Oh GOOD.

[toxico.livejournal.com]

Half my team is out today. HALF.

That leaves 3 people on the phones. There are.... 8 calls holding. Calls here can take an hour. It's not even close to prime time yet.

...help me.

(no subject)

[katyism.livejournal.com]

Ever supported a famous or super-important person? Do tell if possible.

I have a story but I can't tell it :(

Nothing better to do than walk for you, twice

[greeklady.livejournal.com]

Apparently the words,

"When you leave tonight, please leave your PC on. You can log off, but just leave the system turned on."

Are too confusing for someone who has been with the company 12 years. Yes you are tech savy enough to use outdated equipment but I thought for sure you would know now not to turn off the system. Especially when you know I need to copy off your data. Thank you for letting me walk across a foot ball sized building to turn on your pc. TWICE!

(Becuase she wasn't gone gone when I walked over there the first time to turn it back on. Thought it was a mistake and turned it off again.)

(no subject)

[pantherchild.livejournal.com]

~Where I work, the call management is done via an application based on Oracle. (Everyone groan!)

~Today, I got in, checked my e-mails, and noticed there was a little back-and-forth on the support group's list.

Oracle Guys: We need to take down Oracle.
My Boss's Boss: You know, the middle of the day isn't a great time to do this.
Oracle Guys: We...didn't plan it. It's an NFS issue!
My Boss's Boss: :-(

~Then, Oracle goes down. Everyone in the IRC channel starts complaining about not being able to help the PAYING customers who keep calling. Oh, did I mention that they're at less than half-capacity because most of the group is in training, including my boss? My boss was actually out today sick. So, the team leader for the group was down doing the training. Yeeeeah. It's ugly upstairs!

~So, a few more apps go down for no reason whatsoever, and someone notices the error message returned when they try an Oracle app. Their app told any user having issues to call US.

~Let me say that agian. The Oracle group listed the global tech support helpdesk as the contact info for their downed app.

~I have NEVER been more glad to be in training. 'Course, I feel bad for the five or six guys up their feilding 175-200 calls a day...

~And while I'm in a chatty mood, let me tell you a little story about the previous helpdesk of doom I worked at.

~So, I'd been there a little less than a year and had made it to Senior Helpdesk Consultant. Which basically meant that I had to ACTUALLY work while all the coworkers goofed off. Stupid student positions.

~Anyway, we had a few admin users that were just real pains in the butt. One was a guy named--and I kid you not--Dick, and the other was a woman whose named was close enough to Hermine (sp?) that it was terribly easy to mix up. You ended up either calling her 'ma'am' or saying her name very very quickly to keep from screwing it up.

~Being a senior consultant, I usually got the icky problems and the icky people. You could tell when SHE would get on the line because the person answering the call would go pale. It was that bad. You NEVER wanted to go to her desk to help her because she was that horrible. (We finally found out the secret to getting her to like you: ask her about her dogs.)

~So, here I am at a helpdesk slogging away at a decently backed up queue and the phone rings. It's Hermine.

Me: "ITECS Helpdesk, this is Kitty. How may I help you?"
Her: "Let me speak to your manager."
Me: *eyes roll* "Yes ma'am. He's busy right now, but if you can tell me your issue, prehaps I can help."
Her: "I'm sure you can't."
Me: "E...excuse me, ma'am?"
Her: "WELL. You're ONLY a RECPTIONIST, after all."
Me: "..."
Her: "I want to speak with your manager."
Me: "Ma'am, he's in a meeting. I will have him call you later. Have a nice day." *hang up* "SHE CALLED ME A RECIPTIONIST. :-(!!"

~And that was AFTER I'd fixed her computer, e-mail, account, etc several many times. :-( Damnit, my boobs do NOT detract from my intellegence or my ability to solve simple computer issues! GRAH.

~You know, more than once, I actually had people call in a demand to speak to "someone who knows what they're doing. YEs, I'm sure you're capable, but I'd like to speak with a...you know, a guy."

~*sighs* I'd be a little more up in arms, but it is kind of fun to explain to someone how you built your own computer and installed Linux all over it...and watch em try and decide if they can take you seriously or not. :-D ~