Timeliness

[major-error.livejournal.com]

If you had a problem with your computer that somehow impacted the ability to do your job, you'd report it immediately, right? I know I would...

With the exception of people that sit near my desk and those that can take 3 steps and see my desk, everyone in the office likes to stockpile multiples issues for extended periods, or let one stew for a week or two before saying anything...

Comments

[dog-star-man.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean. I will walk into the plant on a mission to complete a certain task and I'll get approached by 5 or 6 people all asking me if I can look at this PC or that printer, because it's been shutting off by itself all week or the auto-feeder eats their documents or some shit. And they've been living with it all week so they could wait for a time that I randomly stumble by? It's not like I work in some top-secret bunker in the desert. I have an accessible desk and a phone. I'm very easy to reach and I usually jump right on stuff like that.

So, yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

We had something similar in the half-helpdesk, half-floorwalking job I used to have before the current employer. Our standard response was "I'm busy and the spare parts are in the storeroom, call the helpdesk on extension $foo and report it."

"But you're right here..."

"No, I'm on my way to fixing a computer which was reported through the helpdesk. That's why I have the tools to fix that computer and not your computer."

"But if you could just look at..."

"Call my manager and ask him if you're allowed to delay me."

"But it will just take a minute!"

"To ask why you think you don't have to report problems to the Helpdesk?"

[reddalek.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean, for I as well have to deal with this. In my case it is with staff and their laptops.

We have rather old laptops that need to last for a few more years. I expect to see some hardware failures.

One common failure is the backlight to start to short out and eventually stop working completely. It is either a cable or in some cases the logic board going to hell. The logic board failures or the slightly failing hard drives are much more fun because it limits my speedy data recovery efforts depending on how long the problem has existed.

But when the staff have a problem with a laptop, do most of them report it right away? Hell no. I get more "Well I just lived with it" or "I know you must be busy so I waited.." or crap like that. And then they expect for me to get all of their data off the machine so they can work (and did they backup? HELL NO).

Damn it people, say something. Grrr.

[blackrat.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh yeah.

I had one person report a fault to me (Again, as so many others have said, not via the helpdesk... to me, in the corridor... damn users...) about how item x had not been working for 3 weeks yatta yatta.. I got her to log it the propper way, then turned up and fixed it all within 5 minutes of the call getting logged, to which she ranted:

luser:"Its about time! I've been putting up with that for three weeks! Its been badly affecting my ability to do my job, ect ect!!"
Me: "But you only logged it today: See here, call opened today at 11am, call fixed today at 11:05am. Had you logged it three weeks ago, it would have been fixed five minutes later then also."
luser:"But I didnt have time!! And it HAS been three weeks!"
Me: "You logged it today. It was fixed today. Anthing outside that isnt my problem."
*lusers head explodes at this concept*

Well, that'd be the dream... in actuality the conversation continued like that for a while (I will admit I was having a lil bit of fun watching logic confuse her) till her boss came past having overheard most of the conversation, and told her to stop being so bloody stupid and log the call straight away next time...

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

I like the ones that call at 4:45pm, Friday, to let me know their system has been BSoDing on startup, all day long and they haven't gotten any work done and yadda, yadda, yadda.

WTF? They think helpdesk/tech support are magical little computer elves that come out at night on the weekend to fix their shit? They need to realize that we aren't funded for 24/7 and at 5:01pm, my brain is focused on beer and power tools; not placating stoopid people.

And the same goes for whoever thinks calling in at 2 AM on a Saturday morning and requesting a high priority ticket because you can't get to server $foo. Guess what, weekend is for server maintanance; they go down then.

Gah!

Hospital Imaging

[lwj2.livejournal.com]

RINGGGG.

Me: "X-ray, may I help you?"

ER SEC'Y: "We can't get images on PACS."

Me: "WEB 1000 is down. You have to search UNVERIFIED by patient name."

ER: "We can't get images by medical record number."

Me: "You have to search UNVERIFIED by patient name. It doesn't have MR numbers."

Hangs up.

RINGG

Me: "X-ray."

ER Doc: "[insert nurse name here] went home. I can't sign onto WEB 1000."

Me: "7-1599, get them to re-set your password."

ER Doc: "Can't you just sign on for me?"

Me: "No, 7-1599, get your password reset."

ER Doc: "That's a pain. Can we look on your reader?"

Me: "Yes."

Hangs up.

RINGGG

Me: "X-ray."

ER Doc: "I can't find the chest x-ray on [patient name]."

Me: "It's on the front reader. Are you at the back reader?"

ER Doc: "Yes, I can't pull up [patient]."

Me: "[patient] was done on the front reader."

ER Doc: "So I can't get it here?"

Me: "Correct, must use the reader the study was done on."

ER Doc: "Why can't I pull it up here?"

Me: "Because it's resident on the HD the study was done on."

ER Doc: "So I have to walk up front?"

Me: "Yes."

ER Doc: "**6t. That's a PITA."

Me: "That's the system."

ER Doc: assorted whinging because he has to walk twenty metres, the IS people won't put all HDs on one reader. X-ray is evil. Democrats/Republican are all the reason for evil in the world.

Hangs up.

This continues throughout the night.

Some people wonder why I drink.

Re: Hospital Imaging

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Eh, we ended up setting up an Enhancement Request system. Anyone who whinged was told to write down what they wanted and send it in, and we'd log it and forward it to whoever was in charge of the closest area.

Who would then bin it, of course, but that wasn't our problem. If anyone ever enquired about their request, we'd just ask them for the ticket number, look it up and say "Area X took over that request the day after you logged it, why don't you call them?"

Pros: We could 'prove' that we had been nothing but helpful, that any delay was not our fault, and could redirect ongoing whinging to other areas. The complainers thought they were getting a direct line to 'someone in charge', and if every relevant area denied being responsible, it just got sent further and further up the line with all the denials attached until some executive said 'no', in which case we could tell the complainer to go talk to the exec.

Cons: Becoming the mail hub for such requests. Still, it cut down on the amount of repetitive crap we had to listen to.