Dear Users… (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people) Part 10

[arthwollipot]

Originally Posted by theprestige

Like every other ticketing system, Service Now is great right up until the moment when the client ignores its basic features and starts customizing.

As I've said before, I'm cautiously optimistic about the implementation in this case. It appears that a lot of thought has gone into its development. The anxiety I'm feeling is simply the change anxiety I've felt all my life about doing anything I'm not familiar with, so it's a familiar feeling.

[zooterkin]

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

Sooo... we've had a confirmed case of COVID in the building.

I've been WFW through the current lockdown as I have an Essential Worker permit because I don't have the space at home for the ergonomic equipment I require due to my WHS assessment. The case isn't on my floor - it's two floors up - and all the staff on my floor who have been to that floor have tested negative. But we're all WFH tomorrow until we know more. I'm pretty sure we'll just be a "monitor for symptoms" contact, but it's annoying. I haven't WFH for a while now.

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

The followup to that is that half an hour after my shift ended, I lost all internet access for about five hours. I checked with my ISP and there was a widespread outage.

I'm back in the office today. There was a confirmed case in the building - two floors up from me. All the people from my floor who had gone up to that floor tested positive, but they wanted us all to WFH for a day to make sure.

Did something change, or is the latter an error?

[arthwollipot]

Originally Posted by zooterkin

Did something change, or is the latter an error?

Yup good catch. Tested negative.

[Wudang]

Originally Posted by Kid Eager

That’s like one I had from earlier this year. I tell business line manager that for their new enterprise app to work properly, the business rules for record assignment and approval levels need to be defined. They say “okay”. I look at them. They look at me. Time passes. I say “you need to provide those business rules.” Their response: “just use the ones the app comes with”. Me: “You need to provide the logic and the who , for the rules to work.” Them: “why don’t you put some together for me and then I can see whether I like them or not…”

Dilbert:
https://dilbert.com/strip/2003-03-21

[catsmate]

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

The followup to that is that half an hour after my shift ended, I lost all internet access for about five hours. I checked with my ISP and there was a widespread outage.

I'm back in the office today. There was a confirmed case in the building - two floors up from me. All the people from my floor who had gone up to that floor tested positive, but they wanted us all to WFH for a day to make sure.

I had an on-site meeting yesterday in the office of <REDACTED> and arrived to find it closed, locked down and being sterilised by robots.
If they didn't have a no photography rule I could have gotten some wonderful shots for a re-do of The War Machines.

[gnome]

Originally Posted by Kid Eager

That’s like one I had from earlier this year. I tell business line manager that for their new enterprise app to work properly, the business rules for record assignment and approval levels need to be defined. They say “okay”. I look at them. They look at me. Time passes. I say “you need to provide those business rules.” Their response: “just use the ones the app comes with”. Me: “You need to provide the logic and the who , for the rules to work.” Them: “why don’t you put some together for me and then I can see whether I like them or not…”

Submit a plan: All records assigned to BLM. All approvals assigned to BLM's boss. When they complain that the assignments have to go to other people, then ask if they want you to draw the names out of a hat or something. Then they'll get mad and start yelling about who needs to do what, and at that point hand them a notepad and pen. *

* Not responsible for advice taken.

[Wudang]

Originally Posted by gnome

Submit a plan: All records assigned to BLM. All approvals assigned to BLM's boss. When they complain that the assignments have to go to other people, then ask if they want you to draw the names out of a hat or something. Then they'll get mad and start yelling about who needs to do what, and at that point hand them a notepad and pen grenades. *

* Not responsible for advice taken.

Longer term versus shorter term fix.
eta: Tell the judge I said it was okay.
Also not responsible for advice taken.

[arthwollipot]

Well, ServiceNow is active and we are using it.

It is not without issues, but we're working them out as we discover them.

[arthwollipot]

Some of our T1s have still been using the Pre-Prod version!

[Trebuchet]

Originally Posted by Wudang

Dilbert:

https://dilbert.com/strip/2003-03-21

I had a manager who bore a striking physical resemblance to Dilbert's Pointy Haired Boss. Like the PHB, he was a terrible manager. Unlike the PHB, he was a terrific engineer.

[arthwollipot]

We survived our first day of ServiceNow. And as far as I could tell it wasn't horrible. We had the usual morning rush, the ServiceNow Teams chat ran gangbusters all day, we identified quite a few opportunities for improvement, but nothing crashed and burned, so I'm considering that a win.

[TragicMonkey]

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

We survived our first day of ServiceNow. And as far as I could tell it wasn't horrible. We had the usual morning rush, the ServiceNow Teams chat ran gangbusters all day, we identified quite a few opportunities for improvement, but nothing crashed and burned, so I'm considering that a win.

"We're safe now!" said Daphne Victim, standing at the top of the grand staircase in the haunted house. "What could go wrong?"

[catsmate]

Originally Posted by Trebuchet

I had a manager who bore a striking physical resemblance to Dilbert's Pointy Haired Boss. Like the PHB, he was a terrible manager. Unlike the PHB, he was a terrific engineer.

Ah, the Peter Principle.

[alfaniner]

"We need you to come back with us!"
"There is no way I'm ever going back!"
"Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease???"
(looks at pleader, holding for a beat, appears about to reply)

And... scene.

[arthwollipot]

Originally Posted by TragicMonkey

"We're safe now!" said Daphne Victim, standing at the top of the grand staircase in the haunted house. "What could go wrong?"

It was the subject of today's daily catch-up, and everybody seemed to have a positive impression. It may just be the contrast with SCSM, but it's looking like the general reaction is good.

[JoeMorgue]

Conversation I wish I could have.

User: "Hey Joe. It's me. The person who has a problem everyday!"
Me: "So yeah I have a question. How many users are at this company?"
User: "About 400."
Me: "Gotcha. And you guys have 3 guys to handle IT problems?"
User: "Yep."
Me: "Okay so at 3:400 ration, each IT person has about 133 people to support."
User: "Right."
Me: "And there's 8 hours in the workday."
User: "Correct"
Me: "If you divide 133 people by 8 hours, that means each user gets .06 hours or about 3.6 minutes of IT time a day.
User: "Correct."
Me: "How much of my time do YOU take up in an average day."
User: "I dunno about a half hour minimum."
Me: "Do you see where the math stops working here?"

[TragicMonkey]

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

It was the subject of today's daily catch-up, and everybody seemed to have a positive impression. It may just be the contrast with SCSM, but it's looking like the general reaction is good.

Dude, you are just risking more lightning strikes by saying such things. You may as well stand around the cemetery in the last ten minutes of the second movie in a planned Dracula trilogy declaring "he's definitely gone forever this time!"

[JoeMorgue]

"I'm going to go stand over there under with Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, Pa Kent, Carmichael from Gears of War, the Star Trek Red Shirt, the Black Guy in a Horror Movie, the Movie Cop who's one day from Retirement, and Sean Bean."

[JoeMorgue]

Reoccurring issue #3,573.

Me, the other techs, my boss, and one of the team leads / managers / supervisors will sit down and have a discussion that goes something like this.

Team Lead: "We're rolling out new software/computers/processes soon. Here's how I want things done."

IT Dept: *Deploys the software/computers and/or initaites the process per their instructions."

The actual techs/workers on the team: "Immediate loud screeching about how they can't work because this isn't how they work, this isn't the process we told our supervisor we wanted to use with the new system, this is all wrong, IT fix it, we can't work because IT messed up the upgrade/install/rollout."

Basically I wish when supervisors/managers would tell us "Here's what my the people under me want" either it was actually what they people under them want or the people under them got the word that "This is how your boss wants it, suck it up."

Usually the functional manifestation of this is a supervisor who assumes his underling follow some official streamlined ISO 9XXX procedure when in real life it's much more tribal knowledge, do what works kind of thing.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

Reoccurring issue #3,573.

Me, the other techs, my boss, and one of the team leads / managers / supervisors will sit down and have a discussion that goes something like this.

Team Lead: "We're rolling out new software/computers/processes soon. Here's how I want things done."

IT Dept: *Deploys the software/computers and/or initaites the process per their instructions."

The actual techs/workers on the team: "Immediate loud screeching about how they can't work because this isn't how they work, this isn't the process we told our supervisor we wanted to use with the new system, this is all wrong, IT fix it, we can't work because IT messed up the upgrade/install/rollout."

Basically I wish when supervisors/managers would tell us "Here's what my the people under me want" either it was actually what they people under them want or the people under them got the word that "This is how your boss wants it, suck it up."

Usually the functional manifestation of this is a supervisor who assumes his underling follow some official streamlined ISO 9XXX procedure when in real life it's much more tribal knowledge, do what works kind of thing.

During my many years in mechanical engineering I was on the tech side of this. I was a little fortunate that my combination of seniority and knowledge made it possible for me to mostly ignore this type of crap and just do what worked. I did occasionally feel a little sorry for those lower on the rungs than me because, on occasions when the process became of overriding importance to management, I would go to my own techs and tell them “Here is the technical answer/solution. Fit it into the process”. I was a bottom line sort of designer and it kept me employed for 43 years.

[arthwollipot]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

Basically I wish when supervisors/managers would tell us "Here's what my the people under me want" either it was actually what they people under them want or the people under them got the word that "This is how your boss wants it, suck it up."

Problem with that is that what the people under them want is new functionality but everything stays the same.

[Norman Alexander]

Sometimes the underlings are the sort of people that if the desktop colour changes then they are lost. Their "computer is broken" and they can't do their job any more. Even just moving or changing the icons of an existing app for their current process produces drop-jaw catatonia.

So introducing a new process with new apps that look and work differently? Have you tried teaching your dog to speak Russian? It's sometimes easier...

[arthwollipot]

Originally Posted by Norman Alexander

So introducing a new process with new apps that look and work differently? Have you tried teaching your dog to speak Russian? It's sometimes easier...

Having just been through that I have a modicum of sympathy.

A lot of us have been working in SCSM for a long time, and we've internalised most of its default behaviours and workflows. ServiceNow does quite a few things differently. It's actually easier once I've got a handle on it, but I am getting a few sticking points where I don't even realise that the defaults have changed.

[arthwollipot]

We made it to the end of the week. Everybody working here has been an absolute trooper, up to and including our management and admin team. We've has some challenges, and we've identified some opportunities for improvement, but nothing crashed and burned, and everybody seems to be ending the week with a sense of accomplishment and hope, rather than depression and anxiety. We're not going into the weekend convinced that everything is going to go wrong on Monday.

The week has been long and tiring. But we made it. We made it.

[Norman Alexander]

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

We made it to the end of the week. Everybody working here has been an absolute trooper, up to and including our management and admin team. We've has some challenges, and we've identified some opportunities for improvement, but nothing crashed and burned, and everybody seems to be ending the week with a sense of accomplishment and hope, rather than depression and anxiety. We're not going into the weekend convinced that everything is going to go wrong on Monday.

The week has been long and tiring. But we made it. We made it.

Take a free lunch out of petty cash.

[arthwollipot]

Originally Posted by Norman Alexander

Take a free lunch out of petty cash.

What makes you think my hands are anywhere near the petty cash box?

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

What makes you think my hands are anywhere near the petty cash box?

Webcam?

[The Man]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

Reoccurring issue #3,573.

Me, the other techs, my boss, and one of the team leads / managers / supervisors will sit down and have a discussion that goes something like this.

Team Lead: "We're rolling out new software/computers/processes soon. Here's how I want things done."

IT Dept: *Deploys the software/computers and/or initaites the process per their instructions."

The actual techs/workers on the team: "Immediate loud screeching about how they can't work because this isn't how they work, this isn't the process we told our supervisor we wanted to use with the new system, this is all wrong, IT fix it, we can't work because IT messed up the upgrade/install/rollout."

Basically I wish when supervisors/managers would tell us "Here's what my the people under me want" either it was actually what they people under them want or the people under them got the word that "This is how your boss wants it, suck it up."

Usually the functional manifestation of this is a supervisor who assumes his underling follow some official streamlined ISO 9XXX procedure when in real life it's much more tribal knowledge, do what works kind of thing.

Originally Posted by Steve

During my many years in mechanical engineering I was on the tech side of this. I was a little fortunate that my combination of seniority and knowledge made it possible for me to mostly ignore this type of crap and just do what worked. I did occasionally feel a little sorry for those lower on the rungs than me because, on occasions when the process became of overriding importance to management, I would go to my own techs and tell them “Here is the technical answer/solution. Fit it into the process”. I was a bottom line sort of designer and it kept me employed for 43 years.

Also in mechanical engineering but had experience in ISO 9XXX rollout as well as having internal auditor training. The new company I was with wanted to get ISO 9XXX set up. So me and the QA guy (also with ISO 9XXX experience) go to the major, and even minor, people to get them involved to write the procedures for what they actually do. No one would have any of it, they all basically said just get some procedure's down on paper and we'll just say that's what we do. Knowing that wouldn't survive even an honest internal audit, let alone and actual certification audit, the push for ISO 9XXX petered out. After I left, I heard that got some rubber stamp off the shelf quality system.

[JoeMorgue]

*Groans, head into wall*

More desk moves. 8 of them. And at least 4 of them are users being moved back to their original desk.

Okay seriously someone reading this thread has got to have been a manager/supervisor at some point in an office setting. Please help me understand the constant need to arbitrarily move people.

[Darat]

Usually for team movements of some description.

[Wudang]

One joke in IBM was it stood for I've Been Moved. Also Ive Been Married, Idiots Become Managers and Insert Bug under Mask.

[JoeMorgue]

The other thing is... why am I moving computers? They are networked. They have roaming profiles.

Why? Because my users seem them as "their" computers even though they are all identical HP business class machines.

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Originally Posted by Wudang

One joke in IBM was it stood for I've Been Moved. Also Ive Been Married, Idiots Become Managers and Insert Bug under Mask.

I once worked in an organization that had a grandiloquently named unit called the Space Management Group. I came to think they mostly moved people around just to justify their existence. I remember our unit being moved into temporary accommodation because our current space was needed by some other group. For some months the area we vacated was completely empty until after the time we were moved to our "permanent' digs.

If we stopped playing musical chairs, the SMG would have been out of work.

[The Man]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

*Groans, head into wall*

More desk moves. 8 of them. And at least 4 of them are users being moved back to their original desk.

Okay seriously someone reading this thread has got to have been a manager/supervisor at some point in an office setting. Please help me understand the constant need to arbitrarily move people.

At one company the primary owner/president would get local, sate and federal grants to make building and work space improvements. However, he also was a principle owner of the construction and electrician companies that always ended up doing the work. So your desk was constantly being moved from here to there as walls went up, then came down and the whole office layout changed every couple/few months or so.

[TragicMonkey]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

*Groans, head into wall*

More desk moves. 8 of them. And at least 4 of them are users being moved back to their original desk.

Okay seriously someone reading this thread has got to have been a manager/supervisor at some point in an office setting. Please help me understand the constant need to arbitrarily move people.

At an earlier job I was with the company for 18 months, in the same department, in the same job. I was moved seven or eight times, all within the same room of the cubicle farm. The cubicles themselves were broken down and rearranged three times.

The reason behind it all was simply that Melissa was in charge, and Melissa was very, very bored.

eta: Someone suggested we simply give Melissa a dollhouse to work her rearranging urges upon.

[arthwollipot]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

The other thing is... why am I moving computers? They are networked. They have roaming profiles.

Why? Because my users seem them as "their" computers even though they are all identical HP business class machines.

What's the bet that they've been storing personal data on their C: drives?

[JoeMorgue]

Originally Posted by arthwollipot

What's the bet that they've been storing personal data on their C: drives?

1. They shouldn't be able to.
2. None of them know what a "Drive" is.
3. Yeah they probably have still found a way.

[Dr. Keith]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

*Groans, head into wall*

More desk moves. 8 of them. And at least 4 of them are users being moved back to their original desk.

Okay seriously someone reading this thread has got to have been a manager/supervisor at some point in an office setting. Please help me understand the constant need to arbitrarily move people.

I’m used to being moved all the time. After a bit I just stopped bringing personal stuff up to work. It was a pain with all the moves and who really cares to see your diplomas and licenses and pictures of your wife and kids. A bottle of whiskey is about it for my personal items.

Because of this I’ve been in my “temporary” office for over a year. I’m sure covid plays a role, but I expect that when we move to our permanent space I’ll soon have to move.

[JoeMorgue]

I guess, fair being fair, that's one of the reasons it annoys me so much.

My "office" is a Husky brand rolling contractor bag filled with tools and spares. My "desk" is my work issued laptop balanced on my knee half the time. I take hour long phone calls with my cell phone wedged between my shoulder and ear.

But one of the reason desk moves are such time sinks is everything having to be ergonomically perfect and exactly set up to their exacting specifications exactly at their new desk because they all have brittle carpel tunnel restless leg syndrome.

"I can't function unless I have two monitors, an ergonomic keyboard, a wireless mouse. Also I'm blind and need the fonts to be 45 feet high. Oh and the screen is too bright. No now it's too dim. Also I need a specific model of wireless headset that was only manufactured in West Germany for 8 months or I simply cannot function."

I've fought goddamn cyber wars from a 3 generation old Panasonic Toughbook laptop with an 11.3 TFT screen on a ship that was pitching back and forth in the North Atlantic. Shut up and type in your goddamn overdue insurance claims Karen.

[TragicMonkey]

Originally Posted by JoeMorgue

I guess, fair being fair, that's one of the reasons it annoys me so much.

My "office" is a Husky brand rolling contractor bag filled with tools and spares. My "desk" is my work issued laptop balanced on my knee half the time. I take hour long phone calls with my cell phone wedged between my shoulder and ear.

But one of the reason desk moves are such time sinks is everything having to be ergonomically perfect and exactly set up to their exacting specifications exactly at their new desk because they all have brittle carpel tunnel restless leg syndrome.

"I can't function unless I have two monitors, an ergonomic keyboard, a wireless mouse. Also I'm blind and need the fonts to be 45 feet high. Oh and the screen is too bright. No now it's too dim. Also I need a specific model of wireless headset that was only manufactured in West Germany for 8 months or I simply cannot function."

I've fought goddamn cyber wars from a 3 generation old Panasonic Toughbook laptop with an 11.3 TFT screen on a ship that was pitching back and forth in the North Atlantic. Shut up and type in your goddamn overdue insurance claims Karen.

My theory is that the people who fuss the most about such things are the ones who do the least amount of actual work. There's a lady on my team who (in the olden days when we were still in the office) spent at least 80% of her working hours fussing about her benefits, her online learning courses, her chair, her cubicle, her supplies, her computer...everything except the actual tasks she was being paid to do. She occupied herself with the accoutrements of work, rather than the actual work.