Supporting the boardwalk

After spending two years doing server support at a local college campus I managed to locate a job which provided a raise in income and benefits. Both of those things were needed by my family in a big way.

Money and benefits are very important but they are only a portion of the big picture. Why do we do what we do for 8 or more hours per day? Is the ability to pay bills the only thing that keeps us going day in and day out? It has been said and even researched that we spend more time with our co workers than we do our immediate family. Maybe that is why we drag little nick knacks from the house such as pictures, stuffed animals or whatever to the work place so that it can remind us of our loved ones.

I have been in the I.T. industry since 1990 and I have worked in six different industries supporting computer users and the underlying computer networks that they use. I enjoy a certain satisfaction from learning how to use computer technology and helping others to use it.

Fast forward from 1990 to September 2008 where I am supporting approximately 85 users and a computer network with five servers and one network with three different subnets. This is my third week as the resident propellerhead and for the most part all of my coworkers are excited that I am there. That is because there are more problems to solve than I have time to fix. I am sure that in about 3 months from now I will be more acclimated to the environment and have the backlog of work orders under control. The biggest problem that I have is knowing how to prioritize my responsibilities between providing end user computer support and being an I.T. Manager/ network administrator. Doing all three of these is going to be a big challenge for me and I hope that I am up for it.

Providing end user computer support is the easiest of the three for me. I have been doing this for years in many different capacities. While I am learning the new environment and living through discovery zone being able to clear out some trouble tickets gives me the feeling of accomplishment which is nice. It also helps those that I support to be able to use their computers with more efficiency and get their jobs done.

Today I got a phone call that reminded me of a phone call that I received years ago. I was working at a law firm and one of the legal secretaries called me and said that her computer was making a horrible clicking noise. She held the phone handset close to her computer so I could hear it. For the life of me I could not figure out what this was so I told her that I would be right over. When I arrived at her desk I observed a large bundle of papers sitting on the corner of her keyboard which was depressing one of the keys. Today I got a phone call from one of my computer users and she told me that her computer screen was flipped sideways. Once again the user flopped a notebook on to the keyboard to write in it and somehow the right key combination was pressed and presto, the screen flipped onto its side.

I know that with tablet pc's you can flip the screen from portrait to landscape because it is an functionality of the software. How did I solve it you ask? Google search engine to the rescue. I searched for "flipped screen XP" and I found multiple hits about this problem. Apparently my users were not the first folks to cook this up. I learned that with a simple key stroke combination I was able to flip the screen back to where it had come from. I had several folks get up from their chairs to walk over to see how I was going to solve that problem. Hopefully what I did was allow them a good laugh and showed them that while I do not know everything I do have the ability to research the problem and figure it out.

For some folks their idea of having a computer support person to call is that this person will just fix all of their problems. Oh, I have a strange screen on my monitor I have never seen. Lets just call the IT guy or gal and just have them come fix it. In this picture the IT guy or gal comes and fixes whatever the problem is and leaves. The only problem with this picture is that the computer user remains clueless about the problem and when it happens again they will just pick up the phone again. It is a vicious cycle that does not need to continue. Support should not enable someone to be helpless. Support should facilitate fixing of the problem but also educating the computer user so that they can understand what has happened and how to respond in the future.

Yes, I like fixing problems and I love playing around with computers. I love hardware, software and networking. I love surfing the web and watching videos online. I love blogging, reading, playing Texas Holdem online. The only problem is that there is only one of me and I can only be stretched so far. My goal is to help you, the computer user, to take responsibility for the tool that the computer is so that you can do your job. I want you to take ownership of your computer just like you do your automobile. You do not drive your car on flat tires or with no water in the radiator or gas in the fuel tank. You know that you have to do certain things in order to drive your vehicle down the street and survive.

The same principle applies to your computer. You have to pull out the manual and figure out how to use this computer. The fuel in this case is knowledge for your mind. You have to train yourself how to use the tool and make it advantageous to use it.