IT Support Soapbox

Xmas

2009-12-22T22:47:00.001-08:00

Well Christmas is upon us so trying to keep busy as it's pretty dead at work. I haven't got any time off over Xmas which suits me as it's pretty quiet in the time between Xmas and New Year.

A lot of people are off during this time although us contractors will work even whilst the earth is burning.

Merry Xmas!

Land fill

2009-12-04T05:20:00.000-08:00

Is it me or does Desktop Support feel like the land fill of IT. Any old rubbish gets dumped on it, any task that no one else wants to do.

It is a mite frustrating.....

Doing the job properly

2009-12-02T12:32:00.001-08:00

How many times have equipment come to us defected. I took four monitors up to a user before one worked...made me look like a dick.

But why do people not do a proper job. In these days of job insecurity, you'd think people would strive to do a job properly, if not for pride in your work, then for the fear of losing one's job. Nope, other teams still churn out shit.

Sort out

2009-11-19T22:16:00.001-08:00

Today I will be sorting out the IT cupboards as they are messy and full of useless crap. In one of my less intelligent moments, I suggested it and volunteered myself! Now I'm stuck with it, oh well, at least it gives me a break from the norm o guess.

Went out for a meal with my parents last night and my dad always asked me 'have you heard anything about work?'. I've no idea what he means really, does he think I work for MI5 and have some juicy spy gossip for him? Does he think I'm the CEO of the bank I work for, and can inform him of a big merger? I'm really not sure. Still, he means well...whatever he means.

Call logging system

2009-11-17T06:55:00.001-08:00

The call logging system here is pants, it keeps crashing and driving everyone nuts.

iPhone saga

2009-11-10T08:53:00.001-08:00

I've decided to stick with my current 2G iPhone and current plan. I currently pay £15pm and that includes free landline calls and to jump to £35pm and to pay £87 for a handset is too bigger price to pay. I thought Orange would be competitive but I suspect their hands may be tied with Apple's price planning. On the other hand they may be just greedy.

BT Helpdesk

2009-11-10T08:40:00.000-08:00

I am currently on the phone with BT Helpdesk (India of course) and I don't mean to be disrespectful to the staff there as they must have a hard time, but I could barely understand the person and he couldn't really understand what I was saying. The conversation ended up being very confused.

He ended up giving me another number to call which I could have found myself. I couldn't be bothered to call it and go through the same confusion so I will opt to remain ignorant.

The iPhone has it

2009-11-04T07:28:00.001-08:00

I've decided to go with the iPhone 3GS due mainly to the fact that I've purchased apps for it and the Palm doesn't sync Yahoo contacts, a big deal breaker for me.

I should get it next Tuesday.

Palm Pre vs Apple iPhone 3GS

2009-11-03T22:34:00.001-08:00

For anybody that knows me knows that I am a big Palm fan, I've had most of their devices from a lowly m100 to a Treo but this Pre looks the nuts.

Trouble is I already own an iPhone 2G and like that too.

I am going to decide in the next blog.

Australia

2009-11-02T22:01:00.001-08:00

I have just come back from Australia and what a great place. The pace of life is a hell of a lot slower than England. Makes me wonder why everyone is in such a rush here.

Tools and Gadgets

2009-10-06T04:43:00.001-07:00

This week and last week I am working in a different department for a different bank. The tools and desktop is worlds apart from what I am used to. There are tools to look at PCs, tools to map to home areas, tools to rebuild, tools for this and that.

It's all good until you realize that whilst using these funky solutions, you don't want to forget how to find solutions without tools.

I personally think that these tools and time saving gadgets just breed laziness, devices like an egg slicer...how is slicing an egg difficult that it needs a slicer?! My all time favourite is soda stream. Why? How hard was it to buy a bottle of fizzy drink! The time and effort to make a bottle of fizzy sugary crap using explosive gas and liquid flavoured sugar seemed fucking stupid. It's less effort to pour a glass of drink.

Violence In The Workplace

2009-09-25T02:23:00.000-07:00

I picked up a call for a card reader not working and proceeded to go to the person's desk. I had to get underneath the desk and plug in the USB connection. I asked the user to move which he sort of did and I got under the desk. He then proceeded to move his chair back into his normal seating position, with me still under the desk! He also managed to knee me in the side of the head as well. I shouted at him that I am under here and can you move out and he replied, 'hold on, just finishing an email'. I felt trapped and pushed hard against the chair and as the seat has wheels, it moved to another bank of desks.

I was livid. The problem was fixed though so I just got up and walked away.

How can someone treat another person with such desregard. He is the sort of person who treats the cleaners or other support staff with contempt.

What goes around, comes around....

I've Got The Hump

2009-09-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

Due to my stupidity and selfishness, I've managed to piss off the most important person in my life and I'm in a rotten mood. I've tried to not let it spill into work though as that doesn't do anyone any favours at all.

It is hard though as even though people try to seperate work and personal life, it always spills over in one form or another. I suppose I am lucky as I am not in a position of authority so my mood doesn't really affect anyone, if I was a manager in some capacity then I suppose more control would be required.

I used to have a manager a long time ago in a marketing firm I worked in who was having issues with his girlfriend and was constantly in a bad mood and angry. We hated having to talk to him as he would bite your head off. At the time we all hated him as most of us were young and single and didn't have a care in the world. Now I am older (not so much wiser) I can appreciate his problems and kind of feel sorry for him.

As the day progresses, I've calmed down and had a think about things and have come to realise that being in a bad mood helps no one, not even myself. It's just detrimental in so many ways and is even bad for health. One day I'll take my own advice....

Work Night Out Pt2

2009-09-17T14:08:00.001-07:00

Well I was wrong, it was a great night, food was, cute is the best way to describe it. Minature burgers, miniture chips in cutsey little paper cones and other cute nibbles. It weren't half bad. The company was great as well.

I'm looking forward to the next one.

Work Night Out

2009-09-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight I am off to a work do. I don't usually go to these but I thought I'll show my face.

The trouble with these events is that they end up with everyone drinking themselves silly and then the following morning having to listen to pathetic stories - "I was soooo drunk, I missed my stop and ended up in Russia" or something.

Also, check out the food;

Smoked salmon and cream cheese pancake rolls with keta caviar
Goat cheese and chive terrine with sauce vierge
Bayonne ham nest with quail egg mimosa
Prawn cocktail

Mini beef burger, red onion compote
Suckling pig belly with capers dressing
Char-grilled chicken skewer, pepper pestoSeared peppered yellow fin tuna with sweet and sour aubergine
Fish cakes & chips cones with tartare sauce
Wild mushroom & parmesan vol-au-vent
Caramelized onion and blue cheese tartlet

What the fuck is Suckling pig belly? It sounds revolting, even if I ate meat. Looks like precocious poncy food to me.

I'll update this later tonight....

Speakerphone

2009-09-16T02:18:00.000-07:00

Why do people use the speaker on their phones to make a call? It's loud and annoying, the bloke next to me is doing it now and giving me a headache. It's not as if he is doing something else with his hands, he's fiddling with the phone cable!!! Why not just pick up the handset?

After one works in a place for a while, you can have great banter with your work colleagues but they also start to annoy you as well. Grating little habits start to annoy;

Hands free calls
Humming/singing/whistling
Colleagues with tinny voices (I know it's not their fault but it still annoys me)
Work mates who continue talking to you even though you are clearly not listening
Colleagues who moan about how little money they've got even though they are paying quite a few hundred a month on a ridiculous car
Colleagues who talk all the time about how drunk they got (I recently walked out of a pub as the people I was with were talking about times they threw up on themselves. Boring)
People who take their lunch break to the second and will not budge on it even if the team are busy
People who play their music/radio loudly

The list I'm sure is endless depending on each individual and I'm sure I've forgotten some until someone will remind me.

IPhone part 2

2009-09-14T06:00:00.001-07:00

I've got it working again, a combination of my genius and looking on the internet...mainly the internet.

Lesson learned-don't go upgrading your iPhone if you're not sure it can be jailbroken. Maybe not a lesson that can help you with anything useful.

iPhone is now a paperweight

2009-09-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

My iPhone has gone into recovery mode and won't come out of it. I think it's given up the ghost. I'm a bit pissed off to be honest as I do everything from my phone. I got it really cheap (not from O2 as I use it on Orange) but now it is a good looking paperweight and I now have to hunt for a phone thats good. My requirments are:

Email capability
Video and audio (ability to play MP3 and watch films on a decent screen)
Games (not too fussed about this one, be nice though)
Ability to update blog
Internet
Sync with contacts, calendars
WiFi

The iPhone did all this and more.

Redundancies

2009-09-09T03:50:00.001-07:00

People from my team have just been let go. This puts a bit of a cloud on the day. The other permanent staff are all waiting for their marching orders.

Being made redundant can be a kick up the arse for people. One can change their career, do something they want to do and enjoy. It's best not to wallow, just move forward and think about what you really want to do.

Do you say something or let it go?

2009-09-08T08:58:00.001-07:00

My boss has placed a call in my name about ten minutes after I went to lunch. A high priority user as well. It's not the first time either. I am not sure whether to say something or not either to him or his boss. This is when being a contractor really sucks. If I was a permanent member of staff, I would say something but I do not feel that secure contracting.

Tired

2009-09-07T13:35:00.001-07:00

I'm tired as I'm on earlies this week, 7am start. It's 9.30pm and I'm watching a program on the events of September 11th. I remember that day well. I was at work and had to go to the disaster recovery site which was in effect at the time, a few rooms with low spec computers that were meant to continue with the banks day to day business. In reality it was flaky.

Database and change

2009-09-03T03:15:00.001-07:00

Currently building a database that will help with a certain procedure and simplify it a bit. It has been met with negativity. This brings me on to the subject of change.

Why do us IT Support people hate or at least don't embrace change, even when it's a good thing? Every person I've worked in IT with hates change. I have no idea to be honest. I don't think it's laziness but I do think it's complacency. Many support staff (myself included) stay doing the same job for years, thinking that they are invulnerable in the role and getting arrogant. I thought this until I was unexpectedly made redundant from a previous job.

I learnt two lessons here;

Number 1: Do not get complacent or arrogant and don't stay rooted in the role, no one is invalauble to a firm.

Number 2: Embrace change. Usually it's for the better and made by people who know what they are doing.

Job spec...not worth the paper it's written on

2009-09-02T04:21:00.001-07:00

This job isn’t always what it seems…today I am on rubbish duty. Last Thursday I cleared all the spare hardware from one of the upper floors and bought it down to the IT floor ready to be sorted at the request of my boss (who no doubt got asked to do it by someone else).

It took three trips with a trolley to bring back the most god-awful crap I’ve seen. Old phones, broken monitors, keyboards that have more food on it than in your average fridge. I’ve just finished sorting it out. Out of all the crap, I got a few cables.

This neatly brings me on to my job and what it’s about. The truth is, I don’t really know; it seems to change daily. One day I’m rubbish collector, the next day I’m co-ordinating an outage….it does make the job varied I guess, but the job spec for these jobs are hilarious…take them with a pinch of salt. Phrases like ‘This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is presently in or would like to move into a trade floor environment in a fast paced, dynamic team….’ It means nothing, it’s just IT support, whether it is trade floor or otherwise. So if you really feel you want to do support (and it is a good stepping stone into other parts of IT) don’t worry about silly phrases in job specs.

In fact in my experience, trade floor/front office support is easier than middle or back office support. Now the trade floor support guys would have you believe how busy they are and how tough their job is but in truth it’s just a bit more pressured because you’re dealing with real time trades and traders who can be difficult, although I’ve found this to be quite rare as well. Dealing with back office users (I hate that term ‘users’ but I can’t think of another at present), the applications are much more varied and difficult…there’s nothing like trying to fix a database that hasn’t been used in 3 months and the developer left 2 years ago!

Basically you can feel sometimes like a bit of an IT dogsbody so anyone thinking of going into IT support…you have been warned.

It's gone quiet

2009-09-01T07:41:00.001-07:00

It's gone a bit dead and not a lot going on, I tend to get peckish when nothing happens but I've not got any money on me so that'll stop me munching on rubbish.

First time for everything

2009-09-01T06:08:00.001-07:00

Well this is my first post...quick explanation, I work as an IT support person for an investment bank and sometimes it's fun...sometimes it's a pain in the arse though!

Anyway, this blog is me getting on my soapbox about stuff mainly about the job.