Best to feign ignorance with IT?

[NutBucket]

Solution: Know the network guy personally. Working at the same company for over a decade has it's perks. Forget calling the helpdesk, just call the technician!

 

[Chapbass]

4 kinds of people that I support.

1. People who don't have a clue when it comes to a computer.
These people are fun to support they generally just do their work and are even afraid to surf the net. They never really have a problem.

2. People who have no clue but seem to break everything.
These people are a nightmare to support. Every other month they do stupid stuff like rip a laptop off a docking station while it is still powered on and take it home and wonder why it won't connect VPN or their PC crashes and can't tell you what they were doing at the the time of the crash.

3. People who think they are tech savoy but are not.
These people are the the worst of the bunch. These people tend to be programs or project mangers that think they are super tech. These are the guys who try fixing their problems themselves by shutting off services, deleting system files turning off anti viruses, downloading non approved software ect. Also these people won't shut up and try telling you how to fix something when you are working on it. I'd like to punch these guys in the face and say if you know how to fix it then why you call me to come fix it.

4. People who know what they are doing.
I love to support these guys. You can tell right away when dealing with them that they know what they are doing. They give you good details of the problem and know what you are talking about when the asking simple questions

No one cares about monitoring you because who really got time for that.

This post is gold. Agreed 100%.

 

[Chapbass]

Solution: Know the network guy personally. Working at the same company for over a decade has it's perks. Forget calling the helpdesk, just call the technician!

I absolutely hate this. The helpdesk is there for a reason. I hang up on people who call me directly for work related things, I have better things to do.

 

[NutBucket]

I only call the guy once every few years. Plus, the guy told me to call him if I need help. Sheesh.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm the closest thing to IT we have. So far there hasn't been any huge problems, but that day will probably come. I suppose I should see if the backups on the server someone setup are actually doing anything. I have a project I've been putting off that largely stems from no one knowing what the server's doing, and the backups being worthless :^/

 

[Jeff7]

"It depends."

Possible consequences:
- IT will watch you. Closely. You might be able to find some of their dirty secrets, and how their system is a deck of carefully-placed playing cards made of used toilet paper. Or you might show someone how you could do their job far more effectively.
- You'll be reported for attempting to breach system security because they've never seen tracert before.
- IT will be relieved to know that they have a reasonably competent user. You might even get admin privileges on your PC.
- They'll listen to your suggestions for improvements or requests for help because they know that you've genuinely encountered a real problem at needs to be solved - not "I don't like how windows have gray areas. Gray's not a 'nature' color. Can you make them not be that way?"
- Other people will find out that you know how to solve computer problems. If this happens, be prepared to properly end your life, for it will effectively be over anyway.

4 kinds of people that I support.
...

4. People who know what they are doing.
I love to support these guys. You can tell right away when dealing with them that they know what they are doing. They give you good details of the problem and know what you are talking about when the asking simple questions

No one cares about monitoring you because who really got time for that.

a) But we're the ones who, if we do screw up, we do it thoroughly. Very thoroughly. We're the ones who have access to the more powerful tools so that we can work more efficiently. But with great power comes great Spiderman. Or something like that.
You know, like running a script that's supposed to rename a few files. But then it escapes and starts renaming everything it can find. Soon the phones are down and all customers are called "filename000124125." Or discovering some kind of terribly obscure bug on the server and it then proceeds to auto-email a blast of error alerts to the IT director before seizing up completely.

b) We'll have complex requests. It's not questions like "I have two columns of numbers in Excel. How do I add them together and add 5% to the result?"
It's things that would lead to a nice efficiency improvement for the company, but which will take a week of planning and a month to implement.
Then when it's finally done 6 months later (welcome to the real world), instead of a response of "Thank you for doing that hard math stuff in Excel! You're so smart!" you'll be met with "Ok, good. This should be very useful. But I did find a few other things that the new code completely broke."




Not that I've done those specific things...........
*cough*



(Yes, I have an admin-level account, thank god. I don't have to work with soft mittens and a helmet all day. And I was so kindly granted one of the most capable PCs in the building.)

 

[zCypher]

I'm always very relieved when I realize someone actually knows what they are doing; most of the time people are painfully clueless, including technical support staff - sometimes they are even worse than the end user, hard to believe but it's true!

You know there is no hope when someone who has been thoroughly trained and has years of experience supporting ADSL still cannot make the distinction between physical and logical.

 

[Wyndru]

We just use applocker and grant people who request additional software temporary admin rights. We also allow installs through SCCM software self service. These days most people are tech savvy so it doesn't matter much anymore. And if they screw up their system we just submit a zero touch installation and ask them to wait for a bit.

 

[solsa]

I'm afraid if I do that then IT people will know I am computer savvy and will keep their eyes on me all the time

It depends on the general attitude of people in your workplace.

 

[biostud]

do you use some kind of ip blocking program?

 

[Ichinisan]

I think I'm the only one in my building with unrestricted access on my workstation. I've been here longer than our desktop support guy and he trusts 100% that I know what I'm doing. Restricting my workstation would only result in more work for him.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm always very relieved when I realize someone actually knows what they are doing; most of the time people are painfully clueless, including technical support staff - sometimes they are even worse than the end user, hard to believe but it's true!

You know there is no hope when someone who has been thoroughly trained and has years of experience supporting ADSL still cannot make the distinction between physical and logical.

Hahaha that is true. I used to work at the helpdesk and we did business ADSL among lot of other things like managed services, internal support, 611 etc.... The residential helpdesk were as clueless as the users who where calling.

One time we got an escalation, this poor old lady had been having issues for a long time. Every time she called they would just tell her to put another filter on her phone and I'm guessing they'd send her some. She had like 15 filters in line for the same phone. :awe: I forget what the actual issue was but it was solved that day by one of us.

This happened a lot where a residential trouble would come to us because the res techs could not figure it out. There was even some instances where one of us just went to their house to look at it because it seemed nobody could figure it out. Basically any "weird" problem that a new modem wont fix they had trouble with.