office rant

mrCide

Diamond Member
Nov 27, 1999
6,187
0
76
So, I've been working at a pretty decent place for about 5 months. Comparing to my last couple jobs, it's heaven. I'm a Sys Admin for a health services company with many facilities, we got a department of 7--Me, another sys admin, network/hardware tech, project manager, help desk tech, and support/training, and our boss, director.

I'm of course well versed in help desk support but i was practically promised that as sys admin i wouldn't be bothered to do that type of stuff since we have 2 others that fill that roll, no problem. As time went on, the support/training woman realized I know my shit, and started taking advantage of it. As a new guy I didn't mind helping out, she'd call for help or questions with stuff, more and more often. Keep in mind, this is for very basic troubleshooting, in addition to the 'I'm too busy can you help by doing this for me, it needs to be done right away" rhetoric.

I got fed up last week when we setup a server software upgrade on our test network for her to verify--she got frustrated because Word wasn't installed on the server and she had 'nowhere' to put her screenshots. Never mind there are a hundred ways to do this, she got mad because I'm 'making things difficult.'

Sparing anymore details, she again got frustrated with me today for the same reasons. She 'had' to leave to another facility and wanted me to finish up what she was doing on a phone call with our vendor, again for this same test system, because I'm 'here.' I basically got on her case about how just because I'm around doesn't mean I have nothing better to do than do her job for her. She apologies, says that's not how she means to come off--little does she know that I know she thinks that I have nothing better to do all day.. so that's how she justifies asking me to take things off her plate.

Anyway, I feel bad/shitty that I have to confront a co-worker so soon into my job, and I'm always willing to help those who try to help themselves, but this woman is just a whole other case. What would you guys have done?


cliffs;
- co-worker gets frustrated i don't help her/do her job, thinks i'm always available for it
- i tell co-worker i got more important things to do than her job
- i feel bad for confronting her because i'm a relatively new employee
 

wheresmybacon

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2004
3,899
1
76
She's support and training and keeps asking for you to do her job? Tell her no.

I'm also a sysadmin, and if I hadn't learned to say no a long time ago I'd be supporting just about anything that plugs in to an AC outlet.

Sounds like more than anything you guys need to clarify your roles so you aren't constantly being pulled away to do work that's not yours.
 

newb111

Diamond Member
Oct 8, 2003
6,991
1
81
Originally posted by: mrCide
i'm passive, don't like confrontation at the office i guess.

Then let her walk all over you, and don't confront her again.
 

isekii

Lifer
Mar 16, 2001
28,578
3
81
lol there are always bitches at work trying to pass on their shit to the new person.

tell her to screw off.
 

OdiN

Banned
Mar 1, 2000
16,430
3
0
Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Gah, I hate it when people use Word to send me screenshots anyway.

I just sent you an Access database with OLE fields filled with screenshots. Can you take a look at that for me?
 

mrCide

Diamond Member
Nov 27, 1999
6,187
0
76
Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Gah, I hate it when people use Word to send me screenshots anyway.

Which is why I basically told her to screw off when she asked. She ended up using Wordpad, then bitching cause the formatting didn't auto fit it to the screen, then resizing it and complaining about how small it is (nevermind that it's always that small). Ah, I could go on and on about her and her antics.

To the person who said then let her, I obviously didn't when enough was enough so that's not the point, really this was to see how other people react. I'm generally a nice guy like i said.

to the person who asked for pics.. she's 58, still interested?
 

Krazy4Real

Lifer
Oct 3, 2003
12,221
55
91
It's good that you did what you did. Now you can focus on the job they are paying you to do.
 

child of wonder

Diamond Member
Aug 31, 2006
8,307
176
106
Sounds a little like my job.

I'm a Sys Admin (title is Network Engineer but I do very little with the network) and we have a system in place where 4 people watch our trouble ticket system primarily while the other 6 of us are their backups. Well, the other Sys Admin is leaving for 5 months and all the tickets he did are being passed on to me. This includes everything from basic PC and printer troubleshooting to big time issues.

We're trying to get our boss to hire someone on to do ONLY help desk to get all this petty stuff away from the rest of us. Hopefully he'll agree.