Sysadmin/Desktop support worst job ever?

NagiosV

I work at a Company with roughly 2000 employees. We have open landscape so users can come to us whenever they have any issues. There are two more guys working with me also doing desktop support + application packaging.

Users expect me to be an expert with all electronics it doesn't matter if it's a microwave, excel, InDesign, random audio/video equipment. Furthermore I sometimes have to setup equipment for new users and crawl under desks like a worm. I literally feel like a slave doing this crap, plugging in coords/monitors and stupid keyboards.


How on earth do you get work done when you have users standing around you + you are talking to another user on the phone.
Then another guy comes in and asks you to fix the video equipment in one of the meeting rooms. Remember you have never touched the equipment and stand there like a fool trying to get it working.
Hell even the user knows more than me about the video equipment.
Am I the only one who despise users who expect to get help when they clearly see I'm busy on the phone or talking to the IT manager? They stand around my desk and sighs to get my attention. This happens daily, plus everything is always urgent.

I didn't expect this when I started here, I mean as a sysadmin you would think you only would have to manage the servers and network.
I'm happy doing server maintenance/upgrades and all that stuff.

HELP ME! Some days I just feel like being home because I do not want to see some of the users.
Sorry for the rant, it feels a tad better now.

jamesleecoleman

Just deal with it the best that you can. I gotta deal with people walking up to me when I'm working on something else, especially when I'm super focused on something. You just gotta tell them to be patient and it's okay to explain to them that something is new to you or that you don't know. Just try to find out how it works and go with it.

I get called in for stuff that people can simply do themselves such as hooking up a projector. Do you do some type of user training?

NetworkNewb

sounds like a normal helpdesk job to me....

TheFORCE

NagiosV wrote: »

I work at a Company with roughly 2000 employees. We have open landscape so users can come to us whenever they have any issues. There are two more guys working with me also doing desktop support + application packaging.

Users expect me to be an expert with all electronics it doesn't matter if it's a microwave, excel, InDesign, random audio/video equipment. Furthermore I sometimes have to setup equipment for new users and crawl under desks like a worm. I literally feel like a slave doing this crap, plugging in coords/monitors and stupid keyboards.


How on earth do you get work done when you have users standing around you + you are talking to another user on the phone.
Then another guy comes in and asks you to fix the video equipment in one of the meeting rooms. Remember you have never touched the equipment and stand there like a fool trying to get it working.
Hell even the user knows more than me about the video equipment.
Am I the only one who despise users who expect to get help when they clearly see I'm busy on the phone or talking to the IT manager? They stand around my desk and sighs to get my attention. This happens daily, plus everything is always urgent.

I didn't expect this when I started here, I mean as a sysadmin you would think you only would have to manage the servers and network.
I'm happy doing server maintenance/upgrades and all that stuff.

HELP ME! Some days I just feel like being home because I do not want to see some of the users.
Sorry for the rant, it feels a tad better now.

You seriously need to bring your issue to managements attention. If there is no ticketing system in place, your company needs to implement one. Especially in a 2000 user environment! If people just drop by in your office, just tell them the truth. Have them send an email and you will get back to them. Now, if this is what really happens, then you are dealing with Helpdesk tasks that a sys admin shouldn't even bother. That's why the emails and the ticketing system are a good way to track the nature and volume of issues you are presented on a daily basis. Also, it might sound harsh but you need to separate work related issues with personal user computer issues. Again, this is something that the management has to make the employees aware. Is there a helpdesk in this company? If not, you need to send simple stuff to them and don't waste your time. Sure it is important to help everyone, but the reality is, you will not be if you are getting bombarded with all these different issues and you will be wasting valuable time for things that are more important than "how do I setup a signature on outlook or out of office reply"

NagiosV

Hi!

No user training, but we give users documentation with step by step instructions on how to deal with the most common issues.
I would rather lock myself in the server room but I can't, my company do not want to hire someone for dedicated support.
We don't have the money they say.

It's humiliating to crawl under desks.

Mutata

What is your actual job Title and description? This is generally what I would expect from Desktop Support Roles.

Not Sysadmin.

Nightflier101BL

For the most part, this is what my day-to-day job is like. Sometimes, I have 10 people standing outside of my office, each person has a dire emergency. Other days, I'm up in a ceiling pulling CAT5e with insulation fibers all over my clothes. You have to learn to prioritize and not fall into the users' mindsets. I still have problems when someone comes up to me freaking out about something, I tend to let that emotion carry over to me and it affects my decision making.

Every single "Sysadmin" or tech or engineer has to get dirty sometimes, crawl under desk, get in the ceilings, whatever. You do what it takes to get the job done.

NagiosV

Mutata wrote: »

What is your actual job Title and description? This is generally what I would expect from Desktop Support Roles.

Not Sysadmin.

Hello, my title is IT System Administrator and the description/tasks:

*Support ongoing server management and maintenance
*Troubleshoot and resolve hardware issues
*Monitor physical infrastructure
*Work on-call rotation for 24/7 production infrastructure
*Monitor and Support Virtual Machine infrastructure

Chest Rockwell

I did a lot of crawling under desks when I was a desktop support guy, was easy back then because I was much slimmer, younger and saw it as part and parcel of the job.

I once got a job with the title Systems Administrator only to find it was actually a position which covered 1st/2nd/3rd line tasks. I stuck it out for a few years, got a lot of classroom training out of them for Exchange, Lync, vSphere, 2008 R2, AD and powershell. However, the job at times could be very annoying, for instance I was working on introducing the new Exchange 2010 infrastructure then suddenly I'd get a call from someone "how do I change the ring-tone on my BlackBerry?" or "how do I add a signature in Outlook". However, to be fair, the job was more 3rd line than hardcore 1st and 2nd line plus my manager was pretty good at answering 1st line type stuff when I was busy doing stuff, so not all bad. It was a small-ish firm, about 200 users.

Before that though, I did get a job at a housing association. I was told my title would be IT Administrator and there would be an IT Technician below me. My first day was on the day of their office move into a new building. I was told by the HR women "oh...your title is now IT Technician, we've let the other guy go because we can't justify two IT people"...ok right. My manager was this accountant cretin who was continuously barking orders at me and demanded I patch up 60 PCs (connect them to the power sockets and network floor sockets) etc. When I explained to him that the suit I was wearing was brand new and I didn't expect to be crawling under desks, I was told "but that's your job, people are waiting". I lasted 4 days, walked out door and caught the train home LOL.

BerkshireHerd

Sounds like Desktop Support to me as well, minus the pulling cable (Luckily we have an electrician on call for that). I would regularly have to crawl under desktops. I would hate it when woman would have pairs of shoes under there rotting. I did my one years worth of Level 2 and then moved into Security, now I send the Level 2 guys out in the field. Not looking back on getting out of Level 2!

Polynomial

Here's a little hint: you NEVER get completely out of customer support in IT.

Danielm7

You need a ticketing system, you can't have 2000 users walking up to you randomly and waiting while you do the fix for them, that's bonkers.

Also, are you actually supporting 2000 users at that one location? Typically that could be a sysadmin type description for a much smaller company, but that many users a typical sysadmin isn't handling end user support and doing desktop duties too.

RHEL

I agree with many of the others in this thread... While your title is "system admin," your actual role is not. What you're doing is help desk or desktop support.

I'm fairly new to the game, but I've had a system admin role over three companies in the past six years. I've also done technical support while in high school/college. My day-to-day is what you'd expect from a systems admin -- managing server infrastructure, patching, working on projects, server builds, troubleshooting OS issues and performance.

We're only a 6500 person company (700 in IT) and have a ticketing system, but system admins don't use it. I generally receive projects from my team lead, requests/issues from our UNIX e-mail queue (requests mostly come from DBAs, security, very rarely help desk), and then do general upkeep on my own. I can go entire weeks without interacting with others outside my team.

Honestly, if you're wanting to be a sysadmin, I'd say you should find another job...

earonw49

Sounds like you're in a somewhat similar position as I am. I have over 5,500+ users in my department. I manage/support over 900+ users (once was 700+) in 25 different offices in my region. These offices span from 5 miles to 105 miles in between each other. I am assigned to my specific region by myself with no supervisor or help for 200+ miles. There are only 8 other techs that help out with the 5,500 users...

This post/response is merely my opinion and also how I personally have handled with my situation, which seems like it is similar to yours. Also, what I would do in your situation.Take what you can from it.


This post is TL;DR!

__________________________________________________


I understand that a lot of professionals here are commenting and endorsing a ticket system. A ticket system does indeed help however you have to realize IMMEDIATELY is that no ticket system, training/tutorial or user policy is going to prevent users/customers from walking to your office. Remedy, Salesforce, HotTicket, Spiceworks etc wont prevent a user from grabbing you while you're in the middle of something, and request your assistance. It doesn't matter how many training tutorials or structure program(s) your company lays out, you will always have users who think you are their personal IT support. They will relentlessly ask you for help. You can clearly be busy with a project, task or be talking with someone and they still will walk up to you like you aren't busy. Some, if not most end users don't care and only want their problems fixed (and if they are angry enough, require an immediate solution). That is the harsh reality of being in IT support (you are in support rather than admin, trust us all when we say that).

Moving on,

My department has a ticketing system, training classes, daily tutorial emails and tutorial documents on the network drives etc. Guess what? Pertaining to what I said above, users STILL walk up to me, email me and call me to ask for help in regards to issues that they can easily find (or have) the solutions to. They do this on a DAILY basis. I can't tell you how many times I have shown or given users detailed steps (with pictures) on how to do certain functions and they still walk up to me and ask "can you show me that thing you showed me a few days ago?". Heaven forbid I get a ticket from them. I always ask if someone has put in a ticket and 9/10 they don't. I have had a LOT of users look me in the eye and lie to me saying that they did. Of course when I check the ticketing system, there are no records of even a ticket or even a conversation between them and the helpdesk. It never ceases to amaze me.

I admit, the first few months in my current job were terrible. I felt like I was going crazy for weeks. I was stressing out at the fact that users wouldn't call in tickets, stop me while I'm busy, disrupt me, hang out by my desk, ask for help daily etc. I felt like I couldn't get anything done. I felt like I was simply trapped and couldn't progress with my work.

It took me a few months to realize this but I found a simple solution to all of my problems: I sucked it up, accepted my circumstance, organized my work and focused on my goals harder.

You're going to have to suck it up and accept the fact that you are the "God of technology" in your organization. You are going to have to do the nitty gritty jobs by getting your hands and feet wet. You are going to have to crawl, dig and slither through every crack of your office to figure out a solution of some sort. Your role requires you to KNOW everything and FIX everything that is work related. Users will come to you and ask you every type of technology related issue. Nothing will prevent them from physically walking to you, emailing or call you. You CANNOT let their mindset, way of thinking and personality bother you in the slightest bit. YOU are the IT admin, YOU are a busy man/woman. You can't let them bring you down. EVERYONE who has been in desktop, helpdesk or any internal IT support has been in your situation. If we can do it, then YOU can do it

It may seem hard but trust me, it isn't. You have to find strength in yourself to continue to focus on your job and goals, even with what is going on around you. You have to accept and deal with the chaos/issues around you. On top of that acceptance, personal organization and time management can and will help. Those aspects have not only kept my sanity in check, it has reduced my stress level, given me raises and more opportunities to learn and better myself as an IT professional.

__________________________________________________


I am very surprised that your organization does not have a ticketing system, ESPECIALLY for a company that size. From a organizational/time management standpoint like I said above, a ticketing system does indeed help however...
Note that it wont be an absolute solution to your problem. It does deter users from approaching you by a small yet helpful amount but don't expect miracles. Please note that a ticket system will take time for users to adjust to and for your organization to implement. Until a ticket system is implemented, stabilized and maintained properly, you have to closely manage the issues you are faced with via personal organization and time management.

For starters you the IT professional cannot "save everyone". You have to personally draw the line by knowing what you can and cannot do and who you can and cannot help at any given moment. You have to draw the line between personal IT support and work related IT support. ALWAYS choose work issues over personal technological issues. The more you take on yourself, the more you stress yourself out and render yourself over-cumbered every second of your work day. There is a difference between having a LOT of work to do and being over-cumbered. You have a lot on your plate and issues pop up every second, this is normal for IT support. If you continue to blindly take on issues while attempting to focusing on your main tasks, then you will render yourself over-cumbered. That's when the "snowball effect" starts and your stress increases. Like I said above, most users don't care about how busy you are and will chain you to your desk if they had the opportunity.

I also would encourage you to speak with your management on how to deal with your situation and suggest solutions (ticket/tracking system). Open up to him/her about your concerns and ask how they would deal with your situation. Pitch ideas! Your manager is/should there to help you, not tear you down. Ask what HE/SHE wants from YOU. YOU are in a very customer service oriented position however you don't work for each individual customer. You work for the COMPANY as a whole. Your IT manager is your boss..."Sally" or "Bob" in accounting isn't your boss. I'm not saying that you should ignore your users but to realize that once again, you can't save everyone. Don't feel like you have a personal obligation to each person who appears in front of you at that moment.

Have users email you their issues and get back with them. Let them KNOW that you're busy and that you will get back to them as soon as you can. They shouldn't have to physically "wait in line" for you, that's ridiculous. Create a task list and organizational lists for yourself and implement them to help manage your time. Even though my organization has a ticketing system I still organize my emails, create organization lists and daily calendar/to-do lists. I prioritize each ticket and/or inquiry for help by the severity and position of the individual. About 80% (accurate analysis) of the time my calendar gets disrupted or my plans fall through, however I can still pick back up where I left off due to me knowing where I am at and what my tasks/goals are for that day. Organization and time management are key I cannot stress this enough. If you aren't doing it now, now is the time to do it. If you are, dig deeper and improve your personal system.

__________________________________________________


Once again, those are the few things that has personally helped me in my current IT position and what I would do in your situation. I wish you simply the best of luck and the most energy and success one can possibly have. Take heed to the advice everyone in this thread is giving you. This is an amazing community and we are all here to help each other out. Let us know if you need anything. PM me if you need anything! Ranting actually helps and it has helped me in the past, you're not alone.

One thing that stuck out to me in this thread was @Polynomial's comment - "You will never get completely out of customer support in IT."

Quote of the year for me, personally.

TheFORCE

I understand that a lot of professionals here are commenting and endorsing a ticket system. A ticket system does indeed help however you have to realize IMMEDIATELY is that no ticket system, training/tutorial or user policy is going to prevent users/customers from walking to your office.

If the users are still doing it, then the IT department is not enforcing the policies. Like I mention on my previous post, you have to tell them NO! Follow the procedures and you will get some order put in place. There is no way around it. You tell them no, 1 time, 2 times, 3 times, the 4th time they will know to put a ticket in. And if they do not learn you keep telling.

The ticketing system is and should be the most important tool in Helpdesk/ Desktop support. Without it, you will have no ammunition to go to management and tell them, we need more staff, we need more resources or we need more training. The management will tell you, show me the metrics! Learn to track in order to measure, if you do not track your work, you will not be able to measure it. I cant even imagine how you would deal in situations where an issue required a change request or the involvement of more than one group. Who does all the coordination? How does one group know to pick up the next step if they do not know at what step of the process the change request is in? I have been in situations where a high level executive needed wifi access and told my manager, I need approvals from the CIO to process it. The CIO came to my office and asked a simple question "What do I need to expedite this?" and I told them straight up, "We need your approval, either by email or by a ticket" and he did just that.
You guys have no idea how harder you make your lives when you let users control the way you operate.
An IT department is not a mom and pop shop! It is an environment where processes and order has to be put in place and followed. Don't let me get started on all the other issues you are causing for Audit or Compliance!

earonw49

TheFORCE wrote: »

If the users are still doing it, then the IT department is not enforcing the policies. Like I mention on my previous post, you have to tell them NO! Follow the procedures and you will get some order put in place. There is no way around it. You tell them no, 1 time, 2 times, 3 times, the 4th time they will know to put a ticket in. And if they do not learn you keep telling.

The ticketing system is and should be the most important tool in Helpdesk/ Desktop support. Without it, you will have no ammunition to go to management and tell them, we need more staff, we need more resources or we need more training. The management will tell you, show me the metrics! Learn to track in order to measure, if you do not track your work, you will not be able to measure it. I cant even imagine how you would deal in situations where an issue required a change request or the involvement of more than one group. Who does all the coordination? How does one group know to pick up the next step if they do not know at what step of the process the change request is in? I have been in situations where a high level executive needed wifi access and told my manager, I need approvals from the CIO to process it. The CIO came to my office and asked a simple question "What do I need to expedite this?" and I told them straight up, "We need your approval, either by email or by a ticket" and he did just that.
You guys have no idea how harder you make your lives when you let users control the way you operate.
An IT department is not a mom and pop shop! It is an environment where processes and order has to be put in place and followed. Don't let me get started on all the other issues you are causing for Audit or Compliance!

I agree with you however like I said above, he will still have people walk up to him and ask help even if there are strict policies in place. He can't prevent that. It is human nature to take shortcuts and to choose the easy way out vs what we should do. For example, there are security policies in place at my organization that clearly states that users are to refrain from plugging in USB devices to work PC's. I have re imaged over 30+ machines in the past 4 months due to viruses being transferred from personal USB devices to work machines. In short I was saying that humans are going to "human". Yes you can enforce the policy but in the end, people are going to do what they want. I am not saying that creating and enforcing policy doesn't work, I am just saying that OP shouldn't expect everyone not to ask for his help in person. Once again, its human nature.

Like I said above, he has to let go of the fact that he cant help everyone and that he is important and busy as well.

OP and his organization have to create policies, rules and establish some sort of tracking system or else their problem is going to get worse. As you said, personal organization or tracking is SO key at this point in his position. Start now to stop the bleeding and then hopefully surgery will come soon...

I didn't even think about the audit or compliance aspect of it...that's makes things even more complicated, especially from a security standpoint.

TheFORCE

earonw49 wrote: »

I agree with you however like I said above, he will still have people walk up to him and ask help even if there are strict policies in place. He can't prevent that. It is human nature to take shortcuts and to choose the easy way out vs what we should do. For example, there are security policies in place at my organization that clearly states that users are to refrain from plugging in USB devices to work PC's. I have re imaged over 30+ machines in the past 4 months due to viruses being transferred from personal USB devices to work machines. In short I was saying that humans are going to "human". Yes you can enforce the policy but in the end, people are going to do what they want. I am not saying that creating and enforcing policy doesn't work, I am just saying that OP shouldn't expect everyone not to ask for his help in person. Once again, its human nature.

OP and his organization have to create policies, rules and establish some sort of tracking system or else their problem is going to get worse. As you said, personal organization or tracking is SO key at this point in his position. Start now to stop the bleeding, surgery will hopefully come soon...

Anyways, I agree with you. Consistency is key. There has to be a CLEAR and STRONG line drawn or else users will continue to walk over you or for analogy's sake, like I said in my post above, will "chain" you to your desk.

If employees are finding way around policies, then the policies or the process enforcing the policies have loopholes and need to be amended. In the example you provided, you have to look into disabling the USB ports via group policies in AD. Then users will come to you and say, my usb is not working at which point you tell them, it has been disabled and you point them to the policy. Case closed.
Yes, the OP's company has to start implementing some structure now before it is too late. He has to let management know and make them aware. That's where everything starts, you need to get the managements buy in and then move forward.

earonw49

TheFORCE wrote: »

If employees are finding way around policies, then the policies or the process enforcing the policies have loopholes and need to be amended. In the example you provided, you have to look into disabling the USB ports via group policies in AD. Then users will come to you and say, my usb is not working at which point you tell them, it has been disabled and you point them to the policy. Case closed.
Yes, the OP's company has to start implementing some structure now before it is too late. He has to let management know and make them aware. That's where everything starts, you need to get the managements buy in and then move forward.

I actually suggested disabling the usb ports (simple security adjustment in AD) what you said to my company's System Admin's and security team. The results were less than desirable, I gotta PM you about it!

Anyways I like your perspective.

Nafe92014

This is kinda what my role was @ my local hospital. My position was ICT 2 (which means Internal Communications Technology). We had a ticketing system that extended as far as the health authority region existed in my province (about 4 major hospitals, and 13 clinics). One time, I had to deliver some Lexmark toner to many printers in different areas of the hospital. Then next thing I knew, I'd be asked to go into an empty surgical suite in full surgical attire just to spend 5 minutes to get a CoW (computer on wheels). It was a pain at first, but it was protocol. 75% of my time was on site support while 25% was help desk.

N2IT

I have to side with the OP.

System Administration is what it is, and if you are doing those ridiculous task on any type of regular occurance I would look on having a talk with your boss. ***Don't get me wrong if it's a rare one off situation then not a problem I can help you get your laptop connected to the network.

Crawling under the desk is foul. My first IT job ever had me doing that, it was weird. You would smell ass, feet, other places I wish not to discuss. I've almost puked a few times doing that. I remember this old heavy set lady and ........ never mind.

I agree application packaging and patch deployments is a helluva a lot better than plugging in keyboards.

Like I mentioned earlier have a talk with your boss. Sounds like he needs to hire another resource to help with those lesser skilled task. Explain to him through financials or time how you are wasting your time with this nonsense.

Another thing you could do is look to introduce another process where users can't do drive bys. Only submit tickets that way you can at least take turns with the other two and look at the amount of help desk tickets you are getting.

Yeah now that I think about it to much effort. Find a new job, but first talk to your boss.

nster

I crawl under desks all the time. Am I the only one who have clean colleagues? lol. The thing that would annoy me is the dust which I'm fairly allergic to, I am pretty young though and in a role where it is expected from me

JamesKurtovich

nster wrote: »

I crawl under desks all the time. Am I the only one who have clean colleagues? lol. The thing that would annoy me is the dust which I'm fairly allergic to, I am pretty young though and in a role where it is expected from me

I use Clorox wipes for the desk, peripherals, and phones (NOC). I had to crawl under our desk once (not a lot of room -- I felt like a worm stuck in something) and the amount of dust was horrific.

MeanDrunkR2D2

N2IT wrote: »

I have to side with the OP.

System Administration is what it is, and if you are doing those ridiculous task on any type of regular occurance I would look on having a talk with your boss. ***Don't get me wrong if it's a rare one off situation then not a problem I can help you get your laptop connected to the network.

Crawling under the desk is foul. My first IT job ever had me doing that, it was weird. You would smell ass, feet, other places I wish not to discuss. I've almost puked a few times doing that. I remember this old heavy set lady and ........ never mind.

I agree application packaging and patch deployments is a helluva a lot better than plugging in keyboards.

Like I mentioned earlier have a talk with your boss. Sounds like he needs to hire another resource to help with those lesser skilled task. Explain to him through financials or time how you are wasting your time with this nonsense.

Another thing you could do is look to introduce another process where users can't do drive bys. Only submit tickets that way you can at least take turns with the other two and look at the amount of help desk tickets you are getting.

Yeah now that I think about it to much effort. Find a new job, but first talk to your boss.

I agree with this. Sounds like they have a lack of help with the lower level stuff, which you weren't hired on to do. It's one thing to do it once in a while to help out another team during a big project or tight timeline, but for it to be rather consistent it's not a good thing. He needs to speak to his boss, and the sooner the better. Explain that he wasn't hired on to have this be one of his daily tasks and that for him to be pulled off other tasks wastes the company money and time. I'd assume that you make considerably more than a desktop type of employee and they could obviously hire someone that would make sense for the amount of time spent doing those tasks. In the long run it will hurt the company and the tasks that he is supposed to be focused on when running around doing menial tasks that aren't a part. If his boss isn't really open to listening or doing what is needed to make him work primarily on what he was hired for, then it's time to look for a new job.

NagiosV

earonw49 wrote: »

Sounds like you're in a somewhat similar position as I am. I have over 5,500+ users in my department. I manage/support over 900+ users (once was 700+) in 25 different offices in my region. These offices span from 5 miles to 105 miles in between each other. I am assigned to my specific region by myself with no supervisor or help for 200+ miles. There are only 8 other techs that help out with the 5,500 users...

This post/response is merely my opinion and also how I personally have handled with my situation, which seems like it is similar to yours. Also, what I would do in your situation.Take what you can from it.


This post is TL;DR!

Wow that was a really long post! As many of you already pointed out, there are no way to stop the users from barging in.
Unfortunatley we do not have a security door or something.

The manager will not hire anyone for helping us with these tasks. They simply cannot afford it he says.
And to be honest I take things personal even if I know I shouldn't, I mean imagine have three users standing in line to your desk and all of them are upset, or need something pronto!

Maybe I should send out a mail to everyone that we will not accept users coming in to us, and that only mail will be accepted as a form of incident processing.

I like my colleagues very much and we have the same opinion regarding this. However if this continues I will not be able to take it much longer.

I'm done crawling under desks and face to face interactions with angry users.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Well, sounds like you already have your answer as to what you should do. This is obviously expected on your duties, even though you weren't told of that when you were hired on. As far as notifying end users to use the ticketing system, that needs to come from your boss as the end users will push back and not want to change. I've been in situations like that before when I was in a Desktop position and frequently would have people stopping me, or hunting me down to help them immediately with issues that weren't critical.

If they can't afford to have a proper desktop staff, I would take that as a clue that it's time to move on to a place where you would have a more defined role in what you do primarily. Anytime you deal with end users there will be some that you will never make happy no matter what the case. It sounds like you are past that point in your career to be focusing on that stuff. I'd take the time to focus on brushing up your resume and putting it out there and look at finding something more in line with your expectations.

If there isn't a ticket system in place, they really need to do that. There are many options that are free/cheap if money is an issue. Of course, for best usage a paid version is better. If you already have SCCM in use, you can use the SCSM part at no additional cost to set up your own ticketing system.

Honestly, if he feels that they cannot afford hiring a staff for those issues, he'll quickly find out how hard it is to afford replacing employees and having high turnover. Most Sys Admins I know wouldn't put up with this for long or as frequently as you and your co-workers deal with.

earonw49

MeanDrunkR2D2 wrote: »

Well, sounds like you already have your answer as to what you should do. This is obviously expected on your duties, even though you weren't told of that when you were hired on. As far as notifying end users to use the ticketing system, that needs to come from your boss as the end users will push back and not want to change. I've been in situations like that before when I was in a Desktop position and frequently would have people stopping me, or hunting me down to help them immediately with issues that weren't critical.

If they can't afford to have a proper desktop staff, I would take that as a clue that it's time to move on to a place where you would have a more defined role in what you do primarily. Anytime you deal with end users there will be some that you will never make happy no matter what the case. It sounds like you are past that point in your career to be focusing on that stuff. I'd take the time to focus on brushing up your resume and putting it out there and look at finding something more in line with your expectations.

If there isn't a ticket system in place, they really need to do that. There are many options that are free/cheap if money is an issue. Of course, for best usage a paid version is better. If you already have SCCM in use, you can use the SCSM part at no additional cost to set up your own ticketing system.

Honestly, if he feels that they cannot afford hiring a staff for those issues, he'll quickly find out how hard it is to afford replacing employees and having high turnover. Most Sys Admins I know wouldn't put up with this for long or as frequently as you and your co-workers deal with.

Countless companies (like OP's) lure IT professionals with "fancy" looking titles, only to end up doing basic/low level support for a large percentage of their job.

Most HR professionals and recruiters can't distinguish between Systems Admin and a Desktop Support duties, however they know that the title "System Admin" will lure IT professionals.

Either way, OP has to realize that he is NOT in a System Admin position. That's just it. He either has to accept this and deal with the situation he is in, or (I agree with you) simply move on and find a real/legit Systems Admin job

Cleverclogs

What you've described in this post is essentially what my daily nightmare is. While the office is only around 200, it's the same irritating 15-20 people that always stop by in person to demand their issues get fixed first. When I was enthusiastic and still motivated I was happy to help, but now I've had enough of support and want to get away from it (Hence why I'm studying for my CCNA). We have a decent ticketing system, and lately we've been pushing an initiative to get people to send emails, but the hardcore group just won't listen. Just last week I was in the middle of putting together a major incident email that was Crit1, and out the corner of my eye I could see the guy who is the worst offender stood there, next to my desk. This guy must have some abandonment issues or something because last week he managed 14 visits to us, from Monday - Friday. This visit was number 5, and he stood there waiting and waiting while I was typing and proof reading my email, and I hadn't even sent it before he was clearing his throat and trying to get my attention. In the end a co-worker came back and dealt with him, but his query was about a ticket we'd raised for him and passed on to another team. Something he could easily have emailed about. I dread to think what it would be like with 1000+ people, with more people like this guy to deal with! Best advice: Spruce up your CV and move on, because otherwise staying in an environment like that will start to grate on you after a few months. Good luck!

robS

There will always be entitled users who demand everything be fixed instantaneously. There will always be a need to crawl under desks. There will always be a need to do a million and one crap jobs.

You can either be remembered as the person who got on with it, or the person who complained about it.

If it's that bad, then leave. But I'll wager any sensible amount that you'll either find the exact same problems at your next gig or you'll change jobs and have something else to complain about.

N2IT

@Cleverclogs

Sounds like you are doing the right thing with the CCNA. Good luck, you are at the burn out phase. Time to move on.

N2IT

robS wrote: »

There will always be a need to crawl under desks. There will always be a need to do a million and one crap jobs.

Not if you work hard and position yourself correctly.

robS

N2IT wrote: »

Not if you work hard and position yourself correctly.

Got it in one. There will always be the need, but if you do your time then after a while it won't be you.