The Glade 4.0

Spoken like a user.

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

I wish I could be a special little snowflake and rely on another department to do my job too.

Arathain's responses remind me of my students who invariably, every semester, give me the same sob story about not being able to print out any CAD assignments they get. The mean old computer presented a login window, and they didn't know what to enter! But rather than take five minutes to walk to the helpdesk and ask, I get the panicked, "OMG! Can't print! Need extension!" email.

Try working on it earlier than an hour before your **** deadline.

_________________
Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I love being the "help desk". I guess it has to do with patience.

Not everyone concerns themselves with the ins and outs of a computer. My work enviroment is a perfect example of that. A large number of the folks who need my help only use a computer because they have too. I have zero problem helping user #9 change his password or set up his email for the 5th time in six months. I get paid to "help" these folks with their computer issues, along with other duties. I think it would be wrong to belittle them just because they have problems with password length and complexity. I put myself in their shoes. If they asked me to change out the prop on a T-6 or run oil sample tests at NDI, I'd look at them like they just spoke Chinese...to them, those jobs are as easy as I think it is to save a word doc to a shared folder.

I do my job like my dad did his. I'm paid to do certain tasks. I do it to the best of my ability and with a good attitude. The folks I help are my customers and if I want a good attitude from them, it only makes sense for me to have a good attitude toward them. There's a reason people go out of their way or wait longer to deal with me than one of my co-workers. He acts like a lot of the folks posting in this thread.

_________________
"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

This has nothing to do with anyone being a prick or getting a kick out of ridiculing people. If you're expected to use a computer as part of your job, you should be able to operate commonplace software like a web browser, and follow simple insrtructions regarding it when asking for help.

This would be like me asking for help changing magazines at firearms qualification. If you can't understand how to switch magazines after brief instruction, you shouldn't be handling a gun.

To be clear, its not the needing help with the password that's ridiculous, its being unable to follow the instructions of the guy helping you.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

If we stretch "stupid" to include "incompetence", we can check these two off.





Check.







Check.

No all I need is for someone to complain about how abused help desk folks are, and we'll be set:

If using a computer is something required by your job, and you do not know the basics on how to use your computer, you are not qualified to do your job.

However, as I said in my blog, thank you for not recognizing this. It causes a chain reaction throughout IT, causing IT departments to staff far more people across the board than they would otherwise require. This is ultimately good for people working in IT. Bad for your company bottom line, but hey, you're one of the ones who wouldn't hold people to minimum levels of competence.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Nope.

_________________
"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

I've always found the IT tendency to "judge" people's abilities to do their job strange.

For example, my staff all use computers to perform modeling, design, geospatial analysis, whatever. They are all highly proficient. They have all had computer issues at one time or another. Certainly not all of this would be considered prime for ridicule, but I'm sure some of it is. So IT's making judgments on my staff's ability to do their jobs? Silliness.

Further, though I do not hire IT profs, I do periodically hire a tech writer, for example. My staff should be able to write. It's certainly in their job description. But if I can get a better product more efficiently by having it go through tech editing, I will. I view IT the same way. If I can get a better product or get it done more quickly, guess who's getting the call? IT's opinion on my staff's computer-literacy is not my #1 concern.

If manager says you are qualified to do your job, you are qualified to do your job.

Because management is infallible!
Nevermind that it costs your shareholders millions...

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Blanket statements like the one she just spouted off are silly. I guess if you flip that around, because Taly knows how to use computers, she can fix a jet.

_________________
"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

Nope.

No one is saying that everyone using a computer at work needs to actually be able to fix real problems with the computer.

What they should be able to do, however, is follow simple on screen instructions like "click here to reset your password," "check your email," "type a new password here." They should have basic understanding of computer functions like creating folders and organizing files.

Exactly. And yet the vast majority of calls to helpdesks are not computer problems. They are user problems, with things just as simple as you describe. Each one of those calls is 5-10 minutes of lost worker productivity, and 10-20 minutes of time you have to pay someone to be ready to take those calls. Then for every extra few full time bodies, you need another tier 2 support person to look after them. And management personel. And Tier 3 support, etc. It doesn't sound like much, but if every user spends 10 minutes on the phone for something unnecessary as infrequently as once a month, for a medium-sized company like the one I work for (about 45,000 employees world-wide), that's 7500 lost man-hours of work per month, and likely 15,000 more hours of helpdesk time spent (factoring about double the time they spend on the phone to handle peak call volumes)... it all adds up to a hell of a lot of money, that could be saved merely by hiring the guy who all of his job, instead of just the non-computer-related stuff.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Left click is not to click while dragging your mouse to the left, one should understand what dragging means, right click, double click, browser, and program at a minimum. Knowing where the start button is is a plus.

As an aside I've given up giving people my title it conveys no information. Of course that is when I have one title right now one part of the company considers me a sys admin and another side I am a technical writer. The only thing I write are occasional articles for other support teams, edit ones for the service desk that are no longer applicable or delete them. I don't know what system I administrate either because I don't even have admin rights on my own machine for what I am doing let alone AD admin over ever domain...so...I am an "IT drone".

_________________
"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Jim can make it **** rain. He's a fast rising super-star with a knack for breaking down business systems, doing top down valuations, hammering nonsensical supply chains into lean, mean logistics, and is one of the best negotiators the company has ever seen. Jim isn't super computer savvy, and stumbles through basic things like setting up his passwords.

Ed works in the IT helpdesk department at the same company. He shows up for work reliably for his 40-50 hour work week, and between taking calls, posts his thoughts to internet message boards. He's largely fungible, and can be easily replaced by a multitude of other individuals both within his own department and externally with a five minute seach on monster.com. Ed is capable, having several certifications, but is far from dynamic; if he was dynamic he'd be enjoying much more gainful employment as an external IT systems consultant who gets brought in when the **** hits the fan.

Not only is Jim more than qualified to do his job, Jim is the reason that Ed has a job. Ed provides value to the company only in-so-far as he makes it easier for Jim to make it rain. Ed looks completely absurd when he ***** about Jim's lack of qualifications. Ed should probably keep his rants to himself so that Jim doesn't make sure Ed finds out exactly how fungible he really is.

_________________

Ezekiel 23:19-20 

I think every person working in IT support would be happier if there were no need for their job and they could do something more productive with their skill sets.

I, for one, am not saying that the salesman isn't qualified to do his job because he has no basic computer skills. I'm well aware that what it would take for him to be unqualified for his sales position would be an inability to sell a product.

What I am saying is ... he has no basic computer skills, and it boggles me that such a thing is possible for someone who actually uses a computer at work every day.

On the other hand, he would be perfectly justified if he found amusement in the fact that I have poor people skills. In response to which I would simply point out that that's why I don't do sales work.

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

This is more than reasonable.

_________________

Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Here's the difference between "Jim" and every other user. "Jim" really is a special **** snowflake. People like "Jim" have support staff. "Jim" is the kind of guy who has his own secretary, and nobody comes to "Jim's" secretary to get her to type up cover letters for them.

The issue is everybody who's not "Jim" - by the way, that's most of the company. The rest of the **** in the company need to know how to set a password, or get the **** out. Sort of like how they need to type their own goddamn cover letters, or get the **** out. They don't get the same concessions that "Jim" gets, because they aren't "Jim". They don't make it rain, and unlike "Ed," they aren't even "Jim's" go-to guy when he's got a problem outside his skillset. Their asses are more fungible than "Ed".

_________________
Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Nobody's saying that either. But manager is more qualified to make that assessment than IT_01.

+1 Note that amusement /= ridicule.

Interesting response, considering manager is who defines the qualifications for the job.

Yeah, we have people like Jim in our company. Not many, even in a company of 45,000 employees, but there are a few. People like Jim don't call helpdesks. People like Jim have got their own dedicated support team (even if it's only a brilliant executive assistant) that have no other responsibilities other than assisting Jim. In the event the helpdesk must be called over one of Jim's computer problems, he isn't the one that calls it in, and the person that does has already checked to ensure Jim is not just being Jim. Chances are, Jim doesn't even log on to his computer. His assistant is (against security regulations) the one that keeps track of his passwords, and has all his necessary applications already up and running and on the screen he expects them to see.

The vast majority of computer illiterate people in a company have only one required employment skill - using a goddamn computer. And they can't do it.

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █