been chasing after it. $User: Have notes been added that I called? I do a quick check. Nope. $Me: I can't see any notes, I am sorry. A defeated sigh comes from the User. $User: Fine! Might as well shut it all down then! I hesite to ask, but I do. I do IT to help people after all. $Me: What is the actual problem then? And I apologize if my collegues didn't write it properly down. And he lays it on me. He is working in a powerplant and for more than 4 weeks they have been unable to print out their reports. These reports contain: A: How much fuel they have burned. B: How much byproduct was produced. C: How much Byproduct has been shipped out from the facility. Without these reports they can not ship out the byproduct, and they can hold a limited amount of it. Now they are at full capacity and if they can not ship anything out today the plant will be shut down. And then there will be a lot of inquiries. By the Corporation and by the Government and there will be fines. Lots of them. And Questions will be asked. The kind of Questions you do not want to be asked by the men in suits and glasses who take notes on their little sheets and simply nod and finish the interrogiation with 'We will be in contact. Please stay available'. I pale, my fingers tremble and all I can mutter is an: Oh fuck. And I can almost feel him nod through the phone. $Me: Ok. If you have a moment I'd like for you to repeat that to me. I will write it all down verbatim, and I need the name of Programm that you are using to print. I will also raise the priority accordingly, because lets be frank, 4 is not adequate for an issue of this scale. $User: That is what your collegues said as well. $Me: Unlike them though will I keep you on the line until you get an email update, that what I said has actually been done. Now then. And I write it down. Every last detail, I raise the priority to so that a mail goes to all IT teams and informs them that something fuckery is going on. The comment field receives a note that whoever filed the initial ticket should receive some proper training for incidents and that other Helpdesk people that were called did not write down their work on it. I also fire off a quick email to an old collegue in the Major Incident Team as to inform him about the Ticket. Not that I'd need too, since he'd get an email automatically about it, but I just want to double check it and cover my ass because there is literally only 5 more hours for this to be resolved or the Power Plant shuts down for the day. And I do not want to be the one to be blamed for that. $Me: And you should get an email now. $User: I did. $Me: Good. I also fired off a seperate mail to a collegue, who will take a closer look at the issue, but can also keep escalating it if it should be neccesary. $User: Lets hope they will fix it today then. He is laughing at least and I manage a light smile. $Me: I am pretty sure they will. I will also keep an eye on it just in case. Not that I needed to. The day proceeds, I check on the ticket when there is not too much to do. Fifteen minutes after I raised the priority and send of the email did my collegue contacted them and remote connected to his computer, a privilege that we do not have. Security reasons. Twenty minutes later he has added screenshots and done an initial error diagnosis. Thirty minutes later another teamlead has added his diagnosis. Fourty minutes later and the issue has been fixed. Life goes on. Everything is safe and good. There will be no surprise Government visits. Except... There is a ding in my Lync and a message from some name I never saw before pops up. $LyncUser: Hello No introduction. Nothing. $Me: Good day, how can I be of assistance? I used to give user admin accounts on machines and some of them still have my Lync contact, so my first guess is that it is one of these people and he hasn't been notified that I no longer do this. $LyncUser: IncidentNumber 123456 Punctuation seems to be totally irrelevant to him, as well as writing what he incidentally wants. $Me: Yes? $LyncUser: You raised the priority $Me: I did. $LyncUser: You are only Level 1 support. Only level 3 support is allowed to raise priority. Technically that is true, but also technically not. That I am Level 1 support that is. Our team is doing a lot of 1st level as well as 2nd level support, but officially we are classified as IT Support. So its all very unclear what we are allowed to do and what not but it never has been an issue before. $Me: I found it neccesary, considering the scope of the issue. $LyncUser: Instead you should've told the user that our 'Our IT Team is working on it with the highest priority and that you will write into the comment field in the incident about the urgency of the Incident' and written such into the comment I can smell the bullshit though Lync, and I do not dare to insinuate that our Users wouldn't smell it either. Hell, I feel dirty just thinking about this because its an utter lie. $Me: I am terrible sorry, but this would not have solved the Incident at all. It already had been resting untouched for more than 4 weeks. $LyncUser: Do you understand that you are not allowed to raise the priority $Me: I was never informed that we are not allowed to raise the priority anymore. And according to the Priority guidelines the Incident clearly was a level 2 or even Level 1 priority. $LyncUser: They have been changed, only Level 3 support is allowed to raise priority And that is when I realize, I am being stonewalled. That guy doesn't wants to hear a reason. He either has been told to tell me that I no longer should raise the priorities, and is unaware of what was happening, or he doesn't care or worse, he doesn't understand. Arguing will not help so I sigh resigned. $Me: Yes. $LyncUser: Good. I shall also forward this to your team leader who will share it with the rest of the team. And true to his words, I receive a cc copy of the mail, which has not only been forwarded to my Teamlead as well as to other people, who again, I do not know. Inside of the mail there is the chat log, his written note that we are not allowed to raise priorities of Incidents anymore, as well as that I agreed that I'd no longer do such. Ain't that just great. Well, it is only another hour and time enough to take some more calls until this whole shit show is over and I can get back to the other Project. A few more calls, the day is almost over, when there is a knock at the door. $Boss: Hey $Me, I'd need to talk to you. Privately. Probably about this mail from earlier. $Me: Sure thing. Just gotta finish this call. $Boss: Sure thing. The call is over. I clock myself out of the call system and get up to meet the boos in his room. The instant I walk in I feel as if I not only stepped on my own grave, but as if I just walked in on a funeral. $Boss: Please, take a seat. I look at his secretary sitting next to him but I can't read his expression either. $Boss: So, as you may have noticed there is not a whole lot happening in Project#2. Oh, please. $Boss: So, I am afraid. Its happening! $Boss: That... He doesn't seems to know how to deliver bad messages. Either way, I am sitting there and grinning and squirming like Christopher Walls when he interogiates The Apache and the other guy, just moments before he is shouting Bingo. $Boss: We have to let you go. Please clean out your desk and vacate the premises. And sign here on this document. I stare at him and my lips curl into a smirk. I probably looked like a mad man at this point and he seems to take my excitement for sadness or agitation. It couldn't be further from the truth. $Me: I'd need a pen though. And there are still some personal things I need to take out of my room. The secretary has one and I sign the document after reading it. I get a copy for myself as well, and then I am standing outside of the room. Document in hand. Out of a Job and suddenly it feels as if a load that had been resting on my shoulders has fallen off. I feel... free. I hand in my Badge, my 2FA key, I sign the documents, and insit on a copy of them for me as well that I have turned them in. Dobby has gotten a sock. Dobby is a free elf. I go to my office, say goodbyes to the outcry of my collegues who can't understand what is happening and refuse to believe that I got fired. With my bags packed, and phone numbers exchanged, I step out of the Office and go down to the foyer. Like a powerwalking machine I just grin at the other workers when I pass by. Whispers are said in hushed tones until someone steps up and asks where I am going and if I am taking off early. $Me: Wherever I please, now that I have been fired. I just grin like I won the lottery as I leave him standing, staring staring like a goldfish that is spontanously trying to evolve lungs but failing. Deep down I wish and hope that me walking out now might make a point on how bad things are going. But I doubt it. Outside the sun is greeting me with a warm sunshine, the rain is gone, and all I can do is bask at the glorious warm light that is embracing me as I step out from the musky air of the office. Finally there is an end to this Nightmare. No more incompetent Teamleads. No more Incompetent Bosses. Well, at least not anymore in this place but there will be others, of that I am sure. It is over and I can breathe freely again. And by God, this fresh rain heavy air feels like Ambrosia in my lungs. But first things first and I get out my phone and a little card from my wallet. I gotta call my Union. They will not be happy with me being fired. Lets see how much this will bite my Ex-Boss in the ass. As it turns out. Plenty. Edit: I will update when I get more info from my union. Right now we are still exchanging legal. And legal stuff always takes time. As for the legal update: I got a call by my Union Rep. Union Rep: Am I speaking with $Me? $Me: This is me. Union Rep: Hi, I am XYZ from the Union and I just wanted to ask, the Documents you brought to us are all the documents you have received? $Me: Yes. I came right after work to you. Union Rep: Interesting. There seems to be a Writ of Authority to be missing from your Boss. English people might know it as the Quo Warranto, meaning that my Boss basically did not show me that he has the right to fire me. There are cases where it is obvious that people have said right, if HR fires you for example, but with my boss it was only him and his secretary. No one else. $Me: So, what does that mean? Union Rep: We will write a letter to your boss that we, in your stead, deny that he has the authority to fire you. And after that we will see how he reacts to that. $Me: Sounds good to me. And now its back to the waiting game again. [link] [comments]  |
| Why would a hole punch even help here Posted: 07 Feb 2020 12:25 PM PST First time poster and on mobile, sorry if the formatting is weird. $me = me $user = normal user $hp = hole puncher Quick one for ya folks but I think you might like it. At my location we have badges for accessing doors and computers. Occasionally we have to replace them and that was the case today for $user. For this user she gets two badges, one for the doors/computer and one to indicate her title. The title badge is pretty big and hard to put in the plastic sleeves Per usual for new badges I ran through the badge set up and updated the necessary systems to provide access on the new badge. Then I walked over to $user. $me: Hey $user, here's your new badges. Let me take your old one and we'll be all set $user and $me both think, hey, they're probably going to trim the bigger title badge because it's inert. No harm no foul. And I start going over the badge access with $user for a moment. $hp: -proceeds to put a hole punch in the middle of the door/computer badge- $user & $me: wat We tested immediately on a nearby computer - no reaction. Test on a door - no reaction. $me: ... I'll go set up a new access badge, here's your old one. $user: ...thanks It turns out $hp had done something similar to a different user and my guess is she missed the rfid chip that time. I'm thinking of sending an all user email stating that badges from IT are not to be trimmed or adjusted in anyway. [link] [comments]  |
| You're one of them, aren't you? Posted: 07 Feb 2020 02:20 AM PST I work at a small IT business in the Netherlands. We provide services to other businesses such as email migrations, network rollouts and regular end-user helpdesk. Meet Ms. Customer, a kind old woman who has recently started developing signs of dementia.Something to note is that Customer has started getting incredibly paranoid because of the dementia. I get a call from Customer, and she states that 'the hackers broke her printer again'. Customer also has mobility issues and since we're a small company with not a lot of people it's not possible for me to go over to said customer. After spending upwards of 10 minutes explaining how TeamViewer works, I get access to her computer. I take a look. We always teach our older customers Windows Faxing and Scanning because it's a pretty good all-in-one solution to dealing with different brands of printers. It's easy to use so we just teach them how to use it and then place a shortcut icon on their desktop. She had accidentally dragged the icon into some document folder and therefore she could no longer print or scan. I place the icon back on the desktop and explain what went wrong. She vehemently denies placing the icon in the folder and claims it just disappeared. I agree with her and tell her 'Windows just does that sometimes' (no real use in arguing something so small) and confirm the problem has been solved. She scans a document and agrees it has been fixed. I then place the teamviewer .exe on her desktop and call it 'Remote Help'. I do this so I don't have to go through the painstaking process of directing her to the TeamViewer website again. The very second she sees the TeamViewer icon appear on her desktop, her tone shifts. Her: "What is that?" Me: "It's an icon for the program we're using right now so I can more easily help you in the future. Whenever you need my help, you can just call me and click this icon." Her: "You're one of them, aren't you?", refering to the 'hackers' who keep breaking her computer. Me: "Excuse m-" She hung up. I just sat there, wondering how the conversation could take such a drastic turn. I tried to call her back, but she doesn't pick up. Told my boss, said it's a common thing with this customer and that she'll forget all about this conversation in a day. Spent the rest of the day feeling bad for scaring this woman. [link] [comments]  |
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