Dear Users… (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people) Part 10

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Dear User: I know you are very, very proud of your project initiative to send appointment reminders to patients. However --and this is something you apparently didn't know-- patients who have died are not going to come in for future appointments. Not even if they've received a reminder and even confirmed it! Shocking, I know. But such is the modern lack of manners.

Also you should probably think about excluding patients who are suing us for malpractice. Even if they're willing to come in do we really want them to?

Love,
The Bleeding Obvious
 
Argh!

Them: We want to add things to the data extract!
Me: What do you want to add?
Them: We don't know, exactly!
Me: Here's a list of what is currently in there.
[weeks later]
Them: Yes, this list looks good, add those!
Me: I don't need to add those, that's what's on there now. You said you wanted to add other, different things.
Them: Did we? Oh, yeah!
Me: What?
Them: We don't know!
[weeks later]
Them: Okay, add these!
Me: Are you sure? Some of these look very wrong.
Them: Nah, they're fine.
Me: Are you suuuuuuuuuuure? Because some of them are not only wrong, they are contemptibly nonsensical. [Shows them specific ones]
Them: Oh, yeah, those are wrong. Don't add those! We'll have somebody look through these!
Me: Who? When?
Them: We don't know!
[weeks later]
Them: Why isn't this done yet?
[weeks later]
Them: Okay, we have the list! Add these! [submits the list I sent them of what's already on there]
Me: ....it'll be done in a month. [Does nothing, and data extract continues to run as it always has.]
Them: We work great as a team!!!!
 
"Covering my ass" is not a free action. It takes time.

The time I spend documenting that I talked to someone, proving that I tried to contact them X number of times within a Y time frame, updating the tickets to say the same, and stuff of that nature is not "Zero."

If I spend all my time scared that someone might argue that I didn't jump to their request as fast as they want to so I have to keep a quick draw holster full of "Per my last e-mails" at the ready, I'm not going to have enough time to fix as much stuff.

I hate having to cover my ass as much as I do anyway. It shouldn't be as much of my job as it is. But you can't demand I do and expect it to never take time.
 
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TragicMonkey said:
Argh!

Them: We want to add things to the data extract!
Me: What do you want to add?
Them: We don't know, exactly!
Me: Here's a list of what is currently in there.
[weeks later]
Them: Yes, this list looks good, add those!
Me: I don't need to add those, that's what's on there now. You said you wanted to add other, different things.
Them: Did we? Oh, yeah!
Me: What?
Them: We don't know!
[weeks later]
Them: Okay, add these!
Me: Are you sure? Some of these look very wrong.
Them: Nah, they're fine.
Me: Are you suuuuuuuuuuure? Because some of them are not only wrong, they are contemptibly nonsensical. [Shows them specific ones]
Them: Oh, yeah, those are wrong. Don't add those! We'll have somebody look through these!
Me: Who? When?
Them: We don't know!
[weeks later]
Them: Why isn't this done yet?
[weeks later]
Them: Okay, we have the list! Add these! [submits the list I sent them of what's already on there]
Me: ....it'll be done in a month. [Does nothing, and data extract continues to run as it always has.]
Them: We work great as a team!!!!
Click to expand...

That sounds familiar. One of my first professional tasks was setting up an automated file transfer system with a partner company. There were literally hundreds of files that were being set up. We spent months carefully designing a folder structure and naming convention for every file, so that the right files went to the right places and went through the right automated processes. We'd go through an entire hour-long weekly meeting with them nitpicking the exact name for an individual file. We had a ten page spreadsheet printed on 11x17 paper that listed the file names, locations, contacts, etc for everything.

First week, they paid zero attention to it at all. We had files with random names, posted in incorrect locations, naming conventions ignored, etc.

I learned how IT worked early in my career :)
 
Hellbound said:
I learned how IT worked early in my career :)
Click to expand...
Would that many of my callers could say the same. I got a followup call from someone this morning less than half an hour after their original call was logged. No, we haven't fixed your extremely minor problem yet because we have a user base of some 6,500 people in a dozen different major and minor government agencies. Sometimes stuff takes time.
 
arthwollipot said:
Sometimes stuff takes time.
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Indeed, it does. The people I'm working with on one project are far Too Important (in their own minds: they're only middle level management) to bother opening tickets themselves, they have me do it for them when work needs to be completed by other departments. Which means they rely on me, and me alone, to put in the ticket, update it, and send it on its way.

Guess how quickly I'm going to get the latest one updated with the necessary information for the next team over to take over and get the work completed?

Not long, actually: I'm going to get it done tomorrow!

At 4:05 p.m. Because I happen to know the person who will be doing the rest of this work clocks out at 4:00 p.m. And is on vacation for two weeks starting Thursday.
 
Hellbound said:
That sounds familiar. One of my first professional tasks was setting up an automated file transfer system with a partner company. There were literally hundreds of files that were being set up. We spent months carefully designing a folder structure and naming convention for every file, so that the right files went to the right places and went through the right automated processes. We'd go through an entire hour-long weekly meeting with them nitpicking the exact name for an individual file. We had a ten page spreadsheet printed on 11x17 paper that listed the file names, locations, contacts, etc for everything.

First week, they paid zero attention to it at all. We had files with random names, posted in incorrect locations, naming conventions ignored, etc.

I learned how IT worked early in my career :)
Click to expand...

Had a similar, though kind of reverse, thing with canned reports we'd worked out for several types of standard testing in the engineering lab. Spent weeks in meetings working out the minutia and exact phrasing that would build the report and what data limits triggers what particular phraseology. Data collection was automated and now report generation was automated as well. All said and done, first report out of the system and the engineering manager won't sign it without some changes to the phrasing.

Fine, I made manual changes to that one report, left the canned system the same and he never had an issues, probably never noticed, with any future canned report.
 
Hellbound said:
That sounds familiar. One of my first professional tasks was setting up an automated file transfer system with a partner company. There were literally hundreds of files that were being set up. We spent months carefully designing a folder structure and naming convention for every file, so that the right files went to the right places and went through the right automated processes. We'd go through an entire hour-long weekly meeting with them nitpicking the exact name for an individual file. We had a ten page spreadsheet printed on 11x17 paper that listed the file names, locations, contacts, etc for everything.



First week, they paid zero attention to it at all. We had files with random names, posted in incorrect locations, naming conventions ignored, etc.



I learned how IT worked early in my career :)
Click to expand...
The joy of interfaces.
 
The Man said:
Had a similar, though kind of reverse, thing with canned reports we'd worked out for several types of standard testing in the engineering lab. Spent weeks in meetings working out the minutia and exact phrasing that would build the report and what data limits triggers what particular phraseology. Data collection was automated and now report generation was automated as well. All said and done, first report out of the system and the engineering manager won't sign it without some changes to the phrasing.

Fine, I made manual changes to that one report, left the canned system the same and he never had an issues, probably never noticed, with any future canned report.
Click to expand...

Ugh. The manager who demonstrates their value by always having to order a change, whether it's needed or not. So you leave something in just for them to take out again.
 
I'm doing a Confirmation Bias Check. I've had the impression recently that a majority of calls to the Followup line are following up on New Starter Requests, to which our answer is "yes, we've got it, we're going to do it, just be a little goddamn patient".

So far today I'm tracking 100%.
 
arthwollipot said:
I'm doing a Confirmation Bias Check. I've had the impression recently that a majority of calls to the Followup line are following up on New Starter Requests, to which our answer is "yes, we've got it, we're going to do it, just be a little goddamn patient".

So far today I'm tracking 100%.
Click to expand...

"You know the Express Request gets the job done faster, for a small fee."
 
arthwollipot said:
The thing is, we already have a process for prioritisation of jobs. It's so popular that the priority list is no faster than the non-priority list.
Click to expand...

Which is why the time is ripe to introduce a new, higher priority list! For a small fee! And when that clogs up...guess what the solution is? Money, honey! You'll be laughing all the way to the building wherein is deposited currency which can be exchanged for goods and services in your location due to the government exerting its sovereign right to assign numerical values to units of labor already performed and measured by possession of physical tokens!
 
TragicMonkey said:
Which is why the time is ripe to introduce a new, higher priority list! For a small fee! And when that clogs up...guess what the solution is? Money, honey! You'll be laughing all the way to the building wherein is deposited currency which can be exchanged for goods and services in your location due to the government exerting its sovereign right to assign numerical values to units of labor already performed and measured by possession of physical tokens!
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I do not live in the corporate capitalist world, I work for government. And government has a pesky set of standards. Making a side hustle off this would definitely get me terminated.
 
arthwollipot said:
Unfortunately I do not live in the corporate capitalist world, I work for government. And government has a pesky set of standards. Making a side hustle off this would definitely get me terminated.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I can't hear you over the roar of private sector wealth!
 
Hellbound said:
FTFY :D
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The Government Sector Employment Regulation 2014

Clause 7 provides:

A Public Service employee is not to undertake any other paid work without the permission of the agency head.
This clause does not apply to a person who is:
employed in casual employment, or
working part-time,during the period that the person is not required to perform duties in the Public Service, but only if the performance of those duties is not adversely affected and no conflict of interest arises.​

The prohibition is clear, the exception limited to a discrete category of employee and the purpose of the regulation is apparent: to ensure safety, performance and impartiality. Many policies may contain similar expectations.
Click to expand...
https://www.mondaq.com/australia/em...nt-the-risks-for-employees-working-other-jobs
 
My issue is we have tiers, but what happens is people from lower tiers just now to go to their supervisor, who is on a higher tier, and have them put the ticket in for them. Ticket SLA is based on who put the ticket in, not who is actually having the problem.

This kind of rigid "Your X important so we help you Y fast" is really only an effective means of prioritizing incoming work in large organizations where everyone doesn't know everyone.
 
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