I get so MAD!

October 18th, 2006 at 08:21pm Posted by Bill

My 9-5 job (which is actually 7am-4pm, but whatever) is computer support. More specifically, there are six of us who support 800+ users, 1000+ PCs, 250+ printers, and various other pieces of networking equipment, spread out over many locations in the Portland area.

Doing tech support in a corporate environment is interesting, and is very different from supporting the general public. I did that for several years, taking calls on Gateway’s 800 number for general tech support, and I know I’ll never go back. There are too many uncontrollable variables to contend with when trying to help Joe Sixpack get the kid’s new computer game Santa left in the stocking to run on the old family PC.

In a corporate environment, on the other hand, especially in-house on-site support like I and my co-workers do, we have a great deal of control over that which we support. All PC are generally configured identically; users don’t have the ability to install any software (since it may be incompatible and/or unlicensed, or may break the computer); we can take remote control of any PC on the network from our own desk; and we are all certified to troubleshoot and submit warranty parts replacement requests to the PC manufacturers. And generally, we are respected by our co-workers, the users that we support.

All this makes for a pretty enjoyable work environment.

However, there are always going to be frustrations. After reading Tanya’s recent blog entry, I was inspired to share some of my tales of frustration with you. So here begins a continuing series I will call…

Supporting Corporate Users Sometimes Exercises My Endurance

Or, ‘SCUSE ME? for short.

Here is the first of many stories…

Lisa* is a user who travels between many of our locations, so her computer is a laptop, and she has a docking station, monitor, keyboard and mouse that stay at her desk. She called me a few mornings ago:

Me: “IT Help Desk, this is Bill.”
Lisa: “I need to log in to Lenny’s* laptop, but Lenny is already logged in to it and he has locked it with his password.”
Me (seeing from the phone display that she is calling from her own desk):
“You need to log in to Lenny’s laptop at your own desk? Is something wrong with your own laptop?”
Lisa: “No, but it’s too heavy this morning, so I left it in my car. When I got upstairs, I saw that Lenny wasn’t in the office today, so I took his laptop and brought it here.”
Me: “I can force Lenny’s account to disconnect from his laptop, but he will lose any documents he may have open that he has not yet saved. I’m not really comfortable doing that without checking with him first.”
Lisa: “Well, he’s going to be out all day, and his manager said that it was OK, he probably won’t lose any important data.”

After verifying with Lenny’s manager that he does in fact approve of this, I forced Lenny’s account off, and helped Lisa log in. Keep in mind that the laptop weighs a little over four pounds and is in a lightweight case that has a padded handle and shoulder strap, and she travels with it almost daily. For some reason, it was just “too heavy” for her that day.

* All real names have been replaced with names of Simpsons characters.

Entry Filed under: Work, 'SCUSE ME?