Beyond The HellDesk

If you’re a helldesk analyst, you’ll understand what I’m saying below… If you’re not, well, keep reading anyway, you’ll probably learn something.

90% of our calls are normal, everyday, run of the mill, simple one line answers. These calls will normally start with “I know this probably is a stupid question…”

Yeah, you know who you are.

If you are seasoned in the ways of the helldesk, these calls won’t really bother too much except for having to pause the game or video for a moment. For those that aren’t as seasoned, they’ll usually shake their head in frustration, throw up their fists, silently curse the caller under their breath and wish for an early death or a meteor to strike near by so they can go home early.

If you happen to be one of these callers, don’t worry, we understand that you need to ask the question. The problem begins when you ask it over and over and over and over again.

We can field these calls easily without missing a moment from the game. We’re used to those types of questions and answering them, for us, is second nature like breathing.

However, if you are one that has a helldesk list a mile long full of repeat issues, do yourself a favor… BUY A TYPEWRITER or if you are in the position of authority, yup a manager, don’t worry yourself with systems you don’t understand. If you can’t understand how to copy and paste after being told 15 times… I’m sorry, you’re too stupid, please go back to pencil and paper.

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Ok, so each day we have to do something that doesn’t quite fall in our scope of work duties. Sometimes things come up and you have to deal with them, other times you’re forced into a job because a manager decides you’ll do it or else.

In my line of work I’m not only in the HellDesk, I’m also in charge of SharePoint duties. It doesn’t bother me much at all, it’s interesting to get to be in charge of a large project. But what really chaps my ass is when someone not even in my department demands that I assist them.

Sure, it’s a site, it’s what I do… but tests, shooting videos, organizing all your ideas and collecting all of the materials like maps of sites. Hmm, sure, let me just file that in my deleted items folder.

This person wasn’t very happy I didn’t help them with their site. What can I say, it’s out of my realm of duties… We have people that shoot videos and take photos. And of course, when you ask for a site, it’s your job to provide the materials like maps and locations of fire extinguishers. Heaven forbid the HellDesk doesn’t know where each and every fire extinguisher is located between 9 different buildings. Isn’t that the job of security? Perhaps Maintenance?

So yea, please ask me again to map out where fire extinguishers are… I’ll make sure I know just where they are… In the parking lot with me and my rolling chair… shooting across the parking lot until I’m out of extinguishers.

Only then will you and I know where the extinguishers are located… empty and in the dumpster!

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I’m a semi-big fan of reading blogs, not a big fan of using them. I am satisfied by the functionality and ease of WordPress, though. This is also the first time I’ve had someone, besides myself, working on this site. It kind of puts me to shame because my writing abilities aren’t so goodly. If you haven’t already gone, go check out The Ladies Man blog… It’s farking hilarious!

On a side note, I’m glad training is almost done. It’s not that the class is boring, but 5 days of training is rough. I do take solace in the fact that I have access to my 2 computers, gives me something else to do when we get to a part of review.

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Ok, so I have no idea why I used that title. Of course, having a raging sinus infection + 8 hours of in depth training will make a man go insane. Day 3 has come and gone and we finally learned something… SharePoint is a unique web app with a lot of depth to it. I was worried that my job security was in jeopardy because of this training… but after some of the questions and the depth of certain areas in the program I realize that I’m safe for now.

And I’m down…. God I had such a day… I had such a day!

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I am spending the entire week in SharePoint training. This isn’t my favorite type of web app, but I know how to administer it… just part of my job.

Training isn’t always fun, especially when you attend at work instead of traveling to another place. I don’t feel good, sinus infection, and it’s mostly review for me… but it has given me time to work on this blog. It’s been a while since I’ve used a blog, we’ll see how this goes.

I prefer a standard junket rather than in-house training. What’s a junket you say?

Junket - A training/event you go to just to get away… it’s on the company’s time, so a company paid for vacation; just make sure you get a good location. Just grab a few of the free things; folder, CD’s and some pamphlets and then spend the rest of the time in the pub.

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Life isn’t supposed to be easy, but in this kind of position where we’re supposed to know all, it always makes for a longer day when we have to deal with the “Know-It-All”… The person who intends on making life harder than it has to be, if only they would listen for once, would realize life isn’t as difficult.

I run across these people a lot. What really irks me is that I am paid to know the answers to your question, I go over the same answers on a daily basis; so when I give you an answer, do not dispute it with me. I understand that you may not get what I’m saying, but give me a moment and I’ll try to explain it so you can understand and not feel ignorant.

Sometimes I think people are so short because they’re afraid of feeling stupid. Don’t feel stupid. I am paid to know this. I’m not paid to understand other things; trust me, I’m ignorant in other areas and I ask questions too. I’m not here to make you feel stupid, I am here to help and educate.

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This is just my corner of the helldesk. From here I’ll comment, complain, gripe and just generally give you a feel for what it’s like to work in a fully functional Helldesk.

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