Dear Users... (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people)

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JoeMorgue said:
Not really IT related but does every office just get issued one person who sits on the phone screaming at her kids all day? Do they just manifest naturally in office environments?
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I think Lawrence sums up my response to that question:

 
JoeMorgue said:
Not really IT related but does every office just get issued one person who sits on the phone screaming at her kids all day? Do they just manifest naturally in office environments?
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Yes. And if the office is large enough you may also get:

The Wedding Planner: the wedding may be two years away but there's just so much to organize she simply must spend at least six hours of the working day on the phone about it. Don't worry, she'll take frequent breaks...to discuss her wedding planning with everybody in earshot, whether they like it or not.

The Homebuyer: buying a home is a big decision, and it requires devoting 100% of one's working hours to it. This one has an open kitchen! This one has a split-level garage! None of them have home offices because, despite your most fervent prayers and wishes, this coworker will always come into the office.

The Mighty Businesswoman: she's so good at businesses she can run her own business while working at another! And just look at this catalog of candles/gourmet spices/quilted handbags that you can order from her upline's downline's upline to help get her in the running for the Diamond Circle award any year now!

The Cat Lady: she has pictures, but of course they're mostly of the indoor seven. The other twelve are outdoor cats of varying degrees of feral and don't stay still for photos. But don't worry, they each have names and personalities and she'll tell you all about them. In detail.

The Grumpgrudge: you'll never, ever, ever know what it is that made this person hate you, but they do. And they'll be badmouthing you, spreading malicious gossip, and doing their feeble damndest to get you in trouble for your entire career there. They won't succeed, because they're about as effective as they are pleasant, but it will irritate you to see their scowling face whispering about you all day long.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Yes. And if the office is large enough you may also get:

The Wedding Planner: the wedding may be two years away but there's just so much to organize she simply must spend at least six hours of the working day on the phone about it. Don't worry, she'll take frequent breaks...to discuss her wedding planning with everybody in earshot, whether they like it or not.

The Homebuyer: buying a home is a big decision, and it requires devoting 100% of one's working hours to it. This one has an open kitchen! This one has a split-level garage! None of them have home offices because, despite your most fervent prayers and wishes, this coworker will always come into the office.

The Mighty Businesswoman: she's so good at businesses she can run her own business while working at another! And just look at this catalog of candles/gourmet spices/quilted handbags that you can order from her upline's downline's upline to help get her in the running for the Diamond Circle award any year now!

The Cat Lady: she has pictures, but of course they're mostly of the indoor seven. The other twelve are outdoor cats of varying degrees of feral and don't stay still for photos. But don't worry, they each have names and personalities and she'll tell you all about them. In detail.

The Grumpgrudge: you'll never, ever, ever know what it is that made this person hate you, but they do. And they'll be badmouthing you, spreading malicious gossip, and doing their feeble damndest to get you in trouble for your entire career there. They won't succeed, because they're about as effective as they are pleasant, but it will irritate you to see their scowling face whispering about you all day long.
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This would make a great inspirational poster, or needlepoint exercise. I would put it on my fridge door with magnets.
 
Two things. First, one of our Switchboard operators just received a call from someone who wanted to be transferred to the Minister, then started screaming and swearing when they were calmly advised that we could not transfer them directly to a Minister. She didn't even know who the Minister was.

Second, I've got a T1 who seems to be fixated on me right now. She keeps sending me Skype messages asking for help doing stuff. I mean, they're reasonably new, but not that new, and why me and why Skype and not Teams?
 
arthwollipot said:
Second, I've got a T1 who seems to be fixated on me right now. She keeps sending me Skype messages asking for help doing stuff. I mean, they're reasonably new, but not that new, and why me and why Skype and not Teams?
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You answered your own first question. As for the second one, she knows how to use Skype, and won't learn how to use anything else.
 
The Department is returning to standard working arrangements from 1 December. This means that there are no longer COVID-related business reasons for working from home and all work will be done from the office unless such a business reason is given.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. I quite like working from home, as long as it's not every week. But at the same time, working from the office is a lot more convenient, and every other week I miss my multiple big screens.

At least I've just had a WHS workspace assessment done and I have a new keyboard and mouse on the way.
 
Interesting, we're still in a mixed mode, I'm currently 3W and 2H, but there is talk that some of us may end up working at home much more...

It will be a nice way for me to taper off on the way to retirement if that happens.
 
novaphile said:
Interesting, we're still in a mixed mode, I'm currently 3W and 2H, but there is talk that some of us may end up working at home much more...

It will be a nice way for me to taper off on the way to retirement if that happens.
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My company's doing WFH until June 1. At least that was the decision they made at the end of August, when initially they'd said in March we might go back in October. It's been an adjustment. I'm wondering what kind of adjustment it'll be to go back into the office someday.

I'm predicting this will, in many companies, be the final deathknell for "business casual" dress codes. After months (or a year plus in my case) of wearing whatever we like (or not wearing anything) it would be one hell of a battle to insist that khaki pants and a collared shirt are necessary for work, rather than jeans and a t-shirt.

I think more flexible hours will be a thing as well. I'm doing better with working a couple of hours, then wandering off, then working a couple more hours, and so forth than I ever did by coming in, sitting down, and staying put until a set time and then stopping completely for the day. My brain doesn't stay at an exactly equal activity level between hours X and Y, and it's just as foolish to waste an energetic mood in the evening as it is to try to get work out of a lethargic mood in the afternoon.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I'm predicting this will, in many companies, be the final deathknell for "business casual" dress codes. After months (or a year plus in my case) of wearing whatever we like (or not wearing anything) it would be one hell of a battle to insist that khaki pants and a collared shirt are necessary for work, rather than jeans and a t-shirt.
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That's already the case where I work. I always wear a shirt and tie because that's become my thing, but most people don't.
 
arthwollipot said:
That's already the case where I work. I always wear a shirt and tie because that's become my thing, but most people don't.
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Personally I think that if I was still working, and had to do work from home on camera, I'd decidedly dress more formally just to get into that mindset.

Fortunately I have to do none of those things and haven't been out of sweat pants and a t-shirt in weeks.
 
alfaniner said:
Personally I think that if I was still working, and had to do work from home on camera, I'd decidedly dress more formally just to get into that mindset.
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That's basically why I do it, yeah. I like to remind myself that I'm a professional and I take my job seriously. Not to say that anyone who doesn't wear a tie isn't and doesn't, but it works for me.
 
arthwollipot said:
That's basically why I do it, yeah. I like to remind myself that I'm a professional and I take my job seriously. Not to say that anyone who doesn't wear a tie isn't and doesn't, but it works for me.
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I did find myself missing the routine of geting home, taking off the tie, hanging up the suit etc as a "ritual" switching between work and leisure mindsets. What I did for a while was go home, take off jeans and T and put on shorts and an old sweatshirt with the sleeves off and do my workouts (plural as I had 3 systems I swapped between).

I just retired but the last 3 years has been shorts and T at my desk and no break between home and work and it's been harder to let go of work. Particularly as my work was a good thing.
 
alfaniner said:
Personally I think that if I was still working, and had to do work from home on camera, I'd decidedly dress more formally just to get into that mindset.

Fortunately I have to do none of those things and haven't been out of sweat pants and a t-shirt in weeks.
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I've tried to have a collared shirt on for any calls where I am on video, but today I was rushed into a call and remembered I was wearing a t-shirt rather too late. Luckily my boss was wearing a t-shirt and the other participant was wearing a polo.

The funny thing was when the other participant was sharing his screen to look at a document and his notifications popped up showing that he had to run his kid to some sport practice in 15 minutes. At least we knew the call would end soon.
 
TragicMonkey said:
Yes. And if the office is large enough you may also get:
...
The Mighty Businesswoman: she's so good at businesses she can run her own business while working at another! And just look at this catalog of candles/gourmet spices/quilted handbags that you can order from her upline's downline's upline to help get her in the running for the Diamond Circle award any year now!
...
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As a (recently retired) federal employee, I will say that while it is quite possible as a federal employee, to get away with a lot in the way on non-productivity, there are very strict rules against using government time, phones or computers for outside business activity. I'm not going to claim it doesn't happen, but those who engage in this sort of thing at least have to be discreet about it, if they want to keep their job.
 
CORed said:
As a (recently retired) federal employee, I will say that while it is quite possible as a federal employee, to get away with a lot in the way on non-productivity, there are very strict rules against using government time, phones or computers for outside business activity. I'm not going to claim it doesn't happen, but those who engage in this sort of thing at least have to be discreet about it, if they want to keep their job.
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I wish more businesses had such rules. I used to work somewhere where the head of a department sold some kind of crap, and pressured both her immediate underlings to join up and sell it as well. Most of middle management was selling something or other, and it's not a good look for a company if it appears to pay so poorly that people could be in management for a decade and still need to sell stupid crap from catalogs to get by. That alone would lower morale even if they didn't coerce their underlings to buy it.
 
Gord_in_Toronto said:
I worked for a guy once who always insisted that we had to include "What happens if we do nothing", in our analysis. Occasionally that's what we did. ;)
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My mom, when she worked as an editor for public land agencies, worked on a lot of environmental impact statements. It was standard practice (required by law, I think) to include a "no action" alternative.
 
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