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jim truds posted:So I do all the training for our new Helpdesk techs. The whole training process is a bit haphazard, before this I hadn't done any training and my boss didn't give much direction on what she wanted. At this point though I've got it down, I've onboarded 5 people and they've all worked out well, been good techs, and seemed to quickly get up to speed on things even if there were a few speed bumps. May you give an example of what's exactly happening? What about the ticket can't he read? How is he super defensive? What screens is he looking at?
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Jan 8, 2015 16:54
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jim truds posted:So I do all the training for our new Helpdesk techs. The whole training process is a bit haphazard, before this I hadn't done any training and my boss didn't give much direction on what she wanted. At this point though I've got it down, I've onboarded 5 people and they've all worked out well, been good techs, and seemed to quickly get up to speed on things even if there were a few speed bumps. When you ask "how can I help?" you're contributing to their feeling that they're overwhelmed. They already can't identify that starting point on the issue and you're putting them on the spot. You don't know what you don't know, and you certainly can't articulate it. Before assuming that this person is incompetent and can't hack it -- it's likely they're already feeling incompetent, and they're picking up on your frustration already and it's compounding the problem -- try to spend some time in their shoes and see exactly what it is that they're doing. Work directly with them for a few hours, getting them coffee or whatever they need to be comfortable and understand that you're on their side. Since they seem to be extra defensive over their own tickets, maybe ask them to drop their work and help with some of yours (which you've pre-assigned yourself out of things that would otherwise be their tickets, of course). Remove the feelings of consequence for failure, try to get them to break the issues down into manageable tasks, and try to make them identify a starting point on the issue. Then, move from there. Vulture Culture fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Jan 8, 2015 |
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Jan 8, 2015 17:09
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Tab8715 posted:May you give an example of what's exactly happening? What about the ticket can't he read? How is he super defensive? What screens is he looking at? 2 big examples is anytime someone calls in for a status update you can go back and look at their open ticket and see what tech has it, what group they're in, and there are journals showing how the ticket got moved around. We're using Heat so when you open the ticket up that information is the first thing you see. I've walked through with him multiple times, showed him what the different fields mean, how to navigate through the journals that people added, but when he is on his own he seems to forget all of it. We also deal with Iphones a lot, installing the MDM applications onto them. We have a bunch of iphones here for everyone to use and break, I'd shown him the install process and how it worked a bunch of times. Whenever he runs into one of these calls he asks for help and if you ask what's confused him or if he remembers what we did last time he just replies that no one showed him and he's never seen the screens or done it before.
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Jan 8, 2015 17:15
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jim truds posted:2 big examples is anytime someone calls in for a status update you can go back and look at their open ticket and see what tech has it, what group they're in, and there are journals showing how the ticket got moved around. We're using Heat so when you open the ticket up that information is the first thing you see. I've walked through with him multiple times, showed him what the different fields mean, how to navigate through the journals that people added, but when he is on his own he seems to forget all of it. Different people have different learning styles; try them out until you either find one that works or are convinced that the person is a terrible learner and will never work out. If your idea of "walking through with him" means you drive and he watches, stop that now. Put him in a position to be a kinesthetic learner. You pair on the issue, he drives, you watch. Give him tasks to complete, and observe, but don't micro-correct until he's done (unless he's about to make a mistake that's difficult to undo, of course). Don't stare over his shoulder with other people in the room or do anything to make him feel like this is a disciplinary function. He may have some issues connected to processing auditory input that lend themselves to written documentation; ask him to take his own notes. (Do not ask to see his notes when he's done; do not make him feel like he's being graded on his note-taking.)
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Jan 8, 2015 17:22
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Ticketing systems can be a bit much at first but show him OneNote, Evernote, etc and then have him take his own notes. Same as the above, let him drive. I have no idea how some people learn by watching others, I've always learned by doing.
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Jan 8, 2015 17:33
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jim truds posted:So I do all the training for our new Helpdesk techs. The whole training process is a bit haphazard, before this I hadn't done any training and my boss didn't give much direction on what she wanted. At this point though I've got it down, I've onboarded 5 people and they've all worked out well, been good techs, and seemed to quickly get up to speed on things even if there were a few speed bumps. Misogynist had some good suggestions regarding trying to fix the guy. But if you're not successful with that the best bet is for your boss to present him with a written account of what he's doing wrong, what your organizations' expectations for improvement, and a timeline to get that done. HR will thank you later if you need to replace him.
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Jan 8, 2015 17:39
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:Misogynist had some good suggestions regarding trying to fix the guy. But if you're not successful with that the best bet is for your boss to present him with a written account of what he's doing wrong, what your organizations' expectations for improvement, and a timeline to get that done. HR will thank you later if you need to replace him. Yea, that's when go through the whole Performance Improvement Plan bit...
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Jan 8, 2015 17:41
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Misogynist posted:First, you should be aware of impostor syndrome. It's a very common psychological response when people feel out of their element. At my last job, we took on a very good friend of mine, and he wasn't working out very well with the previous management by the time I took over. Because of the size of the organization, and the culture of the team, he felt like he was in over his head and would subconsciously drag his feet when he was assigned certain projects or tasks. These tasks were well within his capabilities as an engineer, but he didn't think he could do them because the way the environment acted on him psychologically. There was no support system for failure and it felt like sink-or-swim, especially with the control freak senior admin who was driving the standards in the environment. What I did when I took over was to pair with him on the first parts of a few big projects, help him break the project down into manageable pieces, and understand that part of the process. In your environment, maybe there are things that are confusing about the layout of the organization, or things are politically weird in ways you take for granted. Wow. I want to work with you 
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Jan 8, 2015 17:42
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Misogynist sounds like a dream manager and is unironically who I aspire to be
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Jan 8, 2015 17:46
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Misogynist posted:Congratulations, you have an employee with attention deficit disorder! Yeah, I've been thinking that. It started out with him just being shown things but he said he was a hands on learner, I am too, so we've mostly been doing that. He'll drive and be given the steps or have the process explained while he drives. I've tried to back it all up with written documentation for him and having him take his own notes. He takes a lot of notes but never seems to reference him. At this point, he's been here for a month, he's pretty much on his own unless he's coming to me asking for help and I keep an ear out on him while doing my own work to make sure he's not about to make a horrible can't undo mistake. Imposter syndrome is totally a thing and our environement does suck. There isn't a lot of support and I've tried really hard to make the Helpdesk less lovely to work on and stress to any of the new hires that they are going to feel in over their heads at first, that the guys who have been here for a bit and our senior techs are 100% willing to help them out, and the first few weeks are pretty much blame free. I expect them to make mistakes. The guy is also really nice, he's just a very slow learner and isn't hitting the ground the way I expected him to. He had a pretty extensive resume and I just wasn't expecting him to have this much trouble. Edit: Also you do sound like a kickass manager. Even if it doesn't help out with this guy just thinking about it has me generating some ideas on making things easier for the group. Gumball Gumption fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Jan 8, 2015 |
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Jan 8, 2015 17:53
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Tab8715 posted:Not to open a huge can of worms but what are the major differences? Once you get past reservations v. entitlements and the rest of the differents in how you manage it, it's not really a huge can of worms, but the heritage of PowerVM is very different from x86 virt. It's closer to a Xen dom0 in hardware than vmkernel or KVM, and POWER's HV mode is more akin to "hardware assisted paravirt" than x86_64's "above top secret" (really "below ring 0") VMM mode. KVM on POWER is different, though not necessarily better. A lot of the things PowerVM does with re-exporting local resources in virtual address space to present them to guests (PowerVM is much more host-focused than cluster-focused, as befits big iron) are very neat, and there's some attempt from one side to get closer to the other. Live disk migration in KVM and svmotion in vmware are similar to PowerVM's partition migration. But you can basically imagine someone saying "we can already split systems into parts, and we've had an instruction to do this forever (for LPARS), but LPARs are guaranteed resources. What if we went deeper?", which is kind of what micro-partitioning is. It's using HV improvements in POWER5 and above to implement a basic scheduler. Which kinda sounds like virt. And it is. Except that the guests are still negotiating access to hardware through VIOS, instead of directly accessing it (hardware assisted virt in the x86 sense, setting aside access to PCI devices, which is its own mess) or getting all their instructions rewritten to execute in the right context (binary translation), which is the really big difference.
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Jan 8, 2015 18:58
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So I have a question / whine about contracts / director level politics / laws. Question: Is there a law regarding how long one can be contracted / extended at federal or state levels? (I'm in TN, but corporate is IN). Details: My job is awesome and I have an awesome boss. The problem we're having here is HIS boss, who was brought in last year and is doing a really good job at bringing in a bunch of his own buddies and getting rid of everybody else who's not-his-buddy. (you could also say this as bringing in a bunch of his own race and getting rid of every body else who's not-his-race - not really trying to get into that, but it's a factor). I had a 6 month contract which started before this new guy got here, at the end of which my boss was going to hire me. Then new guy arrived and promptly cancelled all contractor hiring and extended all contracts - mine for another 6 months(until April). Now, my boss still wants to hire me at the end of those 6 months, but this guy wants to extend me again (all contractors really). My boss is telling me that he doesn't trust this guy as far as he can throw him and that I shouldn't either (basically, start looking). My boss even told me he's going to be looking for a new job if nothing changes (and he's bringing me with him if that happens). It just sucks because this is a dream job with the best boss, but dumb poo poo is making it dumb. Maybe we'll both just end up somewhere better.
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Jan 8, 2015 18:59
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Are you a contractor to a state/federal agency? Or are you a contracted employee of your company?
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Jan 8, 2015 19:11
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Misogynist posted:Congratulations, you have an employee with attention deficit disorder! Seriously, you should be teaching management seminars around the country.
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Jan 8, 2015 19:45
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Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:Question: Is there a law regarding how long one can be contracted / extended at federal or state levels? (I'm in TN, but corporate is IN). Not at the federal level that I'm aware of, but possibly at the state level. The laws where you are located are what would apply rather than where the company is based.
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Jan 8, 2015 20:05
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TeMpLaR posted:Seriously, you should be teaching management seminars around the country.
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Jan 8, 2015 20:59
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psydude posted:Are you a contractor to a state/federal agency? Or are you a contracted employee of your company? Private company. stubblyhead posted:Not at the federal level that I'm aware of, but possibly at the state level. The laws where you are located are what would apply rather than where the company is based. Good to know, thanks.
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Jan 8, 2015 21:34
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Che Delilas posted:At the end of the day, it's your call of course. But I'm telling you a Master's is a waste of time and money for breaking into this industry. You need basic ability to code and some basic knowledge of fundamentals, and you will learn specific poo poo on the job as you go. Try to get some more opinions of people who are actually working in the industry, and not just academics, too (in other words, don't just take my word for it). For what it's worth, I'm a senior software engineer and I have a (somewhat crappy) BA in History. I got here via networking and a part-time job at uni. (Easier when the industry's hot like in 1998 when I got my first job, but on the other hand we have a tech boom right now, soooo...) Once you've got that first job and have a bit of an industry track record, your degree doesn't matter at any place you'd actually want to work. Seriously.
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Jan 8, 2015 22:14
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I must be getting old - got offered the opportunity to move to America within the same company and basically do my current job there but setup a new American team as well to copy what we do in Europe. In my 20s I always want to move to America, but now I'm closer to 50 than 30 and I think about what medical care I'll probably increasingly need as I age, I turned down the job. Also the idea of having my vacation days more than halved wasn't so appealing. Time to drown that dream in another beer I think.
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Jan 8, 2015 22:20
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Don't worry, our diet will kill you well before you're old enough to need serious medical care.
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Jan 9, 2015 00:47
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Baconroll posted:I must be getting old - got offered the opportunity to move to America within the same company and basically do my current job there but setup a new American team as well to copy what we do in Europe. They offered you the same position and offered to more than halve your vacation days???????
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Jan 9, 2015 01:41
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Misogynist posted:Congratulations, you have an employee with attention deficit disorder! I'd just like to offer some caution from investing too deeply into learning styles theory, it's not a very scientific theory. It's great to try and identify different ways to teach or present information, but don't peg yourself as having a certain learning style. Unless you have an actual disability, you are simultaneously a kinesthetic, auditory, reading and kinesthetic learner. If you were told as a child that you are a kinesthetic learner, don't let that stop you from trying to learn how to use other learning styles. A lot of people are weak in the Reading/Writing style of learning. Don't be convinced that you can't learn that way, it's a skill and it can be practiced. That said, if you're just trying to keep someone afloat when they're struggling, do what it takes to get them through the day.
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Jan 9, 2015 01:51
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See It, Do It, Teach It is a pretty good learning method
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Jan 9, 2015 03:32
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:I'd just like to offer some caution from investing too deeply into learning styles theory, it's not a very scientific theory. Mentorship is something that's often ignored in any kind of management or leadership training, and I honestly believe that effective mentorship -- sometimes delegated and not always performed by the manager themselves -- is one of the most important aspects, if not the most important aspect, of building effective teams of knowledge workers.
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Jan 9, 2015 05:40
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Misogynist,, what's your current position?
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Jan 9, 2015 15:45
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Tab8715 posted:Misogynist,, what's your current position? We're growing pretty fast, though, so maybe I'll get to flex those management muscles again soon. Vulture Culture fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Jan 9, 2015 |
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Jan 9, 2015 17:14
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Why do some software vendors still think it's OK to ship UNIX software packaged as an install script and a README? If you're going to charge good money for a product on an officially supported platform, they ought to package it properly. I have some small sympathy for people who don't want to learn IPS for Solaris 11, but an RPM cannot possibly be too much to ask for.
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Jan 9, 2015 17:17
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Bladelogic optionally offers agent RPMs but you can't update remote agents with them, so they recommend you use their tarball format instead so it's more centrally managed. I wish I were joking. Of course, VMware does the same thing with vmware-tools. I think Splunk does as well?
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Jan 9, 2015 17:21
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law
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Jan 9, 2015 17:30
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Zorak of Michigan posted:Why do some software vendors still think it's OK to ship UNIX software packaged as an install script and a README? If you're going to charge good money for a product on an officially supported platform, they ought to package it properly. I have some small sympathy for people who don't want to learn IPS for Solaris 11, but an RPM cannot possibly be too much to ask for.
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Jan 9, 2015 17:37
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Who needs reproducibility, change tracking, or version control? Not you, I guess.
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Jan 9, 2015 17:49
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Zorak of Michigan posted:Why do some software vendors still think it's OK to ship UNIX software packaged as an install script and a README? If you're going to charge good money for a product on an officially supported platform, they ought to package it properly. I have some small sympathy for people who don't want to learn IPS for Solaris 11, but an RPM cannot possibly be too much to ask for. Many of these actually include a uuencoded RPM (admittedly, a dump RPM without any %pre or %post, just as a fancy CPIO archive) as data which they unpack and install with --force --nodeps. You may be able to pull an RPM out of the script, depending on who did it. Plain scripts with dumb archives make it easy to support AIX, Linux, Solaris, and HP-UX (even though AIX also supports RPM), though they must be a maintenance nightmare Aunt Beth posted:I don't mind this, makes troubleshooting easier if(when) things inevitably fail. You can just look at the script and see where the software is trying to spew itself. Takes more doing with a package. IMO, this is what QE is for. Shipped software should not be failing so regularly that end users need to read it to see where it's failing.
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Jan 9, 2015 17:57
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Anyone ever heard of a company called Ellucian ? They offer IT consulting, outsourcing, hosting, etc. The VP in charge of our department sent out a somewhat ominous email about a survey Ellician will be conducting on campus. We're scared because two departments in the last year have been outsourced, and there are rumors of further outsourcing but they haven't been about us. We're meeting with the VP on Wednesday about this, but man now we're nervous.
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Jan 9, 2015 18:15
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Aunt Beth posted:I don't mind this, makes troubleshooting easier if(when) things inevitably fail. You can just look at the script and see where the software is trying to spew itself. Takes more doing with a package. The "more doing" is basically just running lesspipe on the package, or dumping the contents with cpio if you really need to inspect the scripts. I'd rather have the installation and upgrade process not be a pain in the dick the standard 99% of the time than have the 1% of the time I need to troubleshoot it be a tiny bit easier. Also, while we're on packaging chat, if any of you have to regularly package or re-package software on Linux: do yourself a favor and check out FPM. It's a little Ruby tool that will make a package of your choice (rpm, deb, gem, mac .pkg, tarball) out of pretty much any input (bunch of files in a dir, typical configure/make/install software, translate a deb to an rpm or vice versa, etc). And you don't have to know or care about the intimate details of spec files or control files or any of the typical packaging boilerplate and arcana. Owns.
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Jan 9, 2015 18:20
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If you want something a little more gui oriented or are looking for a good release framework that does version control and spits rpms out the other end, I recommend checking out http://openbuildservice.org/ . Builds packages for whatever linux flavor you like. Really nice, full featured, new job uses it and I am pretty damned impressed. FTR, I use gem2rpm for all my ruby packaging needs.
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Jan 9, 2015 19:00
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Zorak of Michigan posted:Why do some software vendors still think it's OK to ship UNIX software packaged as an install script and a README? The answer is unfortunately because it requires effort on the developers and release team. The release team don't know how to package anything and the developers spray poo poo over everything and don't understand the Unix filesystem and where files should be placed. Frequently you will end up in a proprietary ecosystem which has many interdependencies that simply cannot fit into any sensible package system and would have to be completely redesigned to do so. Also consider refactoring, bad managers do not see the benefit of either and only the short term costs.
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Jan 9, 2015 19:12
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I've often thought a good barometer to a software's quality was their install procedure and scripts. If the software sprays poo poo all over the place, has a mandatory command-line interactive install (lookin' at you, HP) or some other obvious anti-enterprise layout, I'm probably going to give them a pass without even configuring the thing. This goes double for software that requires root to run or disabling UCS or any other similar issue.
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Jan 9, 2015 19:16
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MrMoo posted:Frequently you will end up in a proprietary ecosystem which has many interdependencies that simply cannot fit into any sensible package system and would have to be completely redesigned to do so. Also consider refactoring, bad managers do not see the benefit of either and only the short term costs. Bhodi posted:I've often thought a good barometer to a software's quality was their install procedure and scripts. If the software sprays poo poo all over the place, has a mandatory command-line interactive install (lookin' at you, HP) or some other obvious anti-enterprise layout, I'm probably going to give them a pass without even configuring the thing. This goes double for software that requires root to run or disabling UCS or any other similar issue. Every HP installer I've ever looked at can be handled with an answer file. Or use a trivial expect/pexpect script.
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Jan 9, 2015 19:28
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evol262 posted:What is /opt? I know it's not used very often these days, but "proprietary ecosystem which has many interdependencies that simply cannot fit into any sensible package system" -> shove that poo poo in /opt and do whatever god-awful LD_LIBRARY crap you want to do there. Actually the product I'm thinking of dumps the most in /opt/<company name> but leaks out into /etc, /lib, /var. They have actually cleaned up a lot and not much is in /usr or ~admin and not forgetting a dozen or so links in / so there is progress. Just though of the second major reason: permissions. Giving a tarball or zip file to someone means they can extract and run software without privileges. Very useful in finance firms with the most harsh lock down policies ever. I think you can do this for ages with rpm --prefix=/opt/carrots relocation already but that goes back to the initial points. MrMoo fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Jan 9, 2015 |
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Jan 9, 2015 19:38
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That feeling when you successfully automate <basically anything>. Finally took the time to script out the last manual process in our new desktop deployment. Given how simple it was I'm kinda kicking myself for not doing it sooner, but nonetheless, feels good man.
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