Talya wrote:
Arathain Kelvar wrote:
See this is what bugs me about Admin. They love to tell the billable folks what "their job description is". And they are almost universally wrong. But, even if they were correct, it STILL doesn't matter. Because everyone's job description is to pull together and service the client.
You have no idea how corporations work internally, do you?
LOL
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"Your guys" are not the boss, who we work for.
No, you don't work for them, you support them.
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Your field is not more important, and despite your little prima donna act, the "admin" types (who do not represent one department either, you're lumping the entire rest of the company into "them" and setting yourself above them) do not answer to you.
Actually, yes, some of them do. Regardless, for an engineering company engineering is the most important field. Yes. Without the engineers, you guys would have a nice fancy network, and no paycheck.
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What your'e saying might be true if the client was paying for the service directly, but they are not. They have a contract.
With the engineers. Admin has ZERO contracts. That is why they are unbillable.
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Your management gets together with the management of IT (it doesn't matter that they work for the same company. The managementof IT has equal authority to the management of any other department.
No, he doesn't. 100% of executives are engineers.
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Anything outside that SLA that is done by your IT department is being done as a favor to you.
It's their job.
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Not only are they not obligated to do it, but it is usually detrimental to the company bottom line for them to go beyond the SLA, as it takes IT resources away from where your department management already decided they were needed most.
That's nonsense. Admin folks are CHEAPER than engineers. Assuming they don't have any critical issues at the moment (which sometimes they do), they need to be helping out where the are needed. Again, I'm not paying an engineer's wage to do something an admin can do for cheaper. Having an engineer work on non-billable tasks is the fastest way to destroy the bottom line.
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While Engineer Joe is getting help figuring out how to type a **** web address into a browser and so incompetent he takes 20 minutes to do it, Engineer Steve cannot do his job because his computer has completely crashed and Engineer Joe is monopolizing IT with his trivial bullshit.
Then IT needs to start putting in some more hours. Maybe one day they'll start rivaling the engineers.
To be fair, some of them work their assess off. IT more than any others. Accounting and marketing need to step it up.
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So you should dump your arrogance and realize that when the department gives the collective "**** you" (and they will, with management support) to someone for making demands not supported by the SLA, they are ultimately benefiting the shareholder and the profits.
First thing you are forgetting, is that I am management. Management are engineers and are client-oriented people. They will all agree that client needs must be addressed. IT does not give the engineers a "**** you". They assist first, and if they see a potential problem developing, they bring it up at the next managers meeting (where more than likely, we'll tell them to develop a training or something to fix it).
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IT provides the services they are contracted to do as a department, and nothing more. If you want more, you have to pay for it. In advance, as part of the contract.
Again, IT has no contracts here, or in any other company I've worked for. (1100 employees)
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Also...
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They love to tell the billable folks what "their job description is"....Regardless, the only folks in this company with an actual technical job description are the admin folks. The other descriptons are generic, as the specifics rely on the current contract...I love this response. This is the fastest way for Admin to be shown the door in my company.
The arrogance here is amazing. First of all, you have no clue what the individual job descriptions are of people in other departments.
Sure I do. I can look it up anytime.
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Secondly, I'm discussing IT as a departmental whole, not individual job descriptions. Thirdly, no engineer can get an IT person fired, especially when the IT person is giving the response they have been told to give by their management. The figurative "**** you" response is FREQUENTLY mandated.
With permission from the engineers (here).
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"You are not give support beyond what the customer is entitled to get." In most companies, helpdesk agents can get written up for too often giving help that the customer is not entitled to get from them, because it sets a precedent and unreasonable expectations which will result in later escalations.
We're not customers. (here, or anywhere else I've worked)
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Oh yeah - remember how I said admin's supposed to provide support? That includes redirecting the engineers to the appropriate personnel. So no - don't stick them somewhere, show them where to take them.
This is such a wonderful "pot-kettle" moment. I love it when people call IT and demand to know the number for the tax department. Or even another unrelated IT department. **** off, IT isn't a directory service.
LOL you'd last 5 minutes in my company.
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Especially in a large company, one division won't even know another division exists. If you call the wrong place, don't expect to get any information. You know what you said about billable hours and not wanting to pay engineer rates for him to learn computer stuff? Great. So why do you want to pay IT rates for something you're supposed to call the switchboard for?
Even for large companies, this is fine. Say "call the switchboard - 555-5555". The holier-than-thou attitude is unnecessary.
I'm upper management. You know what I'd say if some intern walked into my office and asked me IT's number? I'd say hang on, let's see, it's 555-5555.
Know why? I'm not a prick.