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ZetsurinPower posted:short story, an expired certificate, although it manifested itself in a way that made tracking it down a bit more involved. He went from Manager to Helpdesk. Says it all, doesn't it?
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Mar 6, 2014 17:00
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| # ? May 16, 2024 08:12 |
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Stagnation is death.
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Mar 6, 2014 17:05
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SEKCobra posted:He went from Manager to Helpdesk. Says it all, doesn't it? He was Helpdesk manager, and forfeited the responsibility because he didn't want it. He openly admits he is more than happy to do the same thing hes doing forever, and hes not the only one like that on helpdesk. I would shitcan or push out half of our helpdesk if I had any power or ability to affect change
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Mar 6, 2014 17:16
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I don't mind coworkers in IT who stagnate, it beats training new people all the time and it allows me to take better positions.
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Mar 6, 2014 17:17
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poor performance is tolerated here, it puts a stink on the whole department. I can't wait to YOTJ out of this place.
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Mar 6, 2014 17:26
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GreenNight posted:I don't mind coworkers in IT who stagnate, it beats training new people all the time and it allows me to take better positions. Of course, co-workers who literally just go all drone and not apply an outside thought to what they're doing annoy me. I have co-workers who are completely fine applying a "fix" for an issue that breaks something else, but they'll never connect the fix and the resulting issue that emerges after. This means we get twice the tickets, because a simple "apply fix, adjust x" ends up making another issue, which will be taking longer because the guy investigating the issue after won't know what's caused the change, so narrowing down what to do to fix it becomes harder. Methodical, logical thinkers are brilliant and are a million times better than the people who go "this works for this issue, so this is what i'll do despite x".
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Mar 6, 2014 17:30
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the problem is the mentality has created a self fulfilling prophecy where everyone assumes the helpdesk are useless drones, so they perform like useless drones. its a black hole, most of those people have been there 5+ years, and quite a few of them are washouts from other areas of the company (secretaries, etc). and they're all paid $20/hr+ so why what incentive do they have to grow/learn? they just chase their performance metrics. anyone who thinks they hit the jackpot and are willing to retire on a level 1 helpdesk position is not somebody I want working in IT ZetsurinPower fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 17:35
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Four tickets come in in under thirty seconds. All are variants on a theme from each address, but each includes the line "We are not able to access your software on $server, $ip. Do the needful." $server and $ip were the same for each ticket. I run nmap, because I'm the boss and got blanket permission from legal to portscan anything I loving wanna portscan. Not questioning it. [estrategy@login ~]$ nmap -v -P0 $ip Starting Nmap 4.11 ( http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ ) at 2014-03-06 11:35 EST DNS resolution of 1 IPs took 7.28s. Initiating Connect() Scan against $server ($ip) [1680 ports] at 11:35 Connect() Scan Timing: About 8.93% done; ETC: 11:40 (0:05:06 remaining) The Connect() Scan took 347.15s to scan 1680 total ports. Host $server ($ip) appears to be up ... good. All 1680 scanned ports on $server ($ip) are filtered Nmap finished: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 354.442 seconds [estrategy@login ~]$ Never seen that one before. Responded to each with that information and the fact that there appears to be some sort of network connectivity or external firewalling issue. Out of scope. W h o o p s.
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Mar 6, 2014 17:43
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If you have a SonicWall on site check your license status 
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Mar 6, 2014 17:58
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Exit Strategy posted:Four tickets come in in under thirty seconds. All are variants on a theme from each address, but each includes the line "We are not able to access your software on $server, $ip. Do the needful." $server and $ip were the same for each ticket. Why would a portscan to do network diagnostics be illegal?
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Mar 6, 2014 18:09
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dogstile posted:Of course, co-workers who literally just go all drone and not apply an outside thought to what they're doing annoy me. I have co-workers who are completely fine applying a "fix" for an issue that breaks something else, but they'll never connect the fix and the resulting issue that emerges after. This means we get twice the tickets, because a simple "apply fix, adjust x" ends up making another issue, which will be taking longer because the guy investigating the issue after won't know what's caused the change, so narrowing down what to do to fix it becomes harder. I really hate this attitude. I can't tell you how many issues I know of where the standard fix is "Make them local admin." It probably takes the same amount of time to give them read/write privileges to the one folder where they need access. I'm just glad that no one with that attitude is in a supervisory position over me, I'd probably start openly working on my resume at work if I got written up for wasting time troubleshooting when there's a known "solution."
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Mar 6, 2014 18:13
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I'm doing an Easy Transfer between a pair of computers and it says the ETA for moving 25GB is ~8 hours. That seems like a lot, so I just poked my head under the desk and see that the computer I'm coming off of is plugged into a hub and the collision light is pretty much solid red.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:21
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ZetsurinPower posted:the problem is the mentality has created a self fulfilling prophecy where everyone assumes the helpdesk are useless drones, so they perform like useless drones. its a black hole, most of those people have been there 5+ years, and quite a few of them are washouts from other areas of the company (secretaries, etc). and they're all paid $20/hr+ so why what incentive do they have to grow/learn? they just chase their performance metrics. I doubt that any one of them thinks they hit the jackpot, some people are just satisfied where they are (or they've given up). Though I do wonder how much of that attitude comes about because of the prevailing management culture of rewarding your best and brightest people with extra work and expectations but no extra money or paths of advancement. To manipulate the narrative by, for example, telling them they're doing a great job but then giving them bare minimum numbers on a performance review so they can avoid giving them a raise. That realization is just about the biggest motivation killer I can think of. I wonder how many of the people who are just coasting have been repeatedly been burned by those managerial tactics, and I wonder how much of a contribution that had to them deciding that what they had was good enough. I'm speaking in generalities here, by the way, not anything specific to your company.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:21
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SEKCobra posted:Why would a portscan to do network diagnostics be illegal? It's not that it's illegal, it's that portmapping and vulnerability scanning can be seen as a precursor to corporate espionage, especially since many companies run older, unpatched, or otherwise problematic software behind the firewall. Why you wouldn't just log in and take it is another question, but IS and legal don't generally like it.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:23
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jim truds posted:I just did a GIS for that, it's like a company of Carmen Sandiegos. What search term did you use? I'm not finding what you apparently found.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:24
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I'd say having zero technical aptitude and no ambition while making $50k a year on a helpdesk and having the ability to work from home is hitting the jackpot for certain people here. There are a couple people who have more potential but there is no path for promotion and the engineering staff doesn't take them seriously because of their peers. They have a strong goon-in-a-well mentality that keeps them on helpdesk for 7 years straight, it doesn't help that they are over-compensated and never pushed to improve (and the low performers are not disciplined in any meaningful way). All around bad environment for success.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:32
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This is the reason I'm studying virtualization like my life depends on it. Right now, you occasionally need a lot of manpower to handle things like replacing hundreds of computers. If you replace those computers with thin clients, it'll be harder to justify some of those jobs. I think a lot of people won't even see it coming.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:44
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the littlest prince posted:What search term did you use? I'm not finding what you apparently found. This picture is representative. Again, people don't actually wear them, but you do get one along with your laptop that people keep around their desk or whatever.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:46
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evol262 posted:This picture is representative. Again, people don't actually wear them, but you do get one along with your laptop that people keep around their desk or whatever. How disappointed was the tuxedo guy front row just to the right of center when he saw the other tuxedo guy show up with his tuxedo as well as red laces in his shoes? Was there tuxedo envy? Laces envy? edit: three tuxedos. wow. double edit: I am spending far too long looking at this picture.
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Mar 6, 2014 18:58
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:This is the reason I'm studying virtualization like my life depends on it. Right now, you occasionally need a lot of manpower to handle things like replacing hundreds of computers. If you replace those computers with thin clients, it'll be harder to justify some of those jobs. Doesn't getting the licenses for all those thinclients cost about as much as a server and a load of PC's? I overheard some of the sales people mentioning that the cost isn't worth it for some people.
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Mar 6, 2014 19:04
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dogstile posted:Doesn't getting the licenses for all those thinclients cost about as much as a server and a load of PC's? I overheard some of the sales people mentioning that the cost isn't worth it for some people. Well, yeah, but if you had the PCs you'd need licenses for them anyway.
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Mar 6, 2014 19:12
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An old lady came in... EDIT: I work for a school district, this lady just lives by the district office I work in. She has a pacemaker and a thing the pacemaker reports to. It's a small box with a modem in it and she couldn't get it to phone home to report to her doctor about the status of the pacemaker. Of course she decided to come in to the office to ask for help rather than going to the doctor. She brings this box in and it's pretty straight-forward with a phone and a line jack on the side. I explain that we have a phone system that wont work with this thing, but that you should be able to plug the phone cord from the wall to the line port (I think that's the problem) but that if it still doesn't work she should a) call the 1-800 number on the back of the thing, and/or b) go to the loving doctor. She explains that she called the 800-number, they couldn't help her, so they connected her to a doctor, who simply said he wasn't familiar with the device. At no point in time did anyone say, "Go to the doctor!" What the loving poo poo people, this lady is in her 80's and probably needs to get this figured out.
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Mar 6, 2014 19:13
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SEKCobra posted:Why would a portscan to do network diagnostics be illegal?
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Mar 6, 2014 19:18
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anthonypants posted:Ask your legal department, or feel free to visit nmap's own site. I had a coworker written up for nmap-ing a customers box, and they complained of "attacks" coming from our support network. Plenty of people are really retarded about this, so it's worth CYA-ing.
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Mar 6, 2014 19:23
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dogstile posted:Doesn't getting the licenses for all those thinclients cost about as much as a server and a load of PC's? I overheard some of the sales people mentioning that the cost isn't worth it for some people. It's definitely not one of those "No-Brainer" cost decisions, but I think things are moving in that direction and at many companies it'll make sense to replace some portion of their workstations with thins.
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Mar 6, 2014 19:28
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anthonypants posted:Ask your legal department, or feel free to visit nmap's own site. If there's a documented issue, I can do any sort of diagnostics. You can even sniff and stuff. It's only illegal when you do it to random people without their knowledge or authorization. Unless you wanna argue that pinging is hacking. Also the nmap site seems to only talk about port scanning over the internet, not locally.
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Mar 6, 2014 19:28
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At my old job I have been chewed out for requesting access for a software download site to download the latest version of greenshot, which had since been placed on the draconian block list. I was told that I didn't need it and my team lead asked "how is this necessary <to fix latest bug handed to me>" when our standard procedure for documenting bugs and their fixes involved covering our asses with screenshots. This one situation alone is indicative of the environment I worked in. (Spoilers: It involved medical.)
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Mar 6, 2014 19:32
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SopWATh posted:An old lady came in... Serious Hardware / Software Crap > RE: A pacemaker came in...
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Mar 6, 2014 19:43
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SEKCobra posted:Also the nmap site seems to only talk about port scanning over the internet, not locally.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:05
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dogstile posted:Doesn't getting the licenses for all those thinclients cost about as much as a server and a load of PC's? I overheard some of the sales people mentioning that the cost isn't worth it for some people. My company runs several call centers with roughly about 1000 seats in a 24/7/365 operation. I've priced out thin clients every 18 months for the last 4 years and they are more expensive than just putting a Optiplex 3xxx and a basic monitor on a desk every single time. The back end SAN and licensing just kill it when you compare apples to apples on initial cash outlay. Thin clients can in the long run save you money if you care about ROI over 3 years or so. Just power alone would save us about 1,000 dollars a month in electricity bills, but I never got call center management to see past the initial larger capex outlay.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:39
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skipdogg posted:Thin clients can in the long run save you money if you care about ROI over 3 years or so. Just power alone would save us about 1,000 dollars a month in electricity bills, but I never got call center management to see past the initial larger capex outlay. The big thing I'm looking at is the upgrade from Windows 7 to 8 (or 9 or whatever) in 2020. With thin clients, everything would be done behind the scenes and then one day you turn on your computer and it's the new version.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:45
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ZetsurinPower posted:I'd say having zero technical aptitude and no ambition while making $50k a year on a helpdesk and having the ability to work from home is hitting the jackpot for certain people here. Honestly if someone wanted to pay me good money (50k is not good money) to say "No I can't help you" and open tickets I'd probably do it. When I was in my 20's I was in IT because I "Loved it". Now I just want a paycheck good enough to last me to retirement. I'm either getting really pragmatic about all this poo poo, or I've dealt with HP printer drivers one too many loving times.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:47
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skipdogg posted:My company runs several call centers with roughly about 1000 seats in a 24/7/365 operation. I've priced out thin clients every 18 months for the last 4 years and they are more expensive than just putting a Optiplex 3xxx and a basic monitor on a desk every single time. The back end SAN and licensing just kill it when you compare apples to apples on initial cash outlay. They save even more money once management realizes that with a good VPN and phone solution they don't even have to bother with offices anymore. With everything being tracked by metrics I can't for the life of me understand why centralized call centers still exist.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:49
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Because there is value in having everyone under one roof?
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Mar 6, 2014 20:50
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:This is the reason I'm studying virtualization like my life depends on it. Right now, you occasionally need a lot of manpower to handle things like replacing hundreds of computers. If you replace those computers with thin clients, it'll be harder to justify some of those jobs. good call. self improvement is often the only way to get ahead if you can't secure on-the-job training or get your company to pay for classes. Important note for people who are interviewing with a new potential employer: always find out what the promotion path has been for the position you're applying for, find out where previous employees ended up and how long it took them to get there. If they scratch their heads trying to think of a success story, its probably a sign that its a dead end position. Rhymenoserous posted:Honestly if someone wanted to pay me good money (50k is not good money) to say "No I can't help you" and open tickets I'd probably do it. When I was in my 20's I was in IT because I "Loved it". Now I just want a paycheck good enough to last me to retirement. I'm either getting really pragmatic about all this poo poo, or I've dealt with HP printer drivers one too many loving times. 50k is good money for level 1 helpdesk that is a glorified call center in a dirt cheap COL area. I think average lvl 1 helpdesk pays like $36k a year. You don't have to love IT to want to get out of the helldesk ZetsurinPower fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Mar 6, 2014 |
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Mar 6, 2014 20:50
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SEKCobra posted:Also the nmap site seems to only talk about port scanning over the internet, not locally. I *am* portscanning people over the Internet. Pretty much exclusively. Box in question is in India, I'm in Pittsburgh.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:54
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Rhymenoserous posted:They save even more money once management realizes that with a good VPN and phone solution they don't even have to bother with offices anymore. With everything being tracked by metrics I can't for the life of me understand why centralized call centers still exist. Having worked in a few call centers, management knows that if they let everyone work from home, all work would be done naked and highly intoxicated. By making everyone come in, they can enforce a dress code("Look professional, sound professional" is a mantra) and weed out the people who can't hide their intoxication before they get on the phone. One of those is actually a good thing.
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Mar 6, 2014 20:55
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ZetsurinPower posted:I'd say having zero technical aptitude and no ambition while making $50k a year on a helpdesk and having the ability to work from home is hitting the jackpot for certain people here. The lack of an established path for career improvement is a really big part of it, I think. In most other professional fields there's either no such thing as promotion (say, veterinarians -- you have the degree and the licensure or you don't) or there's professional development and a promotion pathway. For someone in a helpdesk role none of that poo poo is true and anything you get you usually do on your own time on your own dime. No one wants helpdesk people out for training because it means they aren't there to do the support work. I was just looking at taking a week-long training course. My boss doesn't mind paying for it, but he has no training budget whatsoever. We do tuition reimbursement, but it would cover about a third of the cost and I'd have to pay the rest myself. Meanwhile, other people in other fields in the same organization go to conferences and whatnot. There's no culture of internal promotion where I am, so to advance I pretty much need to change employers. I'm in a much better and more varied role than your average helpdesk, but I'm looking to move on and it's just not easy to do.
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Mar 6, 2014 21:02
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:The big thing I'm looking at is the upgrade from Windows 7 to 8 (or 9 or whatever) in 2020. With thin clients, everything would be done behind the scenes and then one day you turn on your computer and it's the new version. Also they forgot to buy VMWare licenses beyond the ones for the pilot, so as soon as they started rolling out wide they immediately hit the license limit, so now everything's ground to a halt a month before the XP deadline. I'm so glad our division stayed out of it.
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Mar 6, 2014 21:34
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Apparently my company is considering doing the whole thin client thing for us developers. Which would rather suck in the first place, but given the fact that we don't do much of any server stuff in house and our internet is poo poo, having to deal with latency while programming would get very infuriating very fast.
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