Baltimoremick.com

Seeing Mokie’s post on Wednesday about the joys of working in IT reminded me of some of my favorite parts of working in this line of work. Now, I will be the first to admit that I like doing this stuff. By my nature, I like solving problems. One of the fun things in IT is getting presented with a problem or need and then creating the solution to meet that need or resolve that problem. I like being the guy to help people out and get them on their merry way.  As some of you know, I really like helping folks out with their computers. 

That said, there are some things about being the IT manager at the office that just continue to rankle me.  Here are my rants, in no particular order. 

• If it is at all technical and it is broken or requires something to be replaced, you will be asked to take care of it. 

• The most recent example I have of this was when someone asked me about a problem with the fax machine.  Apparently, our fax machine was printing out an extra page when receiving some faxes.  It did not do this for all faxes, but since it involved something technical I had to resolve it.  I looked at the manuals for the fax machine, but there was nothing in their troubleshooting section and there was not a readily apparent setting on the fax machine.  A quick Google search, though, turned up an online troubleshooter that identified the problem as an incorrect paper size setting on the fax machine.  Problem resolved, and it took a minimal amount of Googling.  The same thing happens with all things copier-related.  Just because the copier happens to be connected to my network does not mean that I am the person to come to if you need to replace one of the color toner cartridges or the staple pack.  Some of these things can be easily accomplished by reading the friggin’ manual or, in the case of the copier, opening it and reviewing the graphical instructions on the inside of the door. 

• My firm does a lot of work at client sites.  In some cases, the clients will allow our staff to use their Internet connectivity.  Inevitable, some of these sites are pretty restrictive in the access they allow.  Sometimes, they block the use of our VPN client.  In other cases, all web browsing must pass through a proxy server.  Inevitably, I get calls from my users that although they are connected, they cannot access the Internet.  Now, the first problem with this is they are asking me to resolve a problem in which I have little environmental knowledge, e.g., I do not know what the security policies are at the remote site, I do not know how they connect to the Internet, etc.  In other words, I have no idea how the remote place is setup.  Thus, I am of really little value in fixing the connectivity problem.  Nonetheless, I wind up spending 20-30 minutes of my time looking at some potential settings while reminding the user that there is little I can do to fix the problem.  Situations like this remind me how much I want to invent the remote dope slap machine. 

• As we all know, the best time to ask your friendly IT guy to fix a problem is the very first moment they walk in the door, with little warning or ability for them to put their laptop bag and coffee down at their desk.  Indeed, we IT types are fickle beasts.  Nonetheless, how about the common courtesy of letting me actually get my coat off and get into the office.  I don’t immediately hound you when I hear you arrive in the office, so please don’t do the same to me. 
• My recent example of b.) is when one of my users decided to call me about one problem and then mentioned to me that they are having problems at home.  There is very little I can do if neither of us are where we need to be to troubleshoot the problem.  At that point, all we can discuss are potential causes and solutions to the problem, with very little progress in actually fixing the problem.  Feel free to ask about that problem that occurs when you are home while you are in the office, though.  Chances are we won’t solve the problem.