Previously, I
mentioned how tempting it was to stay at the bottom of my hole of
failure. Turns out I underestimated the urge to wallow. Sorry for not
posting in (over) a month.
I guess that's part
of starting a new project. You leap off - bright eyed, bushy tailed,
and other cliches – with all these goals in mind. But habits die
hard. And Tumblr isn't going to read itself. And there's a lot of
stuff on Netflix that needs to be watched.
But within my
extended period of wallowing, I peppered in small achievements. I
donated 12 inches of hair to Wigs for Kids (which I still need to
mail off). I created a new workout schedule (but haven't signed up at
the gym). I got my wisdom teeth removed (and discovered that I will
never be at risk of abusing Vicodin – another story for another
time). And most importantly, I got a new job! In IT!
And let me tell
you, the IT Crowd got so much right.
I might not be in
a basement and my coworkers may not be Moss-like, but we are
sequestered into what may be the tiniest room on the floor. Recycled
air is pumped through dirty filters. Too much equipment to fit in too small a space...
I've been hired to be Jen –
brand new to IT and, though hopelessly non-technical, can talk really
pretty and reassure customers on the phone while everyone else does
the tech work. Also I don't really know what my company does...
And yet, in the
three weeks I've been here, I feel like my knowledge of IT has really
grown.
For example: 3
things fix (almost) everything:
- Reboot
- Password reset
- Make sure everything's plugged in properly.
Once we get past
that, you get into the weird questions. We know the questions are
weird. Bear with us. Hopefully we'll find the point where we can
communicate clearly. (Though usually
it's just faster to remote in and fix the problem yourself.)
Sidenote: if you're
an English major and want to use it, get a job answering phones in
IT. Thanks to me, the entire department has a plethora of new ways to tell people gently that their account was terminated; "temporarily suspended" is my current favorite. And the rest of my day is spent coming up with variations on the phrase,
“Have you turned it off and on again?” and finding a nice way to
call people idiots - which is hard when biting sarcasm is your go-to move.
That said,
sometimes highly educated people are often the stupidest people.
You'll discover this when you have to explain to a doctor what a web
browser is. Or an address bar. Or a PC.
When you call into IT and you're lucky enough to reach a human, please remember common courtesy. Like if you're going to
bad mouth me, mute your phone. Just because I put you on hold doesn't
mean I can't still hear you call me an idiot.
Don't call at
lunch.
Don't call at 5.
Don't complain when
you call at lunch or at 5 and get expedited service. We're tired,
hungry, and have to pee. We'll call you back when we take care of all
that. Trust us, we'll all be happier that way.
And we'll close with my favorite surprise of my job:
IE isn't the worst
browser ever? Especially when the continuing education product all
your clients have to run is like the biggest dinosaur ever and hates
every. Single. Other. Browser. Yes I know that's technically “our”
problem but that brings me to the second (and final) point:
Any time the
company decides to revolutionize/improve some system, everything goes
to shit. Every. time. And we're sorry. Your struggles give us
struggles. Be patient.
I really can't
stress the patience part enough. Please be patient. Companies are
notorious for under estimating how many people to employ for IT
Support. I think my office has 6 people dealing directly with clients
from literally everywhere in the nation. Everyone's having issues.
That's why my job exists. And it takes us a
long ass time to get through them all.
Be good to your IT drones. We love you.
Please hold while I transfer you to your next entry...
