Having worked in IT for almost 17 years now, it amazes me how users act in the workplace. Currently working at a company in the manufacturing industry everyone is all about processes and streamlining them. There is a process for everything and the users all seem to abide by them all except where IT is involved. Having a well-documented process for seeking assistance appears to be a waste of time. Support processes have been streamlined yet users are not willing to follow the process or rules.
Having to work in a cubicle and be the only person on site to handle the complex projects and implementations as well as the day to day operations is impossible. Nothing makes implementing that new file server easier than the user thinks that they will get an immediate response by yelling at you from their cubicle 20 feet away.
Working in an office and having the door closed is no easy feat either, nothing like the constant barrage of “Can you do…” and “Do you think…” as your door flies open unexpectedly. Lock the door you say, it’s like my cat at home scratching at the door while I am in the shower of a morning, only the cat is much cuter in its actions.
I have had users in my career literally send me an e-mail and then get up from their desk walk across the office and then approach my desk and ask the fated “Did you get my e-mail?” question. Most organizations I have worked for have some sort of ticketing system for tracking issues. This is to document support requests so they are not lost in a shuffle of emails, and or paper on one’s desk. It also allows for IT to see where the frequent issues are and begin looking at the bigger picture of such items like a switch going bad or network cabling that has been chewed by rats.
Having gone through the training required to obtain my Six Sigma Green Belt only makes me appreciate the ticket tracking system all that much more. This is the data that is used to look for trends and then take the appropriate corrective actions. I feel that all users should have to go through this training which not only better their problem-solving skills on the job but will also let them see why the ticketing system is so important to IT.
It’s also really amazing that in today’s day and age users can’t even figure out how to change their password when it comes time. I mean how hard is it really to enter your current password and then pick a new one and enter it twice? I had a recent incident with a user that could not get the new password to match twice this receiving an error message. The users response to this was “It’s not working!”, yet there screen clearly stated that the new password that they entered did not match the two fields that they typed it into.
The whole “It’s not working!” just eats me up. I love the tickets titled “HELP!” with no other indication of what might be wrong. I had a crystal ball, but it stopped working and I had to take it in for repairs, so pardon me for being at a slight disadvantage and not able to read your mind. It’s like the time I had a user email me and tell me the famous “It’s not working, please fix.” to which I promptly replied, “What is it that is not working?” only to have “I can’t import.” sent back as the response /facepalm. I asked the user if they could be a bit more specific as there are close to 101 applications in use that are capable of doing the said “Import” function they had mentioned. At this point, I get back a snotty response and yet they said then needed to get this said “Import” done by 3:30 pm. It was about this time I gave up and worked on other things.