Our office is about to embark on a relocation...a whopping three blocks away. Distance doesn't really matter when you move, does it? Any moving sucks.
Unlike the office move I had to do pretty much by myself at my previous company, the firm is flying out no less than a dozen people to assist. Some of these people are on the office admin side and some are on the technology side. They started arriving today.
Our first visitor is with the VoIP phone company that we use. He showed up, the receptionist instant messaged me to let me know he was here and I went out and introduced myself. We chit chatted and then I took him over to the new building, thinking the project manager was there. He wasn't. So we walked back in the rain. Upon our arrival at the old office, we decided to set him up in the conference room so he could get some work done while waiting for the project manager to show up.
He started stammering on and on about our proxies and firewalls (the software/hardware that controls your ability to reach the internet) and how his laptop is new and had never been in one of our offices. Could I go ask one of the guys in IT what the proxy settings are so he could remote into his company's network?
Did you read that last sentence carefully?
Being the effective (!) communicator that I am, I reiterated his request back to him to be sure we were on the same page.
He replied, "Yes, just go ask one of the guys in IT for the utility or what the proxy settings are. They'll know what I'm talking about. Just ask one of the guys in IT."
I stood there looking at him (again with the "you just arrived here from Mars look") and said:
"I AM the guy in IT."
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
3.13.2007
So You Work With Computers Part II
It was decided that the tax department, due to their stationary nature and the kind of detail work they do, should have 19" monitors to supplement their puny laptop displays. Great idea, although it took some convincing on my part to get them to see that while they would give up desk space, they would gain "real estate" and not need as much desk space.
The displays finally show up and I set about installing them and giving the users orientation. Let's keep in mind here that this is to supplement the laptop display. Laptops are placed in a docking station, where all the cords and such plug into (including the monitor), so it's very simple, really.
After giving this particular user an orientation to his new set up, he turns to me and says:
"So, if I don't have my laptop, will the monitor and keyboard still work?"
I look at him like he's just dropped in from Mars. The trip from outerspace obviously deprived him of oxygen required for coherent thinking.
After a full minute of me staring at him like the village idiot that he is, he says "Oh, I guess not, huh?"
Ya think?
The displays finally show up and I set about installing them and giving the users orientation. Let's keep in mind here that this is to supplement the laptop display. Laptops are placed in a docking station, where all the cords and such plug into (including the monitor), so it's very simple, really.
After giving this particular user an orientation to his new set up, he turns to me and says:
"So, if I don't have my laptop, will the monitor and keyboard still work?"
I look at him like he's just dropped in from Mars. The trip from outerspace obviously deprived him of oxygen required for coherent thinking.
After a full minute of me staring at him like the village idiot that he is, he says "Oh, I guess not, huh?"
Ya think?
2.05.2007
So You Work With Computers
This is what people say when I tell them what I do. Yes, I work with computers...or should I say I work ON computers. But that isn't what my job is really about. And sometimes I wonder if I have any business at all in this career field.
For those of you playing the home version, I work in Technology Support. Sounds like I support technology, doesn't it? No, I support people who, in many cases, have no business getting close to anything more complex than a pocket calculator. I really try very hard not to be that stereotypical support person...the guy on SNL that spits technology gobbeldygook at you for two minutes then gets irritated by the blank look on your face and demands you "mmmoooooove." I understand you all don't have a background in technology and for some of you, it's a new and scary world of things you can't/won't/don't understand. I really do try to hold on to that, but sometimes it's very hard.
My patience is especially thin when people are given explicit direction and decide to take the complete opposite path anyway. Not only do they have no remorse for what they've done (practically on purpose), but have little patience when the fix for their ill-conceived problem takes more than 30 seconds.
The company I work for (we'll call them XYZ Co.) uses Instant Messenging as a big part of communication. It's great because you don't have to stop what you are doing to answer the phone. You can continue playing solitaire and surfing stock prices while you are helping a customer. (I don't do that mind you, but I know there are those out there that do.) My company is big on IM etiquette, and etiquette in general, so for the most part, people check to see if you have a moment before they spend half an hour typing out a monologue of their most recent problem at at whopping 6 w.p.m. I'm sure I'll have a rant on that some other time. Movin' on...
XYZ is in the tax preparation business (among other business lines) and instead of bothering the people who have to work on client-related issues that help put food on the table and Luis Vutton bags on our arms, they have graciously offered to reimburse us for the cost of tax preparation software. They sent out an email to everyone stating that along with the explicit instruction that the aformentioned tax prep software IS NOT TO BE LOADED ONTO COMPANY COMPUTERS. This is because we (not me personally, but the big dudes higher up and farther away) build the set of programs that are loaded onto the PCs and rigorously test them to ensure they all play well together. Introducing something new and untested into that controlled environment is not recommended and is called breaking the loadset. This is bad. Very bad.
User: "Hi, HT."
Me: "Hi, User."
User: "I got the blue screen this morning."
For those of who somehow have not had the pleasure of having a Windows-based operating system, the user is referring to the BSOD - Blue Screen of Death. You get this when there is something horribly and irreparably wrong with your computer. Or whenever it feels like giving you a mild cardiac event for absolutely no reason at all.
Me: "Sorry to hear that. Have there been any changes to your system lately?"
User: "No."
I then spend the time explaining to User how to help me help her by capturing the exact message the BSOD is giving her instead of it rebooting seemingly inexplicably.
User: "Oh, I installed ________ (insert favorite tax preparation software du jour here). Do you think that might be the problem?"
This means User read the memo that outlined the reimbursement policy, probably figured out the reimbursement code for her expense report and chose to ignore the part that said DO NOT LOAD SOFTWARE ONTO YOUR COMPANY COMPUTER.
*sigh*
For those of you playing the home version, I work in Technology Support. Sounds like I support technology, doesn't it? No, I support people who, in many cases, have no business getting close to anything more complex than a pocket calculator. I really try very hard not to be that stereotypical support person...the guy on SNL that spits technology gobbeldygook at you for two minutes then gets irritated by the blank look on your face and demands you "mmmoooooove." I understand you all don't have a background in technology and for some of you, it's a new and scary world of things you can't/won't/don't understand. I really do try to hold on to that, but sometimes it's very hard.
My patience is especially thin when people are given explicit direction and decide to take the complete opposite path anyway. Not only do they have no remorse for what they've done (practically on purpose), but have little patience when the fix for their ill-conceived problem takes more than 30 seconds.
The company I work for (we'll call them XYZ Co.) uses Instant Messenging as a big part of communication. It's great because you don't have to stop what you are doing to answer the phone. You can continue playing solitaire and surfing stock prices while you are helping a customer. (I don't do that mind you, but I know there are those out there that do.) My company is big on IM etiquette, and etiquette in general, so for the most part, people check to see if you have a moment before they spend half an hour typing out a monologue of their most recent problem at at whopping 6 w.p.m. I'm sure I'll have a rant on that some other time. Movin' on...
XYZ is in the tax preparation business (among other business lines) and instead of bothering the people who have to work on client-related issues that help put food on the table and Luis Vutton bags on our arms, they have graciously offered to reimburse us for the cost of tax preparation software. They sent out an email to everyone stating that along with the explicit instruction that the aformentioned tax prep software IS NOT TO BE LOADED ONTO COMPANY COMPUTERS. This is because we (not me personally, but the big dudes higher up and farther away) build the set of programs that are loaded onto the PCs and rigorously test them to ensure they all play well together. Introducing something new and untested into that controlled environment is not recommended and is called breaking the loadset. This is bad. Very bad.
User: "Hi, HT."
Me: "Hi, User."
User: "I got the blue screen this morning."
For those of who somehow have not had the pleasure of having a Windows-based operating system, the user is referring to the BSOD - Blue Screen of Death. You get this when there is something horribly and irreparably wrong with your computer. Or whenever it feels like giving you a mild cardiac event for absolutely no reason at all.
Me: "Sorry to hear that. Have there been any changes to your system lately?"
User: "No."
I then spend the time explaining to User how to help me help her by capturing the exact message the BSOD is giving her instead of it rebooting seemingly inexplicably.
User: "Oh, I installed ________ (insert favorite tax preparation software du jour here). Do you think that might be the problem?"
This means User read the memo that outlined the reimbursement policy, probably figured out the reimbursement code for her expense report and chose to ignore the part that said DO NOT LOAD SOFTWARE ONTO YOUR COMPANY COMPUTER.
*sigh*
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