When I was switching jobs, leaving a place where I was the only IT person and trying to document everything I did and leave instructions about how to do it, I seriously could have used this Lifehack article about How to Give Instructions. I can definitely attest to how difficult it is to put yourself…
Linda Marie: First and foremost, if you do not have people skills, you should not look for a help desk position. That’s absolutely true. The other thing that IT people at all levels tend to forget is what their role in any organization is. There’s a certain amount of power that goes with operating any technology infrastructure,…
I had the opportunity today to try and help someone use CT Summation over the phone. Even though I’ve been using the program pretty extensively for a couple of weeks, it wasn’t until today that I made the connection to Office 2007. You see, in Summation, your toolbars, and menus change based on what part…
I read with interest the post by Security Monkey today about swatting flies, not because I don’t agree with him about his point, but his example really brought to mind another of my pet peeves about working in IT generally, but Help Desk specifically. Let’s start with his example: Your help desk reports to you…
Kevin Devin posted something today about his workplace, wondering if the snake of Corporate IT was eating it’s own tail. When I read his story, one part jumped out at me immediately. Here was a classic example of tech support folks not having the authority, or tools, to correct a problem for a user. If…
One of the comments Phil made in the interview yesterday stuck out to me as I went back and read it again this evening: I stress how important it is that we get all the documentation, that we get our Fact Sheet filled out so when people call about things, we can at least answer…